Native North Americans first arrived in Florida approximately 14,550 years ago. Evidence for these stone-tool–wielding, megafauna-hunting peoples can be found at the bottom of numerous limestone freshwater sinkholes in Florida’s Panhandle and along the ancient shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.
Specialized archaeologists using scuba gear, remote sensing equipment, or submersibles can study underwater sites if they are not deeply buried or destroyed by erosion. This is important because Florida’s archaeological resources face significant threats due to sea level rise driven by climate change. According to a new U.N. report, global sea levels could increase by over 3 feet by the year 2100.
Archaeological sites contain evidence of what people ate in the past, what kinds of houses they built, how they buried their dead, and what they did to memorialize stories, leadership, and community. These places literally embody human lives and are the only records we have of ancient Indigenous peoples of the New World.
Between the years 1500 and 1850, 2.5 million Europeans migrated to the New World. As a consequence of their arrival, 50 million Indigenous people died from disease, massacres, and slavery.
As scholars who study anthropology and archaeology, we believe that the genocide of these oral historical and literate societies, native to North, South, and Central America, makes it even more important to preserve their ancient sites. Without them, we may never be able to learn the history of the first peoples of this land.