ABSTRACT
The Florida Keys are a unique environmental location that supported coastal cultures long before the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century. According to first hand descriptions from the Spanish colonial period, at contact the inhabitants of the Keys were organized as a distinct group who traded and shared cultural features with the Calusa of southwestern Florida and the Tequesta of the Miami area. Scant archaeological investigation has been conducted in the Florida Keys despite rapid development during the twentieth century which destroyed many archaeological sites; neither have the Keys been integrated into models of regional Caribbean interaction. Little previous research has established the resource base or subsistence patterns of prehistoric Keys inhabitants, and models often assume a resource strategy parallel to that of the Calusa. Utilizing new data from isotopic analyses of extensive faunal and marine shell artifacts and ecofacts from two sites in the Florida Keys, this chapter will explore the nature of Keys subsistence practices in relation to better documented circum-Caribbean and Calusa evidence. We suggest our data best fit within a model of social complexity based on persistent foraging that included aspects of environmental management and soil modification. We evaluate this pattern against other models of incipient agriculture in the Caribbean.
