Sea Star Dignified Burials at Sea

This breathtaking archaeological find—almost 3,000 years older than the Great Pyramids—offers a unique glimpse of the lives and landscape of the indigenous people who called this place home over 7,000 years before us. It also reinforces how deep Florida’s history runs and why it’s worth protecting and preserving.In many senses, ours is a “new” state. Florida’s population has grown nearly 700 percent since 1950. Traditionally dominant industries in our region have focused on attracting people here and building places for them to stay, often permanently. You can pick your favorite joke about how hard it can be to find someone who was born here or how long a structure needs to stand to earn the label “historic.”But look beyond the clichés and you’ll find that our history is rich, varied and, frankly, a big draw for those who come here. From the elegant mid-century modern architecture of the Sarasota School, to the walkable charms of the John Nolen-planned Venice Historic District, to the vestiges of pioneer life interpreted at places like Historic Spanish Point, our region oozes history, and residents and visitors love to soak it in. And then there’s the archaeological record, which spans 14,000 years and includes virtually every stage of human habitation of North America.Newly added to that record is an incredible find 21 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Venice. First reported to Florida’s Department of State by a fossil hunter who realized he’d found a human jawbone, the Manasota Key Offshore site, as it’s now called, turned out to be a 7,200-year-old archaeological wonder.The site was once an inland, freshwater pond used by ancestors of Florida’s indigenous people to inter their dead. Natural sea-level rise since the last ice age eventually inundated it. Incredibly, however, peat that covered the pond’s bottom remained intact, preserving organic material including wooden stakes, fibers and even human remains. The site also demonstrates features of the landscape on which tho... (SRQ Magazine)