FIRST PEOPLE ON FIRST COAST

(Source of picture:  From the wonderful website, Florida Frontier Gazette.  Used with permission.)

An ancient Floridian had to be quite handy with an Atlatl.  This man uses one while protecting his family against a mastodon.  An Atlatl was stick that could be thrown by snapping a sling on its end.  The weapon also been utilized by other people, such as Eskimos and Australian Bushmen.

FIRST PEOPLE ON THE FIRST COAST -- If suddenly dropped into it, we often wouldn't recognize ancient Florida.  A very different place greeted the earliest pioneers on the First Coast.  When they arrived around 12,000 to 16,000 years ago, they had more room for settlement.  At what became Jacksonville Beach, the ocean washed up on a shore that was one mile farther to the east.  Indeed, the entire peninsular was more spread out, with the Gulf Coast extending another 60 to 75 miles. 

Florida's inhabitants also lived in a climate cooler & dryer than it is now.  They saw fewer lakes, rivers, & streams.  Much of the terrain was covered with grass prairies, dotted with forests of oak, hickory, & beech.  A great deal of the world's water was still locked in glaciers, so the oceans -- and the ground water levels -- sat lower.  The last Ice Age was just ending when the first Floridians came.  Nowadays, glaciers cover only about 1/3 of the earth's surface that they used to. 

ROOTS -- Where did the first Floridians ultimately originate?  They could trace their roots back to Asia.  About 50,000 years ago, hunters crossed a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska while stalking animals like mammoths & mastodons.  The hunters & their families eventually spread throughout North America, including Florida.

STONE AGE LIFE -- The earliest Floridians came as small groups of hunters.  These nomads may've first entered Florida as they stalked prey.  However, they only rarely sought big game as food.  Their diet usually consisted of small animals, plants, nuts, & shellfish.  A good neighborhood for them was a place with a dependable supply of water, firewood, & stone resources for tool making.  These early Floridians may or may not have been ancestors of the Timucua, the Indians who later lived in the North Florida.

MORE ABOUT EARLY LIFE -- Groups of ancient Floridians were small, probably numbering no more than 50 or so people.  Most likely, each group consisted of several extended families.  The odds are that these early Indians didn't live in isolation from each other.  Once or twice each year, individual groups probably met to mingle, feast, & exchange mates.

Within the groups, there may've been a division of labor between the sexes.  The men may have performed most of the hunting & heavy woodworking, while the women gathered plants for food, cooked meals, tended children, prepared hides for clothing, and wove baskets & mats.