Historical Byrd Hammock by Adam Fryska, Panhandle Trail Program Manager
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
Potsherd from the Byrd Hammock site and plaza. Even after a village was abandoned and its structures had decomposed, the midden rings and burial mound would remain. Over time they would slowly be covered by vegetation and soil, and then weathered by wind and rain. From an onlooker's perspective today, the Byrd Hammock site appears as a series of low scattered humps of earth within a hardwood hammock. On an otherwise flat forest floor, these mounds offer the first clues that this landscape has been impacted by human activity. Looking closer, one can see other signs: rich, dark soil stands out from the surrounding white sand, a sign of decomposed organic material. Within the soil are accumulated bits of shell, bones, and pottery fragments. These fragments provide hints about what the lives of these people were like; what they ate, the tools they used, even their religious and cultural practices.
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY ALONG THE FLORIDA TRAIL he Florida Trail is well known for its unique natural environments and subtropical scenery. No other National Scenic Trail offers anything like it; hikers encounter cypress domes and moss-draped live oaks, rolling wiregrass savannah and pine flatwoods, dark swamps and emerald gulf waters. Hiking along the FT, it's easy to imagine that you’re exploring a landscape untouched by people, and a key part of our mission is protecting these places from further human development. But the idea of a primitive Florida, a wilderness without people, is a myth. For thousands of years before European colonization, the Native people of Florida lived in these environments. They built their homes and villages, hunted and fished, and practiced their religions. While the history of these civilizations can be difficult to trace—we have no written record or oral history to rely on—the archaeological record can be surprisingly illuminating. A key to understanding this history has been the excavation of Native American villages. One area in particular—the Byrd Hammock site near Wakulla Beach in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge—has emerged as an important place along the Florida Trail to highlight this history. The Byrd Hammock site consists of two adjacent villages dating back to 400-850 AD. Both villages were laid out with a large central plaza surrounded by wooden shelters, with ring middens encircling the living areas and a burial mound nearby. A midden is the accumulated debris left behind by human activity. The inhabitants of these prehistoric villages would carry out shells, bones, pottery fragments, and other waste to pile up along the outskirts of the village. These dumping sites would eventually take the form of a ring surrounding the homes
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
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Exploring the Byrd Hammock Archeological Site
SEAC Excavations of the Byrd Hammock Site
Footprint
Summer/Fall 2020
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