The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
Menu
Admin Sign-In

Empirical Absence of Paleoindian Sites on the Lake Wales Ridge

Environmental management plans and regional overviews sometimes state that human occupation on the Lake Wales Ridge and within the Avon Park Air Force Range extends back into the late Paleoindian period, roughly twelve thousand years ago.[dtic-inrmp-ea-2004] However, comprehensive statewide archaeological surveys, specialized projectile point databases, and late Pleistocene environmental reconstructions establish that no authentic Paleoindian-period (pre-8000 BC) site or diagnostic artifact has ever been recorded on the Lake Wales Ridge or within Highlands County.[dunbar-2005-pidba][thulman-2011-pidba][faught-pevny-2019] Assertions of Paleoindian presence in local planning documents represent generic summaries of broad Florida prehistory rather than documented field discoveries.[dtic-inrmp-ea-2004][tdar-391171-stevens-2001]

Statewide point database distributions

Systematic distribution studies of diagnostic Paleoindian projectile points—including Clovis, Suwannee, Simpson, and Page-Ladson types—are maintained in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas (PIDBA) through two authoritative Florida datasets:

  1. Florida Fluted Point Survey: Maintained by James S. Dunbar of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, cataloging hundreds of diagnostic Paleoindian and Early Archaic points across Florida counties.[dunbar-2005-pidba] The survey records zero diagnostic Paleoindian projectile points for Highlands County and zero from the Lake Wales Ridge sand-hills of Polk County.[dunbar-2005-pidba]
  2. Florida Paleopoint Dataset: Compiled by David K. Thulman, cataloging 735 diagnostic Paleoindian artifacts mapped to thirty-five regional river basins.[thulman-2011-pidba] Over ninety percent of these points cluster in northern and west-central karst river valleys, led by the Santa Fe (272 points), Suwannee (121 points), Chipola (92 points), Aucilla (74 points), Lake George (33 points), and St. Johns (32 points).[thulman-2011-pidba] Not a single point originates from Highlands County, the Lake Wales Ridge, or the Kissimmee River drainage.[thulman-2011-pidba] The nearest Paleoindian (Clovis, Suwannee, and Simpson) points recorded in the PIDBA locational database are found in adjacent Polk County (9 points) and Hillsborough County (98 points) to the north and west.

Statewide Florida Master Site File syntheses published by Michael K. Faught and Charlotte D. Pevny confirm this geographic divide: Paleoindian settlement (dating circa 12,000–8500 BC) was tightly restricted to the Tertiary karst regions of northern Florida and the Gulf Coastal lowlands.[faught-pevny-2019] In the entire southern half of the Florida peninsula, the sole documented exception is the Cutler Fossil site (8DA2001) in Miami-Dade County, situated in a solution sinkhole along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge.[faught-pevny-2019]

Geological and environmental settlement barriers

The total absence of Paleoindian materials on the Lake Wales Ridge is explained by the Karst Oasis Model developed by James S. Dunbar and Ben I. Waller.[dunbar-waller-1983] During the Last Glacial Maximum and the Younger Dryas (circa 13,000–9500 BC), global sea levels were 70 to 120 meters lower than present, substantially depressing the regional Floridan Aquifer.[dunbar-waller-1983][faught-pevny-2019]

This hydrologic drawdown created two severe settlement barriers on the ridge:

  • Surface Water Scarcity: Deeply mantled sands over deeply buried limestone left the upland ridge hyper-arid to semi-arid.[dunbar-waller-1983] Deep sediment pollen cores taken from Lake Tulane in Avon Park demonstrate that during the late Pleistocene, regional vegetation was dominated by open, drought-tolerant ragweed and scrub oak communities rather than the mesic pine flatwoods and lake margins of the mid-to-late Holocene.[grimm-1993-pollen] Surface freshwater in the Florida interior was restricted to deeply incised river channels and sinkhole basins in karst limestone terranes farther north.[dunbar-waller-1983]
  • Absence of Tool-Grade Lithics: Paleoindian hunters depended heavily on access to high-quality chert and silicified limestone outcrops for tool production and resharpening.[dunbar-waller-1983][faught-pevny-2019] Peninsular chert quarries are confined to the Ocala, Suwannee, and Tampa limestone formations of north and west-central Florida; no naturally occurring stone tool resources exist on the sandy Lake Wales Ridge or in the Kissimmee basin.[dunbar-waller-1983] The closest natural chert sources to Highlands County are the Tampa limestone outcrops in the Tampa Bay and upper Peace River regions, approximately 60 to 80 miles (100 to 130 km) to the northwest.[austin-estabrook-2000]

Earliest documented human occupation on the ridge

Extensive Phase I and Phase II cultural resource surveys conducted across the 106,210-acre Avon Park Air Force Range between 1986 and 2005 (such as reports AP0003, AP0004, AP0011, AP0013, and AP0017) examined thousands of test units and dozens of prehistoric sites.[tdar-391171-stevens-2001]

These investigations establish that human occupation on the Lake Wales Ridge began not in the Paleoindian period, but during the Early Archaic Bolen horizon (circa 7000–6500 BC):

  • Site 8HG1054 (Bombing Range Ridge): Identified in 2001 during a survey by Parsons Engineering Science, this site yielded a diagnostic Bolen Beveled projectile point, marking the oldest verified cultural resource discovered on the range or in Highlands County.[tdar-391171-stevens-2001]
  • Transition to Holocene Conditions: The appearance of Early Archaic Bolen hunters coincided with early Holocene climate warming, rising sea levels, and the gradual recharge of peninsular shallow water tables, which allowed mobile hunter-gatherers to expand seasonally outward from northern riverine refugia into the central interior ridge.[faught-pevny-2019][grimm-1993-pollen]

All earlier regional claims of late Paleoindian occupation reflect generalized regulatory summaries rather than documented archaeological discoveries.[dtic-inrmp-ea-2004][tdar-391171-stevens-2001]

References

  • dunbar-2005-pidba — James S. Dunbar (Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research). Florida Fluted Point Survey (Paleoindian Database of the Americas). 2005. https://pidba.org/florida.htm
  • thulman-2011-pidba — David K. Thulman. Florida Paleopoint Data (Paleoindian Database of the Americas). 2011. https://pidba.org/florida.htm
  • faught-pevny-2019 — Michael K. Faught and Charlotte D. Pevny. Pre-Clovis to the Early Archaic: Human Presence, Expansion, and Settlement in Florida over Four Millennia. 1 March 2019. https://www.flheritage.com/
  • dunbar-waller-1983 — James S. Dunbar and Ben I. Waller. A Distribution Analysis of the Clovis/Suwannee Paleo-Indian Sites of Florida - A Geographic Approach. 1 June 1983. https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00027829/00108
  • tdar-391171-stevens-2001 — J. Sanderson Stevens and Susan Hathaway (Parsons Engineering Science). Final Report - Phase I Archaeological Survey, Management Units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and Main Base, Avon Park Air Force Range, Avon Park, Florida (APAFR Report AP0013). 2001. https://doi.org/10.6067/XCV8V125QX
  • grimm-1993-pollen — Eric C. Grimm, George L. Jacobson Jr., William A. Watts, Barbara C. S. Hansen, and K. A. Maasch. Pre-Holocene and Holocene pollen records of vegetation history from the Florida peninsula and their climatic implications. 1 October 1993. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(93)90055-6
  • dtic-inrmp-ea-2004 — United States Air Force. Final Environmental Assessment for Implementation of the Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan, Avon Park Air Force Range. 2004. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA638923

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. James S. Dunbar (Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research), Florida Fluted Point Survey (Paleoindian Database of the Americas) (2005) · official
  2. David K. Thulman, Florida Paleopoint Data (Paleoindian Database of the Americas) (2011) · secondary
  3. Michael K. Faught and Charlotte D. Pevny, Pre-Clovis to the Early Archaic: Human Presence, Expansion, and Settlement in Florida over Four Millennia (2019) · secondary
  4. James S. Dunbar and Ben I. Waller, A Distribution Analysis of the Clovis/Suwannee Paleo-Indian Sites of Florida - A Geographic Approach (1983) · secondary
  5. J. Sanderson Stevens and Susan Hathaway (Parsons Engineering Science), Final Report - Phase I Archaeological Survey, Management Units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and Main Base, Avon Park Air Force Range, Avon Park, Florida (APAFR Report AP0013) (2001) · official
  6. Eric C. Grimm, George L. Jacobson Jr., William A. Watts, Barbara C. S. Hansen, and K. A. Maasch, Pre-Holocene and Holocene pollen records of vegetation history from the Florida peninsula and their climatic implications (1993) · secondary
  7. United States Air Force, Final Environmental Assessment for Implementation of the Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan, Avon Park Air Force Range (2004) · official

Something here wrong, or incomplete? The Society would rather know. Tell a volunteer.

Have a question about this record?

← Back to collection

Ask A.P.

Ask the archive

    Try asking:

    0 / 500

    A.P. answers only from the Society's own archive and cites what it used. Questions are not linked to you; search history is stored on your device only (how it works).Ask a volunteer for anything it cannot answer.