Trivia Tidbit: Ancient Florida

Since I have to be at work very early today, I’ll leave you a teaser for a post I’m in the thick of writing.

Ancient Florida, and even “old” Florida used to be very different than it is today. Periods of glacial melting and cooling have changed the landscape and climate drastically.

I’m reading a very old book that I found on eBay. It’s called Archeology of the Indian River, and talks about some pretty limited archeological digs done around my hometown of Merritt Island. It also details all the factors that are essential for understanding what you find on a dig, like geology, ecology, and climate.

The author compares what was learned and found on these digs with the accounts of the early Spanish, English, and French explorers.

It’s fascinating to learn that the very same woods and swampland areas I played in as a kid was the home of a fierce tribe of hunter/gatherers. In fact, the area of my old home is basically the exact spot of an Ais town.

And also fascinating to learn that before the Indians, or maybe even at the same time, depending on how long they inhabited the area, mastodon, giant tapir, sloths, camels, pre-Columbian horses, and other long extinct animals roamed the marshlands.

I’ll post my observations as soon as I can, with photos of some exquisite archeogical finds that makes me wonder how “fierce” the Indians really were. Maybe they were only fierce when THEIR homeland was threatened. I know if some stranger barged into my home and took my kids as slaves, I would be fierce, too.

Happy Woden’s Day!