Manasota Key Offshore facts for kids

The Manasota Key Offshore site is an amazing underwater place in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southwest coast of Florida. It's about 21 feet (6.4 meters) under the water! This special spot holds the remains of many ancient people. They were buried there about 7,200 years ago in what was then a freshwater pond.

Back then, this pond was actually about 9 feet (2.7 meters) above sea level. Over thousands of years, the ocean levels slowly rose. This caused the pond and the burials to become covered by the Gulf of Mexico. The site is quite close to the shore, about 0.25 miles (0.40 kilometers) from Manasota Key, near the city of Venice, Florida.

Discovering an Ancient Underwater Cemetery

The Manasota Key Offshore site was first found in 2016. A person looking for fossils discovered what looked like human bones and reported it. This led archaeologists to investigate the area.

How Archaeologists Explore Underwater

To study the site without disturbing it, archaeologists used special tools. These tools helped them "see" what was hidden beneath the seafloor.

• Magnetometry uses magnetic fields to find buried objects.
• Sub-bottom profiling sends sound waves into the seafloor to create images of layers below.
• Side-scan sonar creates detailed pictures of the seafloor using sound.

Using these methods, the researchers found many burials grouped together. The ancient people were buried in a layer of peat. Peat is a type of soil made from decayed plants, often found at the bottom of ponds.

What They Found

Archaeologists discovered wooden stakes near the burials. These stakes were also very old, dating back 7,200 years. The peat layer was very important because it helped keep the bones and wooden stakes safe for thousands of years. This means the site is incredibly well-preserved, even after being underwater for nearly 7,000 years!

A Glimpse into the Archaic Period

The wooden stakes found at the site were tested using a method called Radiocarbon dating. This test showed they were about 7,200 years old. This time period is known as the early Archaic period in Florida.

The burials at Manasota Key Offshore are similar to other ancient sites from the early Archaic period in Florida. These include places like the Windover Archeological Site and Little Salt Spring. These sites help us learn about how people lived and buried their dead long, long ago.