They erected monumental buildings and lived in a complex society – the mysterious Calusa ruled southern Florida for centuries. Now researchers have solved the riddle of how the Indian people could achieve such a high level of development without agriculture: Apparently, the basis of their culture was refined fishing technology. The Calusa therefore drove fish from lagoon areas into large basins of their main settlement and kept them there as a living supply. This resulted in excess food that enabled complex structures to be developed, the researchers say.
The traces of the Calusa Empire in southwest Florida can still be clearly seen today. The center of Indian culture was in Estero Bay and is known today as the “Mound Key”. Once there was a settlement that was characterized by artificial mounds, wide canals and other impressive building structures. The ruling seat was a building on a particularly high mound. Its dimensions illustrate the high level of development of the Calusa empire: According to Spanish reports from the 16th century, the building was said to have accommodated 2,000 people.
The Calusa also represented a considerable military force, as is known from tradition. They dominated their neighboring peoples and were able to withstand the pressure from the Spaniards for a comparatively long time. In this way, the Calusa culture existed until the end of the 17th century and remained largely isolated. Afterwards, it was finally completely destroyed by the increasing conflicts in the course of colonialism and by introduced diseases. Many features of their culture are therefore unknown.
A highly developed culture without agriculture?
However, it is clear that, unlike the Aztecs, Maya and Inca, agriculture was not the basis of life for Calusa. Findings have shown that they mainly ate fish. So far, however, this has puzzled archaeologists. Because it is assumed that the development of higher cultural forms requires clear food surpluses and a certain amount of stocks. Was this possible through fishing? And if so, how did people keep the fish in the warm, humid subtropics from spoiling?
The answer is now presented by a team of US scientists. As part of their study, they examined two massive rectangular building structures that are emerging at Mound Key. These are areas delimited by dams, each covering more than 3300 square meters. They flank an approximately 30 meter wide ocean road that Mound Key shares. The team now examined these structures and the surrounding areas using modern methods of site exploration and excavations.
Driven into storage basins
As the researchers report, the results of their investigation show that the rectangular structures were water-filled pools that were built from oyster shells. They had openings to the sea road, which allowed the Calusa to drive schools of fish through nets from the lagoon into the enclosures, which were then closed with a kind of gate. The living fish in the basins could then serve the Calusa as a supply for a certain time.
As the researchers emphasize, planning the structures required a thorough understanding of the daily and seasonal tides, as well as the behavior of certain fish species. Bones and dandruff remains in the sediments of the basins showed that the calusa mainly drove shoal fish such as mullets, the sea bream species Lagodon rhomboides and herrings into the basins.
Cultural basis: lush food supply
The researchers also found traces of transport routes from the basins to the elevated settlement areas. This indicates that the fish have not only been eaten fresh, but have also been dried or smoked. This presumably ensured a reliable and abundant food supply that contributed to the performance of society. Radiocarbon dating shows that the pools were built between AD 1300 and 1400. As the researchers report, this coincides with the period of the expansion of the ruling seat.
“What is special about the Calusa is that most of the other societies that achieved a comparable level of complexity and power were agricultural crops,” said co-author William Marquardt of the University of Florida at Gainesville. “But the research results over the past 35 years have shown that the Calusa have developed a politically complex society with sophisticated architecture, religion, the military, specialists, long-distance trade and social rank structures – and all without being a peasant,” says the scientist. As can now be seen, the secret of this amazing Indian culture was the clever use of fish as a resource.
Source: Florida Museum of Natural History, professional article: PNAS, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1921708117