The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. The people in the culture area were hunter-gatherers with some semi-permanent villages. At the time of European contact, the people of the Glades culture area included the Tequesta people, who lived along the southernmost Atlantic Coast of Florida, in the Everglades, and likely in the Florida Keys, and the Jaega people, who lived along the Atlantic Coast north of the Tequesta. The Muspa people lived on Marco Island in the northern Ten Thousand Islands, which had been part of the Glades culture area until about 1300, when Glades-style pottery and other artifacts found at the Muspa site were replaced by ones similar to those of the Caloosahatchee culture.
Geographic extent and variant districts In the first half of the 20th century archaeologists regarded all of southern Florida (south of a line from north of Port Charlotte to Fort Pierce) as a single culture area. Large excavations of archaeological sites were less common in southern Florida than in the rest of the state, especially inland from the coasts. Most of the ceramics found in southern Florida were undecorated, hampering the recognition of cultural and chronological differences. The lack of evidence of maize cultivation in South Florida also contributed to the perception that it was a single culture area, inhabited by hunter-gatherers practicing an Archaic lifestyle.
As more was learned about the archaeology of southern Florida in the 1960s and 1970s, the region was divided into three parts, Okeechobee (the Okeechobee Basin and areas to east and west of it), Calusa (the southwest coast and inland areas), and Tekesta (the rest of southern Florida, including the Florida Keys. Uncertainty about the relationship of the Calusa and Tequesta people to their namesake regions and new archaeological data led to a revision of the defined cultural areas. By late in the 20th century, southern Florida had been divided into the Caloosahatchee, Belle Glade, and Glades culture areas.
The Glades culture area is defined to include the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco Island in Collier County. The definition does not include the area around Lake Okeechobee, which was part of the Belle Glade culture. Three areas at the extremities of the cultural area are regarded as possible variant districts: the Ten Thousand Islands district in southern coastal Collier County and mainland Monroe County, the East Okeechobee district in eastern Martin and Palm Beach counties, and the Florida Keys.
Artifacts Pottery The Glades culture is defined almost entirely on the basis of pottery. Much of the pottery throughout the Glades culture period was undecorated. It is identified as Glades primarily by the character of the sand and grit included in the clay used to form the pottery. Most Glades pottery was produced by coiling. Some bowls were decorated with puncture marks and/or incisions. A late development was "tooling", in which the rims of pots were decorated by pinching (resembling the edge of a pie crust), folding, or pressing a dowel into the rim. Glades Tooled pots were otherwise undecorated carinated bowls. Most Glades pots were "open mouthed hemispherical bowl[s]".
In 1939, John Goggin described two types of pottery as indicative of the Glades culture, Glades Gritty, made of a hard paste with a quartz sand temper, and Biscayne Chalky, made of a soft paste with either no temper or a very fine fiber temper. The Biscayne Chalky ware was eventually synonymized to the St. Johns series of northern Florida. In 1944, Goggin described the Glades series, based on the Glades Gritty ware.
Pottery types of the Glades series include: Glades Plain (500 BCE – 1700 CE) is the plain form of the Glades series. It was in use throughout the extent and duration of the Glades culture. Many archaeologists do not believe that it can be reliably distinguished from plain, sand-tempered ware found elsewhere in southern Florida. Glades Red (100–1600 CE) is Glades Plain ware with red paint. Fort Drum Incised (100–1600 CE) has "a pattern of vertical or diagonal ticking on the lip, or extending from the lip onto the rim." Cane Patch Incised or Jab and Drag (500–800 CE) has meandering lines or running linked "v"s made by a "drag and jab" technique using a tool with a rough end. Fort Drum Punctuate (700–1000 CE) has two or three rows of punched holes, sometimes forming semicircles, surrounding the rim. Miami Incised (750–900 CE) has equally spaced diagonal groups of two to six parallel lines around the rims. Opa Locka Incised (750–900 CE) has vertical rows of downward-facing arcs or semicircles surrounding the rim. In some cases the arcs appear to have been made by thumbnail impressions. Dade Incised (750–1000 CE) is a rare type with three concentric upward-opening curved incised lines repeated around the rim. Plantation Pinched (1000–1150 CE) has pinch marks, ranging from a band around the rim to large areas on the sides, and in some cases, on the bottom. Glades Noded (1000(?)–1200) has one or two rows beneath the lip of embossments. The embossments were produced by pressing on the inside of the bowl to push out the clay without puncturing the wall of the bowl. Key Largo Incised (1000–1400 CE) has one or more rows of downward opening loops or arches surrounding the rim. The lips of later vessels of this type may be decorated by crimping or incised arcs. Matecumbe Incised (1200–1400 CE) has cross-hatching forming a diamond pattern. Line spacing varies from 10 to 70 millimetres. Surfside Incised (1200–1600 CE) has smoother sides than most Glades ware with one to three (commonly two) straight lines around the body of the bowl parallel to the lip. The lines were incised with a square-ended or pointed tool. This is the only type of Glades ware that had lugs and handles. Glades Tooled (1400–1750 CE) has a thickened lip modified by pressing the damp clay with a small round rod. The rest of the vessel was undecorated. There are two types of Glades Tooled ware. One type was a hemispherical bowl with the rim turned slightly inward and the lip crimped or scalloped, creating gadrooning. The second type was almost globular with a small mouth and the lip marked with grooves, notches, or gougings. Arch Creek Incised has paired incised zigzags repeated around the rim. Natural Bridge Incised has a pair of incised intertwined lines that form a guilloché surrounding the rim. Sanibel Incised (700–900) has small ticks or gashes in one or more lines, forming running "v"s resembling chevrons. Gordon's Pass Incised (700–900) has lines and ticking often resembling feathers.
Pottery of the St. Johns series, originally described in southern Florida as "Biscayne Chalky" ware, has been found in Glades culture sites. Griffin, while admitting that the presence of St. Johns ware in southern Florida presents a problem, rejects the idea that "chalky" ware was produced in the Glades culture area because there is no commonality in the decorative motifs used in the two series. It has been assumed that St. Johns ware is "chalky" because it is made with clay from the St. Johns River valley that includes fresh water sponge spicules. Bloch et al. found that muck, which is found in various locations in southern Florida, can serve as a temper that produces "chalky" ware. They conclude that St. Johns ware was produced over much of the Florida peninsula, and not just in the St. Johns valley.
Pottery types of the St. Johns series found in the Glades culture area include: St. Johns Plain (earlier called Biscayne Plain) has a smooth, chalky, soft surface. The surface is grey to buff, while the core is dark grey to black. This Ware was present in the Glades culture area from 500 BCE until 200 CE, and then again, after a 700 year absence, from 900 to 1750. St. Johns Checked Stamped (earlier called Biscayne Checked Stamp) (750–1565) has check stamping produced by pressing a carved paddle over most or all of the outside of the vessel. The pattern can consist of squares, rectangles, or diamonds. Dunns Creek Red (earlier called Biscayne Red) was St. Johns Plain ware covered with red ocher paint. St. Johns Incised (a.k.a. Belle Glade Incised) (600–1700) had incised designs derived from Orange Incised ware of the Orange period.
A Goodland series has been defined based on pottery found on Marco Island. It has a fine grit as temper and is somewhat chalky. Goodland Plain (500 BCE – 700 CE) and Goodland Red (500 BCE – 1400 CE), with red paint, have been defined as types. Belle Glade Plain ware (600–1700) has a surface that has been compacted by a tool that dragged grains of sand across the surface, leaving it scratched and pitted.
Pottery types from outside of southern Florida have been found in Glades culture sites, and are generally assumed to have been traded into the area. Leon-Jefferson and San Marcos pottery types found at Glades culture sites may be due to people who moved to the area from northern Florida after the original peoples of the Glades culture died out or left the area in the 18th century.
Based on similarities between design motifs of Glades II pottery and pottery of the Cantabria tradition in south-central Cuba, several archaeologists have raised the possibility of a pre-historic connection between Cuba and southern Florida. More recent work has established that the Cantabria pottery in question dates from the very late pre-historic and post-European contact periods, considerably later than the Glades II period. Knight and Worth also point out that the people of the Cantabria tradition practiced intensive agriculture, used specialized tools for processing root crops, and possessed typically Taino ritual gear such as Zemi figurines, none of which are known from any Glades culture site.
Shell
Most tools found in Glades culture sites are made of bone or shell. Tools made from the shells of large sea snails (Busycon, Pleuroploca, and Strombus) included picks, hammers, adzes, celts, gouges, chisels, awls, knives, scrapers, cups, and dippers. Clam shells were used as anvils.
Sea snail shells were often modified by removing the columella, the tightly coiled "pillar" running along the axis of the shell. Such modified shells have been described as dippers and bowls. Pieces of the large outer whorls of sea snail shells were fashioned into vessels described as cups, saucers, and spoons. Whole sea snail shells were fashioned into picks by grinding the lower end of the shell into a chisel-shaped point. Picks usually had holes that would take a wooden handle. Cushing found some specimens at Key Marco in 1896 that still had lashings holding a handle in place.
Whole sea snail shells were also used as hammers, with a pounding surface on the lower end. While some may have been fashioned as hammers from the start, archaeologists believe most began as picks, and then were used as hammers after the chisel-point had worn down. Some hammers appear to have been hafted, while others had much of the outer whorls cut away so that the columella could be used as a handle. Both ends of some shells had been used as pounding surfaces.
Pieces of shell were fashioned into small blades that were set in sockets in antlers. Celts and chisels were fashioned from larger pieces of shell. Celts were probably used to work wood. Small columellas were sharpened at one end and used as awls. Shells of Macrocallista nimbosa, the sunray venus clam, were used as knives or scrapers.