Safety Harbor culture

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Map of the approximate range of the Safety Harbor culture.

The Safety Harbor Culture was a prehistoric culture that was common among some indigenous tribes from about AD 700 to AD 1700 on the central Florida Gulf Coast of North America. The name refers to the town of Safety Harbor on Tampa Bay , which is not far from the archaeological dig sites. Here were pieces of pottery found from grave mounds originate. The facility is believed to be the location of the capital of the Tocobaga , an Indian tribe that is considered to be the main representative of the Safety Harbor culture.

Spread and Phases

The Safety Harbor culture was found on the central Florida Gulf Coast. The archaeologists disagree about the geographic extent. According to the American archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen , it stretched between what is now Tarpon Springs in the west and Sarasota in the east, and on the Gulf Coast between the Aucilla River in the north and Charlotte Harbor in the south. Jeffrey M. Mitchem, however, suspects the northern border on the Withlacoochee River, the southern within Collier County and the eastern in Polk County . Jerald T. Milanich defines the cultural area along the Gulf Coast from the Withlacoochee River to Charlotte Harbor. All three archaeologists agree that the center of culture around Tampa Bay was with the chiefdom of Tocobaga .

The grave mounds and their rich grave goods were typical of the Safety Harbor culture . Changes in the decoration of the excavated ceramic artifacts with symbols and designs allow the Safety Harbor culture to be divided into four periods or phases. Before European contact, the Englewood phase from 900 to 1100 AD and the Pinellas phase from 1100 to 1500. During the Spanish colonial period, the Tatham phase from 1500 to 1567 and the Bayview phase from 1567 to 1725.

The mounds

The associated tribes were organized in chiefdoms and lived mostly in villages on the coast of Tampa Bay and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico. The center of the entire residential area probably extended over around 24 kilometers of coastline and 20 kilometers into the interior. Each chieftainship had a main town with a temple mound and a central plaza . Archaeologists excavated at least 15 such cities on the Gulf Coast, which lay between southern Pasco County and northern Sarasota County . The area studied spanned the entire coast of Tampa Bay.

Only one city was found inland. Traditional descriptions in Spanish documents largely agree with the archaeological reconstructions. The places had a rectangular plaza and at least one temple hill in the form of a flattened pyramid , around 6 m high and 40 m long on each side. Working groups dragged the earth in baskets and raised the artificial hill. One or more buildings stood on this elevation, known as the mound , and a ramp led down from above to the plaza. So-called mussel mounds or middens , that is, remains of eaten mussels, lay along the coast or sometimes on the edge of the plaza. However, the plaza itself was free of litter. The Spaniards also reported that the chief lived with his family in houses built on the Temple Mount. The city's posh residents owned houses in the plaza, while the common people lived in huts off the plaza. There was also a mound for the dead on the outskirts of town that had a morgue.

The most famous sites of the Safety Harbor culture are characterized by the existence of grave, temple and shell mounds. As in all of Florida, numerous mounds in the Tampa Bay area were destroyed in the early 20th century as the population skyrocketed. New settlers sought land on the Gulf Coast, and the road builders discovered that many of the mounds were made of clam shells, which were excellent as filler material for new roads. There are documents of at least fifteen mounds showing their existence on Tampa Bay and the neighboring Gulf Coast. All mounds were rectangular in shape, with a flat top, and a ramp on one side that led up from the plaza. The remains of undestroyed mounds can be found in the following places:

  • Anderson-Narvaez Temple Mound in St. Petersburg
  • Harbor Key Temple Mound (Bishop Harbor Temple Mound) in Bishop Harbor in Manatee County
  • Madira Bickel Temple Mound, in Manatee County
  • Maximo Point Temple Mound, in St. Petersburg
  • Pillsbury Temple Mound, in Manatee County
  • Pinellas Point Temple Mound, or Hirrihigua Mound, in St. Petersburg
  • Safety Harbor Temple Mound in Safety Harbor
  • Snead Island Temple Mound in Manatee County

Population and chiefdoms

Spanish records show that a distinction was made between four social classes within the population. The chief and his family formed the upper class, followed by the most important advisors and officials. The third class was the common people and finally the slaves captured in war . Captive Europeans and members of other tribes were kept as slaves. The people of the Safety Harbor culture ate fish, deer, turkeys, and dogs, and vegetables, an American type of watercress , pumpkin , beans, and the buds of the palmetto palm . Corn, on the other hand, played only a minor role. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the southern limit of corn cultivation was north of Tampa Bay. They used bows and arrows for hunting and as a weapon. Sharp stones or stingray spines were used as arrowheads. The houses were made of wooden posts and the roofs of palm leaves. Temples and other public buildings were decorated with wood carvings. Earthenware vessels for ceremonial purposes were artistically painted and were characteristic of the Safety Harbor culture.

During the first Spanish period from 1513 to 1763, all indigenous people of Tampa Bay were referred to as Tocobaga . In a narrower sense, however, the term only refers to a chieftainship as well as its capital and chief. The main town of the Tocobaga was probably at the north end of Tampa Bay at the site of today's city of Safety Harbor. More chiefdoms who belonged to the Safety Harbor culture, mocoso at the eastern end of Tampa Bay, which on the north side of Hillsborough Bay Situated Pohoy and Uzita on the south side of Tampa Bay. The Tocobaga chiefdom was believed to be the most powerful tribe on Tampa Bay in the second half of the 16th century. In the 17th century, this dominance went first to the Pohoy and finally to the Calusa .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ripley P. Bullen: Tacachale: Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period . University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 1978, ISBN 0-8130-0535-3 , pp. 103-105 .
  2. ^ Jerald T. Milanich: Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present . University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 1998, ISBN 0-8130-1599-5 , pp. 392-402 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Jerald T. Milanich: Archeology of Precolumbian Florida . University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 1994, ISBN 0-8130-1273-2 .
  4. ^ A b Jerald T. Milanich: Southeast: Early Groups of Central and South Florida . In: Handbook of North American Indians . tape 14 . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 2004, ISBN 0-16-072300-0 , pp. 213-218 .

literature

  • Milanich, Jerald T. (1994). Archeology of Precolumbian Florida . University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1273-2 .
  • Milanich, Jerald T. (1998). Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present . University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1599-5
  • Milanich, Jerald T. (2006). Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2966-X
  • Milanich, Jerald T. and Samuel Procter, Eds. (1978). Tacachale: Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period . The University Presses of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-0535-3 .