Collaborative Research: The Role of Surplus Production in the Emergence of a Complex Coastal Society

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Surplus production is often linked to social development and the rise of politically complex societies. It has historically been thought to help people buffer risks. Largely, however, past work has focused on agricultural societies, with fewer studies considering how surpluses were produced and managed under other economic systems. With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. William Marquardt, Victor Thompson, and Michael Savarese will conduct research at the Mound Key and Pineland archaeological sites to investigate the role of surplus production among the Calusa of southwest Florida, who were the most powerful group in peninsular Florida in the sixteenth century A.D. The Calusa king collected tribute from a population in excess of 20,000 distributed among 50 to 60 Calusa communities extending from the northern reaches of Charlotte Harbor to the Florida Keys. However, unlike the farming people of the interior river valleys of the southeastern U.S., the Calusa relied primarily on fish and shellfish for protein, collecting wild plant foods and using only a handful of plants from home gardens. Most importantly, they did not grow maize, which formed the basis of surplus production and political complexity for many groups across the Southeast. This project focuses on surplus production and distribution in a complex fisher-gatherer-hunter society. Few archaeologists have examined surplus production among fisher-gatherer-hunters, especially those in the sub-tropics. This research will shed light on long-term sustainability of fisheries, a topic of considerable world-wide interest, and address the potential impact of over-harvesting shellfish. The project will also help train the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists, both undergraduate and graduate students. As part of the research, the team will teach a field school that will involve students drawn from a broad geographical region. Students will be trained in research, as well as specialized methods and traditional archaeological excavation. The research will bring students with interests in archaeology, geology, and ecology together to address a burgeoning field in geoscience: conservation paleobiology (applying the theories and analytical tools of paleontology to solving problems concerning the conservation of biodiversity). The project will also partner with the Florida Public Archaeology Network as well as the Randell Research Center to engage the public throughout the research process. Specifically, by means of coring and archaeological excavations in structures thought to be fish and shellfish storage and processing features, the team will examine how the Calusa produced and managed large-scale food surpluses presumed to be necessary to sustain their large populations. This work aims to discover how surplus production was situated within the larger histories of the Calusa, and how these practices structured interactions with Europeans. This work will serve as a comparative study against examples that focus on the links between surplus, storage, social development, and the transition to agriculture and animal husbandry. Development of comparative case studies such as this one will help disengage the concepts of surplus, storage, and social relations in terms of both individual agency and collective action.