{"id":24289,"date":"2019-02-25T14:49:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T19:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=24289"},"modified":"2019-02-25T14:49:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T19:49:35","slug":"ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Researchers Uncover Florida\u2019s Past Before It\u2019s Lost to the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

BY ROBERT WELLS<\/p>\n

As Florida\u2019s Space Coast moves into the future, University of Central Florida archaeologists are taking a look back at some of the historic sites there before they succumb to erosion and rising seas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how interesting it is and how valuable it is for our institutional and social memory to have knowledge of places like these,\u201d says Stacy Barber, a UCF archaeologist whose students are helping excavate sites at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. \u201cSocieties that don\u2019t have a memory of the past perhaps don\u2019t appreciate the value of the natural resources that are around them, and they misunderstand the capabilities that the local environment can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work is part of a project with the Air Force\u2019s 45th Space Wing and two Florida universities, including UCF, called the Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project. The goal is to help the Air Force collect and preserve as much as possible before the sea reclaims the area in an estimated 20 to 25 years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the project gives UCF students invaluable field experience. UCF students participate as part of a spring\u00a0anthropology<\/a>\u00a0internship class and work on the site twice a week.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThis program is one of the few in Florida where we\u2019re working hard to give students primary professional experience during the regular semester for the price of a regular class,\u201d Barber says. \u201cThere\u2019s no extra cost, except commuting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketable Skills<\/h3>\n

Barber said archaeology typically has a high barrier to entry because it requires field training, which can be an expensive commitment. The field experience here will give participants a leg up when they enter the job market.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany students can\u2019t take six weeks of their summer off from a job to learn how to do archaeology at a remote location, so here we are less than an hour from Orlando and our students are just taking this class like a regular class,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re getting this professional experience in a way that enables them to also hold jobs, care for family members, things our students need to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cape Canaveral\u2019s Many Roles<\/h3>\n

Today the Cape is known more for its rocket launches. But it has always been an attractive spot for humans. Not only was it the site of Native American burial mounds and settlements dating back to before 1,000 B.C., it was also home to some of the earliest European settlers on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

Burial sites, settlements, the original Cape Canaveral lighthouse and a historic hotel are among the places being studied at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.<\/p>\n

On a recent dig day, UCF students and researchers were excavating in square pits deep in the brush, near a burial mound. From the earth, the students pulled fragments of pottery, shells, and bones from fish, indicating the location was perhaps a place for meals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re really eager to see is how people were using this area,\u201d Barber says. \u201cWe think it is probably feasting, maybe some kind of ceremonial ritual next to the burial mound, but we can\u2019t say for certain until we can get some good hard data, and that\u2019s going to come out of these pits this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Native Americans who inhabited the area were known as the Ais and were part of the Malabar culture. The first permanent European settler on Cape Canaveral was Captain Mills O. Burnham, who was also the first permanent lighthouse keeper.<\/p>\n

Unlike many archeological sites on Florida\u2019s West Coast, Barber says these East Coast sites are almost completely unstudied.<\/p>\n

Tom Penders, the station\u2019s archaeologist, helped facilitate the connection with UCF and says they are racing against time to document and digitally preserve the history there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis site has historic archaeology and pre-Columbian archaeology significance,\u201d Penders says. \u201cAnd with climate change and sea level rise, these sites will be gone in the next 20 to 25 years. We\u2019re going to be the last archaeologists to look at these sites. So, we need to tell the whole story about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research team also included Neil Duncan, an assistant professor of archaeology at UCF, and\u00a0Amanda Groff \u201903 \u201907MA<\/strong>, an associate lecturer of archaeology at UCF. Students from the University of South Florida also participate in the project.<\/p>\n

Barber is an associate professor of anthropology at UCF. She received her doctoral and master\u2019s degrees in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her bachelor\u2019s degree in anthropology from Harvard University. She joined UCF in 2007 and is a member of UCF\u2019s\u00a0Coastal Cluster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learning about the past and how its resources were used may very well help the Space Coast community forge its future, Barber says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it matters,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ROBERT WELLS As Florida\u2019s Space Coast moves into the future, University of Central Florida archaeologists are taking a look back at some of the historic sites there before they succumb to erosion and rising seas. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how interesting it is and how valuable it is for our institutional and social memory to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":24290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,38,39,28,5944,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthropology","category-breaking-news","category-faculty-news","category-top-news","category-ucf-coastal","category-ucf-news"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Researchers Uncover Florida\u2019s Past Before It\u2019s Lost to the Sea - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Researchers Uncover Florida\u2019s Past Before It\u2019s Lost to the Sea - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY ROBERT WELLS As Florida\u2019s Space Coast moves into the future, University of Central Florida archaeologists are taking a look back at some of the historic sites there before they succumb to erosion and rising seas. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how interesting it is and how valuable it is for our institutional and social memory to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-25T19:49:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/archeology-space-coast.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Martin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Martin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kyle Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6e7fb06e1762315ca4a62c08e625d0f4\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Researchers Uncover Florida\u2019s Past Before It\u2019s Lost to the Sea\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-25T19:49:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":810,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/archeology-space-coast.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Anthropology\",\"COS News\",\"Faculty News\",\"Top News\",\"UCF Coastal\",\"UCF News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-researchers-uncover-floridas-past-before-its-lost-to-the-sea\\\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Researchers Uncover Florida\u2019s Past Before It\u2019s Lost to the Sea - 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