THE WEEKI WACHEE MOUND, AN EARLY CONTACT PERIOD MORTUARY LOCALITY IN HERNANDO COUNTY WEST-CENTRAL FLORIDA

The Weeki Wachee Mound (8HE12) is one of the few aboriginal mortuary localities in Florida with associated European artifacts, presumably traded from the Spaniards. The European artifacts reflect a date range of A. D. 1525-1550, placing the contact between the Native Americans interred at Weeki Wachee and the Europeans to the time of the exploratory entradas of Narvádez or de Soto. Because so few sites dating to this period with associated human skeletal remains have been excavated, Weeki Wachee offers a valuable opportunity to examine early Spanish contact with native groups north of Mexico. Comparison of skeletal and dental pathology of the Weeki Wachee skeletal series to others from the Southeast shows comparable postcranial proliferative responses but fewer dental carious lesions than in the other series during and after the Mississippian period. Treponematosis and minimal dependence on maize most likely account for these two pathology trends. Comparison of the artifacts from Weeki Wachee with those found at other early contact sites in Florida demonstrates similarity among the material assemblages of Spanish origin, although there is some variation among assemblages.