7,000-year-old Native American burial site found submerged off Florida

An unexpected discovery by a fossil hunter diving a quarter-mile off Manasota Key near Venice, Florida, has led to a groundbreaking archaeological project that could change everything scientists thought they knew about offshore archaeology. The Manasota Key Offshore (MKO) site will help archaeologists understand how Florida’s indigenous people lived, and what their environment was like over 7,000 years ago.

Credit: Ivor Mollema/Florida Department of State

The Discovery

An amateur diver first reported possible human remains in the waters just off Manasota Key to the Bureau of Archaeological Research (BAR) in June 2016. Through non-invasive underwater survey and investigation techniques, including magnetometry, sub-bottom profiling, and side-scan sonar, BAR’s underwater archaeologists soon documented evidence of a prehistoric Native American burial site in what appears to have been a freshwater peat-bottomed pond thousands of years ago.

Credit: Ivor Mollema/Florida Department of State

Ongoing archaeological investigation revealed multiple discrete areas containing peat, worked wooden stakes that were used in burial practice, and the remains of multiple individuals. Radiocarbon dating of two stakes dated them to more than 7,200 years old, during the time referred to as the “Archaic Period." When this site was in use, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were about 30 feet below their current level. Given the site’s depth today – under about 21 feet of water – the pond sat on dry land some nine feet above sea level at this time.