Perishable Industries from the Windover Bog: An Unexpected Window into the Florida Archaic

Abstract

Multi-disciplinary excavations at the Windover Bog site (8BR246) in 1986 and 1987 yielded a remarkably well-preserved but very fragile corpus of fiber-based and wood artifacts in direct association with a series of Early Middle Archaic burials. This suite of mid-sixth millennium B.C. materials includes not only the oldest textiles from the American Southeast but also sophisticated basketry, cordage, and wood items previously undocumented (and unanticipated!) at this time horizon in this part of Florida. The textile assemblage includes close-simple and close-diagonal twining, both with S-Twist wefts (paired and trebled); open twining with paired, Z-Twist wefts; and balanced plain weave. Significantly, many of these items are in the form of non-heddle loom-woven cloth. Represented forms include circular or globular bags, hoods, blankets, clothing, and what may be intentionally produced burial shrouds. Also observed are twisted and braided cordage, composite fiber, and fiber and wood construction. The wood assemblage includes a wide array of forms from minimally modified burial “stakes” to complex, extensively worked, “dumbbell“-style mullers. The Windover fiber and wood assemblage is summarized and compared to others in North and South America and the myriad roles of perishable industries are discussed in terms of the lives and deaths of their makers.