Hearths

Abstract

During the October, 1995 field season the Aucilla River Prehistory Project conducted excavations in Test C on the "Bolen surface". This work, under the direction of Brinnen Carter, extended the work of several previous seasons. Near the southern edge of this season's operation an oval hearth feature was recognized. The hearth is of great import to our understanding of both the geologic formation and the cultural habitation of this site. At Page-Ladson the earliest work in the upper part of stratigraphic Unit 5 had taken place in Test B and revealed no evidence of a subaerial surface. At Test C, however, the so-called "Bolen Surface" was about 2 m higher than equivalent sediments in Test B. Because Page-Ladson was predominantly an inundated site during most of its history, the hearth feature is the clearest indication that part of the site was subaerially exposed during at least part of the Early Holocene. The archaeological significance of well-preserved organic material in situ in a shortduration occupation site of Early Archaic hunter-gatherers cannot be understated. Early Holocene hunter-gatherer peoples, subsisting within a fairly mobile lifestyle, leave a light footprint on the landscape. Pedogenic soil development, and even basic modifications to soil chemistry, will be faint to non-existent at a site occupied for no more than a few days and perhaps as briefly as a few hours. It is worth looking for phosphate increases or accumulation of humates, but they are unlikely at short-duration use sites. On the other hand, production of waste material from resource processing (such as knapping, butchering, and bone tool manufacture), intentional discard, and loss of items by site occupants are the typical forms of data recovered from Paleoindian and Early Archaic sites in the Southeastern United States. For these reasons the Bolen level hearth provides an additional rare glimpse into the behavior of Early Floridians. In this chapter, we describe the hearth features and then offer a brief interpretation of its role in the Early Archaic (Bolen) Culture.