Archaic Period Canoes from Newnans Lake, Florida

Abstract

Low lake levels, due to drought in spring and summer 2000, revealed the decayed remnants of over 100 dugout canoes buried in the sediments of Newnans Lake near Gainesville, Florida. Radiocarbon assays revealed that 41 of 55 canoes studied were from the Late Archaic period, dating between 2300 and 5000 B.P. Analysis of canoe form and comparison to the small number of other known Florida Archaic period canoes correct previous ideas about early canoes. Patterns of wood choice and manufacturing techniques known from younger canoes were in place during the Late Archaic. The Archaic period canoes from Newnans Lake are indistinguishable from canoes produced in later periods and are not the crude, short, blunt-ended type thought to represent the earliest dugout canoes. Thwarts or low partitions on almost half of the Archaic canoes studied confirm a long temporal span to the canoe-making tradition of peninsular Florida. Middle and Late Archaic groups had boat-building and related technologies in place 7,000 years ago and were expanding into areas with newly emerging freshwater resources created by higher water tables.