Aqui Esta Burial Mound
Aqui Esta Burial Mound (8CH68), also referred to as the Alligator Creek or Punta Gorda Mound, is a prehistoric sand burial mound located in Punta Gorda, Florida, United States.
History
The multi-use burial mound has been associated with the Calusa. Five burials excavated early in the 20th century by Wainwright may have been from this mound. In 1975 the mound, which was originally circular, measured 24.4 metres (80 ft) wide by 42.7 metres (140 ft) long and 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) high. The mound has been excavated by several archaeologists, as well as amateurs and pot hunters. Around 100 burials have been found, mostly secondary, sometimes consisting of just a skull and the long bones. While the mound was probably in continuous use, a mass burial of 35-40 individuals was found.[1] Ceramic and other artifacts recovered from the mound in 1975 by James Miller has made the Aqui Esta one of the most significant sites in peninsular Florida. Approximately 45 rare shell cups, along with exotic incised ceramics vessels from Fort Walton and St. John, both 200 miles (320 km) to the north, were excavated.[2]
The most recent discovery by the ceramics curator for the Florida Museum of Natural History, in 2005, were examples of Safety Harbor ceramics that employed a paste containing mica, a mineral found closest in the Appalachians in Georgia.[3] Luer concluded that the site correlates with the Safety Harbor culture, 1000–1200.[2] Recent[when?] discoveries and theories by Martin Byers concerning the Hopewell culture and Mississippian culture indicate that Aqui Esta was a jointly created and maintained earthwork site used by trans-regional cult members.[4] The mound therefore may date to the period assigned by Byers, 200 B.C.
References
- ^ Mitchem, Jefferey M. (1989). Redefining Safety Harbor: Late Prehistoric/Protohistoric Archaeology in West Peninsular Florida (Thesis). Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida. p. 252–255.
- ^ a b Luer, George M. (2002). "The Aqui Esta Mound:Ceramic and Shell Vessels of the Early Mississippian-Influenced Phase". Tallahassee, Florida: Anthropological Publication No.15.
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(help) - ^ Cordell, Ann S. (March–June 2005). "Revisiting the Aqui Esta Mound (8CH68): Paste Variability in the Pottery Assemblage". The Florida Anthropologist. 58 (1–2): 105–120 – via University of Florida Digital Collections.
- ^ Byers, Martin A. (2018). The Real Mound Builders of North America: A Critical Realist Prehistory of the Eastern Woodlands 200 B.C. -1450 A.D. New York, New York: Lexington Books.
- v
- t
- e
cultures
- Alachua
- Belle Glade
- Cades Pond
- Caloosahatchee
- Clovis
- Deptford
- Fort Walton
- Glades
- Leon-Jefferson
- Manasota
- Mount Taylor
- Norwood
- Orange period
- Paleo-Indians
- Pensacola
- Safety Harbor
- Santa Rosa-Swift Creek
- St. Johns
- Suwannee Valley
- Swift Creek
- Weeden Island
sites
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/KMMaskPointedNose.jpg/110px-KMMaskPointedNose.jpg)
- Apalachee Bay
- Aqui Esta Burial Mound
- Bay Pines
- Bear Lake Mounds
- Big Heart West
- Big Mound City
- Big Mound Key-Boggess Ridge
- Bird Hammock
- Blueberry
- Bowers Bluff Middens
- Bubba Midden
- Burns Lake
- Butcherpen Mound
- Cayo Pelau
- Cayson Mound and Village
- C. J. Ostl
- Crystal River
- Cutler
- Demere Key
- Devil's Den Cave
- Dismal Key
- Douglass Beach
- Fort Center
- Fort Walton Mound
- Galt Island
- Garden Patch
- Green Mound
- Halfway Creek
- Helen Blazes
- Hickory Ridge Cemetery
- Hinson Mounds
- Horr's Island
- Indian Fields
- J&J Hunt
- Josslyn Island
- Jungle Prada
- Key Marco
- Kimball Island Midden
- Lake Jackson Mounds
- Lake Pithlachocco
- Letchworth-Love Mounds
- Little Salt Spring
- Madira Bickel Mound
- Mark Pardo Shellworks
- Miami Circle
- Mill Cove
- Monroe Lake
- Mound Key
- Mount Elizabeth
- Mount Royal
- Mount Taylor
- Mullet Key
- Myakkahatchee Creek
- Naval Live Oaks Cemetery
- Nocoroco
- Ormond Mound
- Ortona Prehistoric Village
- Otis Hare
- Page-Ladson
- Persimmon Mound
- Pierce
- Pineland
- Platt Island
- Plaza
- Pompano Beach Mound
- Portavant Mound
- Porter's Bar
- Princess Mound
- River Styx
- Roberts Island
- Rock Mound
- Rookery Mound
- Ross Hammock
- Safety Harbor
- Shark River Slough
- Shell Bluff Landing
- Spruce Creek
- Third Gulf Breeze
- Thomas Creek
- Turner River
- Turtle Mound
- Twin Mounds
- Upper Tampa Bay
- Useppa Island
- Velda Mound
- Waddells Mill Pond
- Wakulla Springs
- Yent Mound
- Yon Mound and Village
remains
- Related
- Pre-Columbian era