Hurricanes and Habitations: Cultural Adaptations to Estuarine Environments on the Southwest Florida Coast

In the early 20th century, the Shell Island site was identified during an explosion of interest in the southwest Florida region and was initially described as a habitation site by C. B. Moore in 1907 and later by Hrdlicka in 1919. After 1997 excavations at the site performed by Widmer, he also hypothesized that the site was indeed utilized as a domestic habitation. Using data derived from these excavations, this thesis will empirically test hypotheses of the diagenesis and function of this site using criteria and methodology developed by Gill (1954), Pickering (1998) and Widmer (1989). Furthermore, results from investigations at other coastal habitation site types in Collier County Florida where site diagenesis and function theories have been tested will be used as a comparative dataset from which to deductively assess Shell Island. Finally, geographic information systems and remote sensing technology will be employed in an effort to better understand the environmental pressures that resulted in cultural adaptations that are evident across southwest Florida. This investigation finds that the cost of living in the rich estuarine environment which facilitated so much sociocultural development was the continued threat of storm surge events. The cultural adaptation of building shell platforms with raised-floor habitation structures on top of them allowed the aboriginal populations to continue to benefit from the environment without being wiped out during these regular events.