The Weeden Island culture represents one of the many groups of the Late Woodland period in the southeastern region of North America. Occurring chronologically after the Hopewell mound builders and showing strong evidence of Hopewellian influence, this group occupied the area of most of the latter part of the first millennium A.D. The territory of the Weeden Island culture was marked by mounds and midden sites extending nearly the full length of the western coastline of the Florida peninsula and westward across to the eastern side of Mobile Bay in Alabama. Sites have also been discovered as far as 100 miles inland along major rivers such as the Tombigbee, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint, Choctawatchee, and Suwannee Rivers.
Characteristics
The Weeden Island archaeological complex is best characterized by its distinct pottery styles. The pottery reflects a high level of skill in manufacture and firing and is considered the finest period of native Florida ceramics. The Weeden Island culture is best known from the incised, punctuated, and red-painted pottery which has been recovered from mounds and middens. The group also produced elaborate animal effigy pots. The mounds produced by this group seem to have served more than one purpose, but the primary use of these constructions was as burial mounds. Some mounds show indications of having been the site of charnel houses where bodies were ritually prepared for interment in mounds. The remains of powdered ocher were found at these preparations sites as well as being associated with interments within the burial mounds. Within the Weeden Island culture are many regional variants, such as the Cades Pond culture and the Fort Walton culture, which include characteristics which are exclusive to that region.
Environment
The inhabitants of the Gulf Coast during this period enjoyed an environment that was ideally suited to sustain a large population and archaeological evidence indicates a significant increase in the number and distribution of sites during the time of the Weeden Island culture. Though the cultivation of maize was known by this time, there is little evidence of its use in the coastal areas, possibly because of the unproductive nature of the soils. The exploitation of marine resources is evident by the numerous shell middens associated with this group. A study of animal remains at Weeden Island sites indicate that their diets were composed primarily of species inhabiting ocean, lake, or marsh environments.
Society
The great diversity in the treatment of the dead among those in the Weeden Island culture suggests at least some level of social hierarchy. It is commonly believed that the group had a system of social organization somewhere between egalitarianism and the chiefdoms of the Mississippian period cultures. Some of the larger sites, such as the Kolomoki site in Georgia, indicate the attainment of a much higher level of social organization, with stratified social classes similar in complexity to the historic Natchez Indians.
The End of the Weeden Island Culture
The Weeden Island Culture lasted for about 500 years, peaking at around 700 A.D. Though the cultural customs of this group changed, this group continued to thrive along the Gulf Coast. Over several centuries, the culture evolved and adapted, taking on more and more of the characteristics which became known as the Mississippian culture.
Sources
"Kolomoki Burial Mounds & the Weeden Island Mortuary Complex" in American Antiquity, W. Sears (1953).
Florida's First People:12,000 Years of Human History, R. Brown, Pineapple Press (1994).
Archaeology of Pre-Columbian Florida, J. Milanich, University Press of Florida (1994).
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