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BY ROBERT C. JONES, JR.
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You might wonder why Gifford, an associate professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, makes the dive at all. But it is crucial that he dives deeper, for the sake not only of his own research but also for the very history of civilization. For somewhere, still waiting at a depth yet explored, perhaps lies evidence of peoples earliest presence in the Western Hemisphere.
Already we have found some remains that are 7,000 to 8,000 years old, explains Gifford. But whats remarkable is that we have even found brain tissue with some of the remains. Its truly one of the most intriguing archaeological sites in North America. A land development company donated the sinkhole to the University in 1982. Ever since then, Gifford has been exploring the site either alone or with small groups of graduate students, who scuba dive into the sinkhole and carefully remove artifacts from different levels.
But the most important discoveries are yet to be made. Gifford and his
students could be on the brink of finding human remains older than Kennewick
Man, whose 9,200-year-old skeleton was discovered four years ago in the
state of Washington. Human remains and artifacts already recovered from
the sinkhole as well as evidence of early human habitation in the surrounding
area of the site are strong indicators that they will.
Little Salt Spring could open a very clear window into the earliest period of the Paleo-Indian settlement of Florida, says Gifford. That anythingespecially human remainscould survive for so long is a remarkable story in itself. But it is the delicate chemical makeup of the water in this 75-yard-wide sinkhole that has made it so. Water in the sinkhole is brackish and nearly devoid of oxygen, and it is this anoxic water that has served as a natural preservative for thousands of years. This is water that has its own chemistry; theres almost no microbial activity, and no bacterial decomposition, says Gifford. It has preserved incredibly well some of the material that on land simply doesnt last more than a couple of hundred years. Little Salt Spring is not only an archaeological site but one of the most intriguing geological sites Ive ever investigated. If anyone should know, it is Gifford. Hes been studying prehistoric underwater sites for a good portion of his life. His primary interest, he says, lies in the relatively little-studied area of searching for remains of human settlements that have been submerged since the end of the last ice age. Prehistoric sites on the continental shelf mostly, says Gifford. It turns out that Little Salt Spring is an example of one of these sitesone that was exposed to the air 10,000 or 12,000 years ago because the water table here in Florida was more than 200 feet lower than it is right now.
Says Gifford: The rule of thumb that has emerged from several decades worth of underwater work is that, all other things being equal, it costs about ten times as much to excavate an underwater project as a comparable land project. Then you have the obvious problems of working in an alien environment and being completely dependent upon your scuba equipment, he says. If theres a mechanical failure, then you have a major problem to deal with. Diver-to-diver communication is accomplished by writing messages on a plastic board. A very tedious process, he says. But the one factor that really limits the time we can spend underwater is water temperature. Its a constant 73 degrees Fahrenheit. That may sound warm, but after an hour or two of being submerged in 73-degree water, unless you have a really warm wet suit or dry suit, you get very, very cold. Despite such difficulties, Gifford and his students press on, for they know that one of the most significant discoveries in the history of archaeology is within their reach. Given the artifacts and human remains already discovered at the spring, it seems likely that it is only a matter of time until they locate the oldest-known skeletal remains. Unfortunately, it also is a race against the clock. The sinkhole, located in North Port, Florida, halfway between Fort Myers and Sarasota, is part of one of the states most rapidly developing regions. Residential communities, schools, and golf courses now surround the site. Gifford is afraid that water runoff and other pollutants from encroaching development could imperil the sinkholes chemistry and accelerate the decay of artifacts and human remains. We need to monitor the water quality of the sinkhole over the coming years to make sure that we dont see any changes in the water chemistry, says Gifford. Or we could lose whats literally a natural time capsule to the very earliest human occupation of this peninsula. |
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Uncovering Ancient Treasures
While such questions might sound like a promo for an episode of the old television series In Search Of, theyre precisely the kinds of claims marine archaeologist John Gifford and his students spend an entire semester investigating in a course called Fantastic Archaeology.
Two hundred miles to the northwest of the school, in the town of North Port on Floridas Gulf Coast, theres nothing mythical about a 220-foot-deep prehistoric underwater sinkhole called Little Salt Spring. Gifford and students from his Fieldwork in Prehistoric Underwater Archaeology course have been exploring the site since it was donated to the University in 1982, scuba diving into the sinkhole and carefully removing artifacts. Among their and earlier divers discoveries: The portion of an oak throwing stick archaeologists call a nonreturn-ing boomerang. It is at least 9,000 years old and is similar to weapons found in Australia, ancient Egypt, and Western Europe. A previously unknown type of wood-en tool called a putter, so named because of its similarity to a golf club. A large ancient cemetery on the boundary of the sinkhole containing 100 to 1,000 burials. A 7,000-year-old human skull with preserved brain tissue. |
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Robert C. Jones, Jr., is an editor in the Office of University Communication. Photography by John Zillioux. |
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