LECTURE PRESENTATIONS
The CGCAS monthly lectures have moved to a digital format, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. We are using the Zoom platform. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Zoom, here are PDF Instructions to help you set up Zoom and participate in the lecture. Please follow the steps prior to the meeting to be ready to view the lecture. The registration link will be provided with the Lecture Announcement or on our Facebook Event Page.
The CGCAS Archaeology Lecture series is sponsored by the Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education (AWIARE).
NOVEMBER 13, 2025
The Anthropogenic Movement of Lightning Whelk Across the Eastern United States and Southern Canada
Michelle Calhoun, Archaeological Consultants Inc. (ACI)
Lightning whelk (Sinistrofulgur perversum) have been integral to the lives of some Native People throughout eastern North America since at least the Archaic, having been used as tools for woodworking, bowls and cups, ornamentation like beads and gorgets, and, most importantly, as a symbolic representation of the cosmos. Lightning whelk can be found in archaeological contexts in every eastern U.S. state and even into parts of southern Canada, even though the shell was most often obtained from the Gulf of Mexico, as chemical sourcing and spire angle studies have shown. This presentation will highlight the role that lightning whelk has played over the millennia and will provide hypothetical routes of travel for whelk and its travelling companions. Next time you admire the intricate perfection of a lightning whelk’s spire while walking the shoreline here in southwest Florida, just know that you are among a long line of people to do so, stretching back untold millennia.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS SPEAKER & SEE A MAP TO THE VENUE (Facebook Event Page)
OCTOBER 9, 2025
Findings from Florida: Perspectives on Submerged Landscape Research from the Epicenter of the Discipline in North America
Dr. Morgan F. Smith, UC Foundation Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
The State of Florida hosts the densest recorded concentration of submerged Indigenous archaeological sites in North America, possibly the world. These resources range from sites that contribute to the understanding of the peopling of the Western Hemisphere, the extinction and extirpation of megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene, adaptations to climate change before, during, and after the Younger Dryas, human response to sea level rise, adaptation to coastal resources, funerary rituals, and Indigenous watercraft. Further, these sites often are repositories of paleontological, geological, and biological data that expand understanding of climate trends in the Eastern United States and Circum-Gulf region. This presentation will briefly summarize Florida’s role in the establishment of submerged landscape studies in North America. Then, discussion will ensue over the state of the art of Florida-based underwater archaeological research, highlighting recent and ongoing studies of submerged landscapes both inland and offshore. Last, the presentation will describe current efforts to reevaluate and shape policy on submerged landscapes studies in the Gulf of Mexico over the next decade and beyond.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
Tracing the Roots of Cultural Kinship: The Journey of Jaguar and Puma Tooth Pendants from Terra Firma to a Caribbean Island
Dr. Diane Wallman, Associate Professor, University of South Florida
Big cats hold symbolic significance across cultures, especially in the Americas, where felids such as jaguars and pumas are revered and respected. In South American cultures, these cats are associated with traits such as strength, aggression, status, and supernatural protection. Their representations appear in various material forms. This paper traces the journey of modified canine teeth of three large felids – two jaguars (Panthera onca) and one puma (Puma concolor) - from Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Dominica between the 15th and 18th centuries. The tooth pendants were recovered from LaSoye, a 17th-18th-century Indigenous trading settlement on Dominica’s windward coast. The stories of these teeth are presented both archaeologically and through the words of Kalinago descendants of the bearers of the pendants. These objects symbolize the enduring ancestral connections between the Caribbean islands and South America, as well as the important relationship between humans and big cats.