Archaeology--Methodology

The Briarwoods Site (8PA66) was first excavated by Jeffrey M. Mitchem and Dr. Stephen J. Gluckman, from the University of South Florida, in 1980. It was a burial mound with scattered human skeletal fragments on the surface. The salvage excavation had to be expedited due to the fact that a building development on the site was in progress. Iscan and Gomez (1982) suggested that there were skeletal elements recovered that provided evidence for the existence of Paget's disease (Osteitis deformans ) in the population. However, this study reanalyzes the elements and using new technology such as Computed Tomography scans shows that there was no conclusive evidence of Paget's disease. Instead, the skeletal morphology of the affected bones is comparable to the characteristics of treponemal disease which, unlike Paget's disease, is found in sites contemporaneous to Briarwoods.

This study seeks to investigate the problem of the cultural boundary between the Kissimmee-Lake Okeechobee and the East Okeechobee culture areas. The problem is addressed here using sites along the geographical region known as the Loxahatchee Scarp, focusing mainly on three sites, Whitebelt I (8PB220), Whitebelt III (8PB222) and JR244 (8MT1327). This study compares ceramic type data using the multivariate statistical analysis of discriminant analysis. The relative frequencies of ceramic types from the test sites are compared to other sites with generally accepted cultural affiliations. The ceramic frequencies are used in order to sort each sites level into several culture areas, those include the Glades, Indian River, Kissimmee-Lake Okeechobee and East Okeechobee culture areas. The results of this study demonstrated the utility of using discriminant analysis in the sorting of levels within sites into appropriate culture areas. The analysis suggests that although ceramics are a key component in determining where that site fits into the vast scheme of known archaeological culture areas, ceramics alone are a poor determinator without considering other factors, such as lithic or shell tools.