the florida state university college of arts and sciences evolution of ...

Geoarchaeology
The earliest inhabitants of the Florida Panhandle were nomadic hunters pursuing the last
of the Pleistocene megafauna (Braley, 1982). With the extinction of big game by about 8,000 yr
B.P., the paleoindian diet shifted to plants, small animals and seafood (Braley, 1982). Sea-level
changes have influenced the location of the Apalachicola River’s delta migration, and
progradation of the delta has in turn affected human settlement patterns (Donoghue and White,
1995). Figure 2.4 illustrates this phenomenon. The distribution of archaeological sites is
consistent with geological studies of sea-level history (Donoghue and White, 1995). Several of
these early sites have been drowned by sea level rise. St. Vincent Island has a long history of
human occupation.
There are 17 prehistoric sites on St. Vincent Island (Braley, 1982). One of these sites is
the Paradise Point Site (Florida State site number 8FR71). This is a stratified midden located on
the north shore of St. Vincent Island (2.4 km northwest of St. Vincent Point, which is the eastern
tip of the island) (Braley, 1982, Walker et al., 1995). The midden indicates two periods of
occupation. The earliest occupation has been radiocarbon dated at 240 A.D. (1,710 +/- 60 years
B.P.), although that date may be in error (Braley, 1982). This occupation was terminated by
rising sea level and abandoned for several hundred years. After sea level fell, the site was
reoccupied (900-1,100 A.D.). Evidence suggests that the Paradise Point site was occupied
during the warmer months. In addition to the Paradise Point site, archaeological evidence from
midden sites on the north side of St. Vincent Island reveal that the earliest occupation of the
island began during the Norwood Period, around 4,000 years B.P. Figure 2.5 shows the location
of archaeological sites on St. Vincent Island that have been assigned archaeological ages.
St. Vincent Island was selected as the focus of this investigation in part because it has not
been studied in great detail in the past and, more importantly, because it contains a long term
record of coastal evolution that is undisturbed, well-preserved and nearly continuous. The ridge
complex on St. Vincent Island carries a record of changing sediment sources and changing
oceanographic conditions over at least the past four millennia (Stapor 1973, 1975). Another
important factor in the selection of this site was the physical character of the island. The narrow
geographic limits of the island and the regional tectonic stability of northwest Florida make it
possible to collect hundreds of data points representing past sea level stands without concern for
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