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Any handful of sand can turn up broken pottery or shell pieces that help archaeologists solve this gigantic jigsaw puzzle of the past.
Calusa Indians On The Islands
Visit two archaeological sites to view the intricate water courts, canal systems, burial mounds, pottery pieces and enormous shell mounds left behind by the Calusa Indians thousands of years ago. Piece together the clues that scientists from around the world use to learn about how the earliest settlers lived their daily lives on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel.
Visit two archaeological sites to view the intricate water courts, canal systems, burial mounds, pottery pieces and enormous shell mounds left behind by the Calusa Indians thousands of years ago. Piece together the clues that scientists from around the world use to learn about how the earliest settlers lived their daily lives on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel.
  Depiction of life in a Calusa Indian village |
Early Calusa Culture
About 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, rushing rivers deposited an enormous amount of silt in the Gulf of Mexico forming the tropical barrier islands along the Southwest Florida coast. Its newly formed islands and bays were awash with a bountiful supply of fish and shellfish that attracted archaic peoples from across southern Florida who established a permanent settlement. These people were the early predecessors of the Calusa Indians.
The Calusa set up villages near their life source – the water. There was not enough land to grow the amount of crops needed to feed all the tribe members, so the Calusa looked to the bays, streams, rivers and Gulf and turned up a smorgasbord of shrimp, crab, trout, snook, and just about every possible delectable seafood.
Without the worry of where the next meal would come from, the Calusa were free to develop a complex society, which they did at an astonishing rate. There was a two-tier caste system, a well-armed, highly structured military and an extended noble family. Common people provided food, dug canals and labored at the construction of immense, complex shell works and water systems.
Mound Key
A significant example of the Calusa's achievements can be seen at Mound Key State Archaeological Site, a 125-acre sub-tropical island in the center of Estero Bay. The entire island is constructed of shells discarded by the Calusa. On the mound, contained within its dramatic ridges, are inland water courts, canals and shell mounds that reveal Mound Key had been inhabited for almost 2,000 years.
Many scientists and researchers believe that Mound Key was "Calos" the capital city of the Calusa Indians. Positions of the mounds and the layout of the canal system offer support to this theory. On shell ridges and high spots sat the houses of the people who lived on this island, including Native Florida Indians, Spanish fisher folk, and twentieth-century Euro-Americans, each of whom altered the landscape in their own way. Any handful of sand can turn up broken pottery or shell pieces that help archaeologists solve this gigantic jigsaw puzzle of the past.
Pineland: A Key To The Past
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While visiting Pineland you can see gopher tortoises and bald eagles, as well as otters and alligators, just as they would have appeared 2,000 years ago. What makes the site so important is that its waterlogged deposits preserve artifacts not found in dry sites. The remains of many centuries of Calusa daily life reveal the fascinating, complex world that existed before the arrival of Europeans.
If you go…
Mound Key State Archaeological State Park, 239-992-0311, www.floridastateparks.org
Randell Research Center, 239-283-2062, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/rrc
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