In 2016, a diver looking for shark teeth in the Gulf of Mexico came across a different type of tooth, a human molar, attached to a jaw. It was not a crime scene, but an archaeological find.
Once the diver learned of what he had found, he took the sample to the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research (FBAR). The next step was organize a diving expedition to explore the search site.
What they found on subsequent expeditions in 2016 and 2017 was a small necropolis, with human remains, textiles and stakes. Little is known about the people who buried their dead here, but experts have managed to date it to the Late Archaic period, a transition period between nomadic hunter-gatherer societies and the appearance of the first agricultural settlements. Little else is known about this culture.
Experts had no difficulty in determining what type of cemetery the new cemetery was discovered as it was not the first found in the US state and probably the stakes were crucial in this regard.
Thanks to anthropology and archeology we know how much funeral rites vary from one place to another and from one time to another. Mummifications, cremations and burials are the first that can come to mind, but the diversity is enormous. And the curious funeral rites of Florida, where the burial took place, are proof of this not underground but under the water of a swamp.
What exactly were these burials and why were they at stake? In the words of Ryan Duggins of FBAR, “what we currently think is that when an individual died, they would have been wrapped in hand-woven fibers and sunk to the bottom of the swamp. A series of sharp, fire-hardened stakes would have been driven into the swamp bed around the body with the tops protruding above the waterline.
The first discovery of such a necropolis dates back to 1982 in Windover, near Cape Canaveral. This necropolis was dated around the year 6280 before our era. They have been found there 168 tombs and a total of 10,000 “human elements”making it the largest known cemetery in America of its time.
But there is still more. The method of using the swamps as the final resting place of the bodies implied a greater ease for the storage of tissues in cadavers. Although muscle tissue was lost, archaeologists found something even more important: 91 of the skulls had intact brains.
although the use of posts instead of niches seems exclusive to the Native Americans of Florida, similar discoveries have also been made in Europe. The European cases of swamp burial, although more recent, have been kept in a better state of conservation. In these cases, the remains date back to the first millennium before our era, that is, several millennia after the Florida necropolis.
Almost 35 years have passed between the Windover discovery and the discovery of the Gulf of Mexico. This brought about a change in the attitude of the authorities and descendants of the pre-Columbian peoples. Archaeologists of the 1980s had a certain degree of “broad sleeves” during their investigations.
The authorities charged with studying the burial site under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico in contact with the Seminoles of the state of Florida ask for advice on the correct treatment of the human remains found, as well as the rest of the objects possibly associated with their funeral rites.
“Despite the archaeological significance of this site, it is imperative that this site and the people buried there are treated with the utmost sensitivity and respect,” said Timothy Parsons of the Florida State Department. “The people buried at the site are ancestors of the living indigenous peoples of the Americas. Sites like this have a cultural and religious significance in the present ”.
The balance between archaeological exploration and respect for ancient cultures is complex and not limited to the American context (not even the tombs). And that’s it how we prepare the dead for their journey into the “beyond” tells us a lot. Among other things, whether or not you believe in that hypothetical life after death.
Image | Florida State Department / Glen Doran
