March 12, 2026: Dr. Kenneth E. Sassaman
Plying Flooded Landscapes of North-Central Florida and Beyond
Dr. Kenneth E. Sassaman
Lecture Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/33p5jvkf
The history of human dwelling in Florida is structured by changes in water, from the long-term trend of rising sea since the end of the Ice Age to the events of drought and flooding that recur at various scales. Abundant research addresses the implications of water fluctuations on human settlement and land-use, and some studies have considered the implications of changing surface water on canoe travel. Drought 25 years ago in north-central Florida revealed over 100 canoes in the exposed shoreline of Lake Pithlachocco. Dating mostly to the Late Archaic period, when climate was generally warm and wet, canoes must have factored into travel across the peninsula, from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Like the hydroperiod of the Late Archaic, extreme water levels for two decades of the late 19th century enabled boats to travel across terrain that today is at least seasonally dry.
Kenneth E. Sassaman is Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Florida Archaeology at the University of Florida. He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1991 and has over 40 years of archaeological field experience in the Indigenous history of the American Southeast. His most recent work centers on the challenges of climate change on the gulf coast of Florida over the past 5,000 years. He is the author of over 100 articles and book chapters, and the author or editor of ten books including the co-authored The Archaeology of Ancient North America (Cambridge 2020).
