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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Sarney, Elizabeth Davis, December 1994 - HILL COTTAGE MIDDEN REVISITED: A REASSESSMENT OF THE LATE ARCHAIC PERIOD MARINE SHELL MIDDEN AT THE PALMER SITE (8S02), SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORIDA
Abstract: Hill Cottage Midden is a large Late Archaic horseshoe-- shaped marine shell midden located at the Palmer site (8S02), Osprey, Florida. Ripley and Adelaide Bullen originally excavated the site in 1959. They concluded that the site had been continually occupied from the Late Archaic Preceramic through the Transitional period. The midden was reinvestigated in 1987-1988 by Marion Almy and George Luer. The stratigraphy and findings from the original 1959 excavation was reevaluated in light of the 1987-1988 investigation using Brennan's (1977) "Realistic Model." The reevaluation of the cultural components and ceramics from Hill Cottage Midden no longer supports a Transitional period occupation. The reconstruction of environmental factors between 4,500 to 2,000 B.P. also lends additional evidence that Hill Cottage Midden was probably abandoned around 3,225 B.P., during the Orange III subperiod. Evidence from numerous shell middens in the Southeast indicates that after 3,450 B.P. sea level began to fall, and by 3,100 B.P. was an estimated 3 to 4 m below present. This drastic drop in sea level would have destroyed Little Sarasota Bay, forcing populations dependent on its resources to abandon the area. Stoltman (1972) first mentioned that Hill Cottage Midden might be related to shell ring sites found in Georgia and South Carolina. To determine if this was true, the assemblages and data from several Late Archaic ring sites in Georgia and South Carolina were compared to Hill Cottage Midden. The comparison was based on midden shape, artifact content, environmental context, resources exploited, and radiocarbon dates. All the factors examined in this comparison supports Stoltmans assumption that Hill Cottage Midden is a shell ring site. This reassessment makes Hill Cottage Midden the southernmost documented shell ring site in the United States.
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