In the interest of public health, CGCAS has canceled all programming for the next few months, including the April lecture that was scheduled for April 16th. We hope to reschedule the lectures in the coming months once we are through this difficult time.

In the meantime, please check out our extensive video archive of past lectures.

Safety and good health to you all. 

Best regards,
Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society Board of Directors

THIS SEASON'S PRESENTATIONS

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020 
DR. JAMES DELGADO, MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGIST 

Deep Sea Archaeology

The deep ocean is one of the last unexplored frontiers in archaeology. Maritime archaeologist James Delgado takes us on a tour of the technology, expeditions and discoveries, including Titanic, lost World War II wrecks, and 19th century ships at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. These include sites he has explored and expeditions he has led or participated in, which he will share as part of a personal tour of the “great museum of the sea.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 
CHRISTOPHER A. KIAHTIPES 

Forgotten Ecologies: Recent Vegetation Transformations Reveal Past Human Influence

Humans leave lasting environmental legacies on the landscapes they occupy. From the fire-stick to the farm, human interventions in ecological process have important ramifications for future vegetation cover. Yet disentangling human-driven (anthropogenic) vegetation change from natural fluctuations in climate has proven difficult in the sedimentary record. I explore the conceptual and empirical challenges of identifying and assessing human-driven environmental change in archaeological and paleoecological contexts.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020 
PHYLLIS E. KOLIANOS, AWIARE 

Investigations into the Archaeology of the Anclote River Region

Within Central Peninsula Gulf Coast, the archaeology of the Anclote River is understudied and underreported relative to other population centers. In the late 1800s, S. T. Walker and F. H. Cushing noted the importance of the mounds and pre-Columbian sites on the banks of the river, and both investigated the Safford (Ormond) Mound, 8PI3, near the upstream riverine system, a reused burial mound dating over 1,500 years. Almost 20 years of investigations into the archaeology of the Anclote River region reveal some important results that support recent research at other major sites and suggest shifting population settlements and sea-level change.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2020 
DR. THOMAS PLUCKHAHN 

Remembering Tocobaga: Recent Archaeology at the Safety Harbor Site in Philippe Park

The Safety Harbor archaeology site (8PI2) in Philippe Park is widely assumed to represent the ruins of the Native town of Tocobaga, where the Spanish briefly established a mission and fort in the 1560s. However, the site has only been minimally investigated, and much of the work is under-reported. This talk describes the goals and preliminary results of recent archaeological investigations by the University of South Florida.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2019 
LAURA HARRISON, ACCESS 3D LAB, USF 

Digital Storytelling and the Past, Present and Future of Egmont Key

This presentation details an ongoing interdisciplinary project aimed at making Egmont Key's invisible stories visible to the public, and digitally preserving endangered heritage with 3D laser scanning. A team from the University of South Florida in collaboration with the Seminole Tribal Historic Preservation Office and the Egmont Key Alliance used archival research, community outreach, and virtualization technologies to create immersive 3D visualizations of heritage sites that tell the many stories of Egmont Key's past, present and future.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2019 
DR. JESSI HALLIGAN, FSU

The First Floridians and the First Floods: How environmental changes have constrained Florida archaeology and how underwater archaeology promises to help

Despite almost a century of searching, archaeologists do not know when the first Floridians arrived and who the first coastal peoples in Florida were, largely due to major geological changes that occurred from approximately 21,000-6,000 years ago, which has greatly impacted Florida’s landscape. The sites we know about from the Paleoindian period can provide important hints about the first Floridians and the world they lived in. Luckily, half a century of underwater archaeology in Florida has provided some important answers.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 
ERIC PRENDERGAST, CARDNO

Adventures in Downtown Tampa Archaeology – The Lost Fort Brooke Cemetery and 100-Year-Old Love Letters to the Steamer Gopher

Almost everywhere you dig in southern downtown Tampa, near the waterfront, there are some remains from the infamous military installation that gave rise to the town of Tampa in the early 1800s. It has long been known that Fort Brooke had two cemeteries, but only one of them was ever found and excavated in the 1980s.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 
GINESS J. MAHAR, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Ethnoarchaeology of Ancient Fishing Practices: Insights from the Florida Gulf Coast

Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living human practices to understand past human actions and archaeological materials. Methods like this are often used when archaeological investigations leave researchers with more questions than answers. This presentation tacks back and forth through time—over two thousand years—on a quest to better understand the knowledge, practices, and technologies of Florida's ancient fisherfolk.

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