Archaeology at Mound House
Archaeological deposits at the Mound House – also known as the Estero Island Site – date back over 2,000 years. Numerous radiocarbon dates from across the mound layers indicate that people moved to Fort Myers Beach and began living at Mound House around 100 B.C. while the majority of elevated mound areas were constructed between A.D. 300 and 600. As a large village site, the archaeological deposits at Mound House contain abundant evidence of Calusa lifeways including the features such as ash pits and postmolds, and objects used in their daily lives including pottery, shell and bone tools, and ornamental items.
Years of excavation at local mound sites has revealed that these sculpted masses of shell, bone, and earth are not just ancient refuse piles that formed from the gradual accumulation of garbage. Instead, research indicates that they were built in stages and grew as a result of episodic mound building events. Alternating layers of predominantly shell capped with earth represent building episodes. These layers called strata enable archaeologists to determine the timing of building events and how the shape and size of the mound changed through time, while the contents of the layers allow us to reconstruct activities and behaviors that occurred at a particular time.
The shell layers are the building blocks of the mound. One might expect that the materials in the shell layers would become progressively older with depth but this is not always the case! Sometimes the age sequence of the layers is inverted so that old materials rest on top of younger ones. The Calusa recycled and borrowed shell materials from previous deposits when constructing some mounds.
A unique archaeological exhibit will soon open in the location of a
1950s in-ground swimming pool near the historic William H. Case house.
The pool cavity has been transformed into a room within the shell mound
where visitors will have the opportunity to view the sites 2,000 year
history through the layers in the mound that constitute the room walls!
The excavations that created this unique exhibit and all field and laboratory
research at Mound House has been conducted as public outreach efforts.
To date, over 200 volunteers have assisted in the archaeological research
at Mound House.
