-
CGCAS since 1977
We are a non-profit organization consisting of members from all walks of life, who are dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Florida's great cultural heritage. Many of our members have professional association with archaeology, but we also have avocational and hobbyist members who enjoy learning the history of the peoples who preceded us here in Florida and to study the artifacts they left behind.
-
Join our Society
Membership is open to anyone with an interest in Florida's cultural past and who is dedicated to the understanding and preservation of that heritage. CGCAS conducts field trips to archaeological and historical sites, assists professional archaeologists in surveys and excavations, performs laboratory analysis, and prepares reports of its findings. A monthly newsletter keeps members up to date on the Society's activities.
-
Support Our Programs
The monthly CGCAS Archaeology Lecture series is sponsored by the Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education (AWIARE) and held at the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center (1800 Weedon Dr NE, St Petersburg, Florida). All talks are free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but to RSVP please visit our Facebook Page or the Weedon Island Eventbrite Page.
This season's presentations have concluded. We will announce the schedule for the 2020-2021 season soon. In the meantime, please check out our extensive video archive of past lectures.
Safety and good health to you all.
Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society Board of Directors
2019-2020 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.
