Windover

"This is an exceedingly important site for the whole of New World archaeological interpretations. The preservation at this site was phenomenal, with the oldest textiles represented in the Southeast and other artifacts of extreme interest. Glen Doran’s book is a lasting contribution to the literature on the subject."—Catherine S. Fowler, University of Nevada, Reno

"The contents of this volume furnish the most complete, important, interesting, and thoroughly documented account of human activities and intertwining environmental conditions that existed 7,500 years ago in Florida or anywhere in the Western Hemisphere."—Barbara Purdy, professor emerita, University of Florida 

With respect to the bog burial tradition, Florida is unique, producing one of the largest inventories of North American skeletal remains older than 6,000 years. Near Titusville, Florida, in 1984, excavations began at the Windover archaeological site, the New World’s largest cemetery of this antiquity. This book is the first complete summary of the multiple investigations conducted there by archaeologists and specialists from across the nation and provides the first detailed overview of the population, and in particular the mortuary customs, from this Early Archaic era.

The human remains uncovered at Windover are more numerous than at any site of its date and their preservation is truly phenomenal, making the site an unparalleled research opportunity. In addition to brain tissue, it houses the most complete inventory of organic artifacts that these early people manufactured and used, including a complex group of objects made from bone, antler, wood, and fabric seldom preserved in sites of this age and the largest collection of hand-woven materials from this period in the New World.

With increasing controversy surrounding the disturbance of Native American human burial sites and legislation designed to restrict investigation of such places, Windover may be one of the last large, truly unique cemetery investigations and analyses that American archaeology will undertake.

1.  Introduction to Wet Sites and Windover (8BR246) Investigations, by G. H. Doran

2.  An Environmental and Chronological Overview of the Region, by D. N. Dickel and G. H. Doran

3.  The Windover Radiocarbon Chronology, by G. H. Doran

4.  Analysis of Mortuary Patterns, by D.N. Dickel

5.  Bone, Antler, Dentary, and Lithic Artifacts, by T. Penders

6.  Conservation and Analysis of Textile and Related Perishable Artifacts, by R. L. Andrews, J. M. Adovasio, B. Humphrey, D. C. Hyland, J. S. Gardner, and D. G. Harding (with assistance from J. S. Illingworth and D. E. Strong)

7.  Wooden Artifacts, by J. M. Adovasio, D. C. Hyland, R. L. Andrews, J. S. Illingworth (with assistance from R. B. Burgett, A. R. Berkowitz, D. E. Strong, and D. A. Schmidt)

8.  The Paleoethnobotany of the Archaic Mortuary Pond, by L. A. Newsom

9.  Pollen Analysis of Holocene Sediments, by R. G. Holloway

10. Paleoecology Interpreted by Peat Petrology and Chemistry, by S. A. Stout and W. Spackman

11. Investigations of DNA Isolated from Windover Brain Tissue: Methods and Implications, by W. Hauswirth and C. Dickel

12. Serum Albumin Phenotypes and a Preliminary Study of the Windover mtDNA Haplogroups and Their Anthropological Significance, by D. G. Smith, B. K. Rolfs, F. Kaestle, R. S. Malhi, and G. H. Doran

13. Biomolecular Analysis of Collagenous Tissue, by D. C. Hyland and T. R. Anderson

14. A Paleodemographic Perspective, by G. H. Doran

15. Future Directions, by G. H. Doran

Glen H. Doran is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University and has served as Windover’s principal investigator since 1984.