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.
Welcome to the Fall 2019 season!
We are so excited for this season full of society information and events! Before we get into what is on the horizon, we wanted to provide you all with a wrap-up of our busy summer. We kicked off the summer by not only co-hosting a fantastic FAS Annual Meeting in Crystal River but also receiving an award from FAS. For full details and photos check out the May 2019 newsletter, but we wanted to take this opportunity to again thank all of the CGCAS members who volunteered and/or attended the event. The large representation of CGCAS members at FAS really showed how strong our society is!
Our summer field trip took CGCAS members to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature (formerly the South Florida Museum) in Bradenton. Here, members were able to see the Montague Tallant Collection of Florida’s First Peoples which consists of pre-and immediate post-contact archaeological material as well as collections relating to the scientific and cultural history of southwest Florida and Manatee County. We got to hang out with a few hungry manatees as well!
THIS SEASON'S PRESENTATIONS
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.
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, 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, 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.