In the Summer of 1997 Dr. Randolph Widmer of the University of Houston will conduct an archaeological Field School in the Rookery Bay National Estuary in Naples, Florida. Previous archaeological survey of the area has resulted in the location of a number of prehistoric archaeological sites. One of these, the Shell Island site is a substantial and important prehistoric village covering upwards of 50 acres. The village was occupied by ancestors of the Calusa, the most sociopolitically complex pre-European society in the continental United States. What is remarkable about this group was that the sociopolitical complexity was achieved without the use of agricultural food crops. Research focused on these groups will provide an understanding of the development of complex sociopolitical organization without the interference or complication of associated agriculture which is often implied in the development of complex society. The Shell Island site is the most logistically viable Calusa site to archaeologically investigate in the Ten Thousand Island areas because it is the only site which does not require boat transportation to get to access. However, there has been considerable modification to the site by modern activities. In spite of these modification, research in the area conducted by myself and others has shown that disturbance at these sites, even to include the erection of modern housing developments, is only superficial and does little damage to the remaining portions of the site. Two years ago I excavated at the famous Key Marco site just four miles to the south, and subsequently reported on the findings. This research resulted in ascertaining the existence of mounded temple structures indicating a complex chiefdom in the area 300 years earlier than was previously thought. The goal of this proposed project is to ascertain if the Shell Island site is contemporary with the occupation of Key Marco site and also to ascertain if it contains similar sociopolitical complexity or instead is a satellite community politically subservient to the Key Marco site. To accomplish these goals it is necessary to initially produce a detailed topographic map of the site area locating all the mounds and ridges. It is important to obtain this information so that the number of mounds can be determined and compared with those mapped at the largely destroyed Key Marco Site, for which a detailed contour map identifying the location of mounds was made in 1895. Also, it will allow for the identification and location of these mounds so that they can be more further investigated with archaeological test excavations.

No map of the Shell Island site was made when the original survey of Rookery Bay estuary was performed. This map will be generated using traditional mapping survey techniques utilizing a transit and stadia rod. The contour map will use ten centimeter contour intervals to adequately control the subtleties of relief over the site area. This will allow an assessment of the impact of modern development, and also to determine the location of mounded or ridges areas. Previous research at the Key Marco site has demonstrated that these mounds are the locations of houses of elites or temple and ceremonial structures, with lower status families living in houses which are not constructed on mounds. Therefore, the number and size of the mounds will be an indication of the degree of sociopolitical complexity, i.e. number of elite versus non-elite residences on the site.

In addition a Cartesian coordinate grid system will also be mapped over the site so that areas of excavation can be readily linked to the precise location on the contour map. A series of benchmarks will be created for this grid system.

Once the map has been produced, various locations will be selected for archaeological testing. These locations will include both disturbed and undisturbed areas on the site. The reason for excavating in both types of areas is to assess the degree of damage this disturbance caused to the archaeological resources. Test Excavations will be placed in mound and ridge locations since these typically represent dwelling locations and the stratigraphy and occupational history of the site can be determined from investigating these areas. One of the advantages to this site, unlike the nearby Key Marco site is that it is undeveloped with respect to modern housing projects. For example, our excavation at the Key Marco site was restricted to one of the last remaining empty lots on the site. At the Shell Island site all of the site area is available for archaeological testing. This means that we can control the lateral accretion and growth of the site as well as its sedimentary accumulation.

The test excavations will be narrow trenches excavated according to the stratigraphic zones revealed upon excavation. These trenches will dissect the site at right angles and provide a detailed stratigraphic history of the site. The sediments from these excavations will be screened so that ceramics, with their chronologically sensitive designs, can be collected. This will enable the dating of the various deposits at the site. The excavation of the sediments will also us to determine if the mounds are deliberate mound constructions for elite houses or temples and find out about household activities or about special behaviors such as rituals. We also want to excavate in the non-mound areas to see if remains of low status houses are present and to find refuse areas to obtain artifacts which will indicate the past lifeways of the former inhabitants to include the food that they ate and the tools that they used.

The region of southwest Florida is one of the most important archaeological areas in the United States. and to It is within this area that the aboriginal group known as the Calusa were located. This group developed a complex sociopolitical system, refereed to as a chiefdom. Chiefdoms are societies which contain marked degrees of social differentiation among their members resulting in nobles or elites, and commoners. Typically chiefdoms utilize agriculture for their economic food base. However, the Calusa and the ancestors did not utilize agriculture, instead relying solely on natural estuarine resources. This is a marked anomaly compared with other chiefdoms. Since the development of chiefdom society is typically so integrally linked with agriculture, focusing on examples which did not utilize subsistence allow archaeologists to investigate other causal factors responsible for such development. The importance of such non-agricultural groups as the Calusa is that complex society can develop prior to the advent of agriculture, which only goes back 10,000 years ago. Thus complex social forms can potentially develop at any time since the appearance of modern humans. Research focused on the Calusa and their ancestral cultures leading to their 16^th century forms provide an important archaeological example for discovering the general development of sociopolitical complexity.