Fort Center Mounds |
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Another example of Woodland period pre-Columbian archeology are the Fort Center Mounds found near Floridas Everglades. The Fort Center Mounds are circular in form but other mounds in the area have been found to be linear and circular-linear in form (Mainfort). The Fort Center Mounds have been extensively researched and dated, by some accounts, to 450BC although this date applies more to the earthen-work structure while the contents of the mound itself have been variously dated to approximately 200AD (Mainfort).
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The Fort Center mounds have caused some general debate regarding their purpose. Some researchers contend they are ceremonial in nature with no practical purpose. Other researchers have postulated that the Fort Center mounds are some type of drainage system that was used in the raising of maize (Mainfort). The primary difficulty with this last hypothesis is that South Florida Indians, during this time period, did not practice, or were not supposed to have practiced, agriculture in any meaningful fashion. Additional archeological research has found that the Fort Center Mounds also served as burial sites for the local inhabitants and archeologists discovered a wooden platform at the site that was used to prepare corpses for interment (Mainfort). The Fort Center mounds perhaps represent the juncture for pre-Columbian cultures in Florida, of ceremonial and practical uses that are still evident today.
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Resources & Further Reading:
Milanich, Jerald T. Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1994.
Morgan, William N. Pre-Columbian Architecture in Eastern North America. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1999.
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