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State announces ‘unprecedented’ find of a Native American ancestral burial site.
When state officials were alerted that a diver found human skeletal remains off the south Sarasota County coastline, they recruited a forensic anthropologist from Florida Gulf Coast University to examine a potential crime scene, about 300 feet off Manasota Key.
Heather Walsh-Haney, a forensic anthropologist and associate professor and program coordinator for the department of justice studies at the university, studied the remains found submerged in about 20 feet of water in 2016 and determined the bones were not from a current crime scene at all — they were ancient.
The remains were part of a rare 7,000-year-old Native American ancestral burial site in what state and local officials are calling an “unprecedented” underwater discovery. The .75-acre prehistoric site, referred to as the Manasota Key Offshore archaeological site, contains the remains of Native Americans buried in what experts believe was a freshwater pond, the Department of State said in a stunning announcement Wednesday. Submerged offshore burial areas like the one off the Sarasota County coast are exceedingly rare — the only other sites of its kind have been unearthed in Israel and Denmark, state officials said.
At least six sets of human remains were found, though there are likely more, Walsh-Haney said.
“Modern individuals will usually have dental restorations and modern people in Florida tend not to be as well muscled and robust as we see in ancient indigenous people who lived and walked here,” Walsh-Haney said of the find.
The Native Americans buried there were likely laid to rest during the Early Archaic period, said Sarasota County archaeologist Steve Koski. Koski assisted the state in its investigation and visited the site during numerous dives in October and November, he said.
FOR some pics and full article - https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/...site-7000-years-old-found-in-gulf-near-venice
When state officials were alerted that a diver found human skeletal remains off the south Sarasota County coastline, they recruited a forensic anthropologist from Florida Gulf Coast University to examine a potential crime scene, about 300 feet off Manasota Key.
Heather Walsh-Haney, a forensic anthropologist and associate professor and program coordinator for the department of justice studies at the university, studied the remains found submerged in about 20 feet of water in 2016 and determined the bones were not from a current crime scene at all — they were ancient.
The remains were part of a rare 7,000-year-old Native American ancestral burial site in what state and local officials are calling an “unprecedented” underwater discovery. The .75-acre prehistoric site, referred to as the Manasota Key Offshore archaeological site, contains the remains of Native Americans buried in what experts believe was a freshwater pond, the Department of State said in a stunning announcement Wednesday. Submerged offshore burial areas like the one off the Sarasota County coast are exceedingly rare — the only other sites of its kind have been unearthed in Israel and Denmark, state officials said.
At least six sets of human remains were found, though there are likely more, Walsh-Haney said.
“Modern individuals will usually have dental restorations and modern people in Florida tend not to be as well muscled and robust as we see in ancient indigenous people who lived and walked here,” Walsh-Haney said of the find.
The Native Americans buried there were likely laid to rest during the Early Archaic period, said Sarasota County archaeologist Steve Koski. Koski assisted the state in its investigation and visited the site during numerous dives in October and November, he said.
FOR some pics and full article - https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/...site-7000-years-old-found-in-gulf-near-venice
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