Late Archaic Period - Orange Culture (2000 - 1000 BC)

The people who lived within the Pelotes Island Nature Preserve islands from 2000 to about 1000 BC were called Archaic Indians.  Their culture was largely based on gathering marsh resources.  Their middens (shell trash piles) extend over half Pelotes and Pinders Islands, silent evidence of a long oyster-gathering history.  This culture would later evolve into the St. Johns cultures of the Timucua Indians.

Archaic Indians lived before the invention of agriculture and the bow and arrow. They were very dependent on the salt marsh for their livelihood, and were accomplished fishermen with hooks and lines (no poles), nets, spears, and fishing weirs (traps.)  Hunted water species included fish, crustaceans, migratory water fowl, alligators, turtles, and marine mammals.  Archaic Indians also hunted land animals including deer, bear, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, and turkey with spears, atlatls (spear-throwers), traps, bolas, and slings.  They may have used fire drives to flush out animals for the hunt.

Plants were also heavily utilized.  Although there was no agriculture, they may have fire-cleared areas to encourage the growth of useful plants.  Many plants like wild onion, beans, pigweed, peppergrass, etc., grow well in waste areas.  Wild foods like acorns, hickory nuts, plums, persimmons, paw paws, prickly pear, blackberry, blueberry, etc. were available on a seasonal basis as well.  Plants also provided medicines.  Willow bark has salicylic acid (aspirin) in it, and wax myrtle leaves provide a natural insect repellent. The natives would have utilized these resources fully.

Settlements probably included about 40 individuals from one or a few kin groups.  Social classes may have been developing at this point.  Trade among groups would have been fairly common, assisted by the use of dugout canoes.  There was little territoriality, but groups were burying their dead in ponds or burial mounds.  This may have given them a stronger sense of place.  A home site may have been surrounded by special use camps (fishing, deer hunting, acorn gathering spots, etc.)  There is evidence up in Georgia of a homicide during this time period; however, battle was not a common occurrence.

The earliest hard evidence we have for Native American occupation at the  Pelotes Island Nature Preserve dates from about 2000 BC.  Both islands possess shell middens (giant oyster trash piles) which are full of fiber-tempered pottery.  This pottery was made by mixing clay with fibers from Spanish moss or saw palmetto and firing it.  The fibers function as a temper and keep the pot from cracking during the firing process.  Firing makes the pot hard and waterproof.  This pottery is usually plain, but is sometimes decorated with incising (lines scratched into the wet clay).  The pottery shards found are approximately 1/2 inch thick, and would have been part of very heavy pots.  This fiber-tempered pottery, called Orange Period wares, was first invented along the Florida-Georgia Coast.  It was used from approximately 2000-1000 BC.  Since most of the pottery found at the Preserve is from this time period, we can assume that Archaic Indians made much use of the area.  The invention of fiber-tempered pottery enabled them to more effectively store food for the winter and cook stews and broths.  Because this early slab pottery is very heavy, it may also have contributed to their settling down in one place, rather than continuing the semi-nomadic lifestyle of earlier Florida natives.  Click to see a fiber-tempered pottery shard.

Provided by the Pelotes Island Nature Preserve
http://pelotes.jea.com