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40 • 4W HP8 FOM 104004 +! ttu.ssl United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024.0010 Section number E Page _2__ Indian River Narrows. Cultural Resource District Much of the current understanding of the Early Archaic lifestyle in the region is a result of the study of the Windover site in Brevard County, north of Indian River County and close to Cape Canaveral. Windover is a pond site located along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge in which dense deposits of peat formed from the decomposition of plant material. The peat preserved an enormous amount of organic burial, artifactual, and environmental remains enabling archaeologists to reconstruct the Archaic lifestyle in great detail (Milanich 1994:71-72; Purdy 1996:16-19). The human burials found at Windover were wrapped in fabric and staked to the bottom of the pond, probably both to prevent animal scavenging and for religious reasons. Each burial had well-preserved tissue and bone that allowed scientists to secure radiocarbon dates (8000-7000 B.P.) and DNA samples from them. Because it seems likely that a single community of related individuals used the site for nearly a thousand years, Milanich states that "the potential for learning about human evolution, genetically related health problems, and other changes in genetic characteristics makes Windover Pond a priceless treasure of scientific information (Milanich 1994:73). During the Early and Middle Archaic periods, Florida chert from the Gulf Coast and Central Highlands portion of the state was used extensively for the manufacture of a variety of stone tools (Purdy 1996:20-21). Because stone is heaviest in its unworked form and few quarry locations are located near the Atlantic Coast, most stone artifacts would not have been produced initially in the Indian River area. It is likely that Archaic people in Indian River County would have relied extensively on wood and bone tools, most of which have deteriorated over time once buried in the area's acidic soils. Tools buried in a more neutral context, such as a peat bog or within a shell mound, would have better preservation. Dicket states that by the Middle Archaic the aboriginal populations were employing a semi -migratory subsistence strategy in which they focused on a narrow source of fooa resources for part of the year (such as coastal and estuarine fish and shellfish) and for the rest of the year returned to their broader hunting; and gathering activities (Dicket 1992:17). Sites along the ir! ;Ian :fiver are usttally small, seasonal places of specialized food procurement and Life not Itkv ccutempotary large, scdcntwy village sitcs found withUl the in -W601 aluug Ilse St. Julms River basin (Dicke] 1992:18). The Late Archaic period is characterized by environments which are essentially modVm in character and, eventually, by the appearance of the first ceramics (Dickel 1992:21). Purdy states that chert quarries were used less frequently by this time and that coastal shell commonly began to be fashioned into tools (Purdy 1996:24-25). The use of shell tools accompanied an increasing reliance of Late Archaic populations on marine shellfish. It was at this time, after the barrier island chnir and estuarine system had stabilized, th t castern oyster (C'rassustrea vir&ica), coquina (Donax varrabihs), southern quahog (blercenaria eamj)echiensis), and other coastal :shellfish began to be eaten in abundance. Substantial shell middens remain as evidence of their use (Russo 1988).