When the Spanish rounded the Florida Keys in the sixteenth hundred , they find a complex endemic society based around chiefdoms and tributes . The European explorers greet the King of the Calusa people at his magnificent house constructed atop an artificial island off the Floridian slide .
Now , archaeologists think they haverediscovered this house – until now only known from the Spanish textual matter – and it seems it was incredibly impressive . The remains of the mansion now occupy on the island known as Mound Key , and excavations show it would have been an incredible structure sitting atop 150 posts on the island ’s highest peak , and bragging enough to house 2,000 people . The paper describing the find has been published in theJournal of Anthropological Archaeology .
The Calusa have recollective fascinated archaeologists because they were the only society in the New World not base on farming . usually , complex societies need farming to make enough surplus nutrient to stomach large telephone number of multitude , allowing some to then diversify what they do for a animation .
But the Calusa managed to create a order based primarily on fishing , exploit the rich water system surrounding the southerly portion of Florida and its Keys . They feed on shark , polo-neck , Pisces the Fishes , and oyster , while catching deer and birds inland . This was supplemented with foraged tempestuous plants , although many also preserve small wood garden in which they grew chili peppers , squash , papaya , and gourds .
Yet despite this , the Calusa develop an exceedingly complex high society , with King Caalus preside over a universe of close to 20,000 people , each of whom would pay him testimonial in the contour of intellectual nourishment , Au , creature hide , feathers , and even captive from Spanish shipwrecks . There were consecrate priests , a armed services , and a web of canals along which the people would travel and trade .
In fact , so successful were the Calusa that they stand firm conquest by the Spanish , press them back and stay on destitute long after many other groups fell . In the oddment , it was not settlement that leave to their demise , but the diseases brought over from Europe . All of this was an stupefying achievement for a society that was not based on agriculture .
archaeologist have now rediscover the house of King Caalus , described in detail by the Spanish in 1566 , on the island of Mound Key and suspect that this likely formed the uppercase of the Calusa . It arise above a townsfolk of around 4,000 people , and now excavation can confirm its accurate localisation and size of it .
The huge building , more or less oval in physique , was almost 24 meter ( 80 substructure ) long and 20 beat ( 65 foot ) wide and constructed from pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree likely transport from the mainland . The construction is telling for any bon ton and would have taken a considerable amount of labor and resources to build . Dating propose it was first build in 1000 CE , and then used continuously for at least 500 class .
The discovery cement the over-the-top nature of the Calusa culture , facilitate researcher to further understand just how this unbelievable gild rose and flourished for hundreds of years .
[ H / T : National Geographic ]
