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A Weeden Island Burial Mound - Open site which contains PDF ...

A Weeden Island Burial Mound - Open site which contains PDF ...

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The White Springs <strong>site</strong> is important in exhibiting<br />

special features implying small bands camping for short<br />

periods of time at strategic points, with the numerous deep,<br />

natural spring <strong>site</strong>s offering many ecological advantages. A<br />

shifting, mobile population, broken up into small,.essentially<br />

food guthering groups is suggested. No maize or other<br />

cultivated species was cataloged fron any of the specific<br />

cooking pits, although the presence of the shell would make<br />

for preservation and other shell and animal remains are<br />

preserved in charred fexm. This negative evidence might have<br />

some significance in connection with the data from other <strong>site</strong>s<br />

<strong>which</strong> fit consistently with the interpretation given to the<br />

White Springs encampments.<br />

It is entirely possible that the typical camp<strong>site</strong><br />

situations along the lower Flint in <strong>Weeden</strong> <strong>Island</strong> times reflect<br />

a seasonal adaptation. Thesc,might be small bands whioh joined<br />

larger and more permanent settlements during the growing season.<br />

Ethnographic accounts from the Georgia coast indicate some such<br />

seasonal shifting from the shell midden <strong>site</strong>s to the interior<br />

locations along major drainages. The implication grows, however,<br />

that these people still relied in large measure upon simple food<br />

gathering in their total subsistence patterns.<br />

Analysis of the 3hite Springs ceramic collections shows<br />

a muoh stronger complement of the Beeden <strong>Island</strong> Functate-<br />

Incised categories than was present on other Flint River <strong>site</strong>s.<br />

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