On the Prowl at Tiger Point
Results of the 2008 UNF Field School
In the summer of 2008, the University of North Florida (UNF) and resident archaeologist, Prof. Keith Ashley, PhD., conducted its annual field school at the Betz-Tiger Point Preserve in Jacksonville. Prior to the summer field school, Prof. Ashley and UNF archaeologists surveyed the 548-acre City Preserve and excavated 466 shovel tests.
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Seven archaeological sites were discovered. Artifacts ranged from a 6,000 year old stone projectile point to pieces of dinner plates dating to Hudnall occupation of the property during the early 1800s. Falling between these two points in time were a wide assortment of Native American ceramic fragments. Among these was a style archaeologists call “Orange” which is one of the oldest fired-clay pottery types in North America, dating to 2000 BC. |
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Following on the heels of the survey, ten UNF students assisted in the testing of four archaeological sites on the Betz-Tiger Point property. Most of the summer was spent excavating at the Tiger Point site. While this site was first reported to the State in 1963, no excavations had ever taken place there. The Tiger Point site consists of a series of shell middens, which are simply piles of garbage that include soil and a lot of shell. |
Putnam Point Hernando Point 4000 B.C. 500 B.C.-50 A.D.
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Also in the shell middens at Tiger Point were animal bones and broken pieces of pottery. Calcium for the accumulated shells reduces soil acidity allowing even small fish bones to preserve. What makes this garbage so important to archaeologists is that it is more than 700 years old.
Two 1 x 6 meter trenches and another smaller unit were dug into the largest shell midden, which measured 18 x 8 meters. The contents of the shell midden were screened Though only one-half meter high, the midden was packed with estuarine shells, most notably oyster. Mixed with the shell were crab claws and the bones of fish, turtle, alligator, deer, bird, and rabbit. Pottery sherds included those marked with a waffle pattern that archaeologists call St. Johns Check Stamped. Others were decorated with cordage. A few tools made of deer bone and whelk shell also were recovered.
After six weeks in the field, students returned to the UNF laboratory for analysis. All artifacts and bone were washed, identified, and counted. So what did we learn?
According to Prof. Ashley, the Tiger Point site was not a major village, but rather a seasonal camp where small family groups came to live and eat what they fished, hunted, and gathered from nearby habitats. Fish and shellfish made up the bulk of their diet. Oysters would have been harvested at low tide from the creek banks, mud flats, and salt marshes. Fish, which included catfish, mullet, flounder, seatrout, and drums, would have been caught with nets from shallow estuarine waters. Seasonality information derived from measurements on fish and odostomes, small parasites of oysters, let us know that natives lived at the Tiger Point site during the summer and early autumn. Artifact styles and radiocarbon dates indicate the site was occupied around AD 1300. The field school results add new dimensions to our current understanding of native life in northeastern Florida.
