NORTHEAST FLORIDA 1000 YEARS AGO
One thousand years ago, life in Northeast Florida was vastly different from today. Communities of fisher-hunter-gatherers made their homes along the banks of the St. Johns River and islands to the north. They built villages and buried their dead in cemeteries constructed of mounded sand. They collected bounties of food and raw materials from the river, estuary, tidal marshes, and maritime forests. They kept no written records but preserved their rich cultures and histories by passing information down through the generations. Indigenous peoples also practiced (and continue to practice) elaborate ceremonies to guide their futures and keep knowledge of their past alive.
THE MISSISSIPPIAN WORLD
By 1000 C.E. (Common Era), the ancient world of local Natives extended beyond Northeast Florida. Indigenous communities linked to widespread communication networks, connecting themselves to other Native cultures throughout Southeastern and Midwestern North America. Beyond Florida were villages of maize (corn) farmers who built politically complex societies with large mound centers and participated in long-distance interactions. Archaeologists today call these farming people Mississippian and designate the area in which they lived as the Mississippian world. Although not farmers at this time, Indigenous people along the St. Johns engaged directly with those of the Mississippian world through intermarriage, exchange, diplomacy, questing, and pilgrimage.
MILL COVE COMPLEX
Located in present-day Jacksonville, the Mill Cove Complex was one of the most impressive Native American communities in Florida. Situated on high bluffs overlooking the St. Johns River, the complex included two large earthen monuments. In these community cemeteries, the dead were laid to rest with potent objects and exotic materials from far-flung areas of the Mississippian world. Mill Cove’s residents hosted periodic social gatherings and ceremonial rituals that sometimes involved foreign guests. It was a powerful place, connecting locals to revered ancestors and to people from other places.
A TIME OF CHANGE
By the mid-thirteenth century, the Mill Cove Complex was abandoned. Some people stayed while others left. Changes in pottery and other aspects of culture suggest the arrival of new groups from southeastern Georgia, who merged with locals. Over the next two centuries, long-distance contacts with the Mississippian world faded as interactions became more localized.
