Little Salt Spring is a large sinkhole located near Charlotte Harbor of southwest Florida, in which an important ancient Paleoindian and Archaic archaeological site is located. To be precise, Little Salt Spring is a cenote, a large (the opening is ~25-30 meters across) vertical underwater cavern eroded into the native limestone to a depth of some 60 meters.
Little Salt Spring Geology
The level of the water in the cenote at Little Salt Spring rises and falls with the climate. Today, the water level is some 5 meters above mean sea level; and an erosional drainageway between 30 and 90 meters in width extends northeastward from the sinkhole for some 425 meters. Along this drainageway, which is currently a slough, are archaic period occupations. At the bottom of the sinkhole, preserved by the water and sediments, are the remains of 12,000 years of human use.
Two ledges on the inside of the sinkhole, one at 26 meters below the current surface and one at 18 meters below the surface, were accessible to human occupation when the water of the cenote was low enough.
Archaeology at Little Salt Spring
The earliest evidence for humans at Little Salt Spring is a Paleoindian occupation, located on the lower ledge, and it consists of a collapsed shell of a giant land tortoise, killed by a sharply pointed wooden stake, and roasted in place. The wood from the stake was radiocarbon dated at 12,030 RCYBP (uncalibrated radiocarbon years before the present). By 10,000 years ago, the water level had risen some 11 to 12 meters, and near the opening of the lower ledge is found wooden stakes and what researchers called "non returning boomerangs", dated to ~9500 RCYBP.
Little Salt Spring Cemetery
During the Archaic period, the slough at Little Salt Spring became a cemetery, where at least 1000 extremely well preserved bodies have been identified. Human remains including brain tissue recovered from the slough have been radiocarbon-dated to ~6,000 years before the present; associated projectile points are Newnan's Lake points, also known to date to approximately the same time. Other artifacts found within the cemetery have include a small wooden table or plaque bearing the profile of a long-necked or long-billed bird.
Preservation within the cemetery is excellent, because of the chemical composition of the water, which is anoxic, that is to say, contains very low amounts of oxygen.
Archaeology at Little Salt Spring
Excavations were conducted at the site in the 1970s, by Carl J. Clausen, and reported in Science in 1979. Most of these were focused on the Archaic cemetery in the slough, although dives were made on the ledges. The site was donated to the University of Miami in 1983, and, after new funding sources were found, new excavations within the sinkhole were begun in 2004, led by John Gifford of the University of Miami.
- Read more about the 2010 excavations at Little Salt Spring.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the American Archaic, the guide to Paleoindians, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science maintains an ecological preserve at Little Salt Spring.
Clausen CJ, Cohen AD, Emiliani C, Holman JA, and Stipp JJ. 1979. Little Salt Spring, Florida: A unique underwater site. Science 203(4381):609-613.
Florea LJ, Vacher HL, Donahue B, and Naar D. 2007. Quaternary cave levels in peninsular Florida. Quaternary Science Reviews 26(9-10):1344-1361.
