The Distribution of Pottery Wares in the Glades Archaeological Area of South Florida

Abstract

The Glades archaeological has been defined as region between the Kissimee and Indian Rivers and all the peninsula from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Keys inclusive.l This comprises all of the Everglades, the Big Cypress Swamp, the Ten Thousand Islands, and strips of pinelands and flatwoods along both the east and west coasts.2 This is a country of many and diverse features ranging from forests of pine to jungles of West Indian hardwoods. Swamps vary from those composed of cypress, or of water oak and bay, to the great mangrove swamp of Florida's southwestern coast that is known as the Ten Thousand Islands. The Everglades bisect this area from the north to the south forming a barrier that could only be crossed by means of a canoe in aboriginal times. The Everglades themselves seem to have been comparatively uninhabited except along their edges, where rivers drained off the overflow of water.3 The greatest centers of aboriginal population seem to have been at the mouths of creeks, rivers, and inlets, on keys, and on the coastal beaches that are separated from the mainland by mangrove swamps. The early inhabitants were essentially fisherfolk, and without exception their villages were always accessible by water. Burial and ceremonial sites are sometimes found in the pinewoods, but midden sites are never so situated. (Big Cypress Swamp may be an exception.) When the first European explorers came to Florida, this part of the state was occupied by two outstanding tribes plus a number of lesser ones. On the west coast, from Charlotte Harber south, the Calusa held sole sway. It seems probable that they controlled the Cape Sable region, but the Keys were most probably occupied by the Tekesta Indians. The main center of the Tekesta was on Biscayne Bay. Northward they may have controlled as far as Pompano or Lake Worth. Centered around Jupiter Inlet were the Jeaga or Hobe Indians, and at St. Lucie River were the Santa Lucia Indians.4