| Timeline of Early Indigenous Cultures Along the Ichetucknee

12,000 B.C.-6500 B.C.:  Paleo-Indians inhabit North Florida including the area around Ichetucknee Springs, as indicated by stone points and tools collected from the Grassy Flats area of the Ichetucknee River. Some of these artifacts are included in collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

6500 B.C.-1000 B.C.:  The Archaic period is characterized by cultural adaptation to the modern climate and environment that followed the Pleistocene Ice Age. No Archaic sites have been identified for the Ichetucknee area.

Near 1000 B.C.:  The Orange period (near the end of the Archaic period) is represented by the first appearance of pottery; some fiber-tempered pottery has been found along the Ichetucknee River.

500 B.C.-300 A.D.:  The Deptford period is characterized by small villages occupied on a seasonal basis. Thin scatters of Deptford materials have been found along the Ichetucknee.

200 A.D.-1000+ A.D. (ending date uncertain):  The Weeden Island culture leaves a thin scatter of pottery along the Ichetucknee.

1490 A.D.:  This is the single calibrated radiocarbon date from Fig/Mission Springs.

Sources

Harley Means, private correspondence

Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier:  Archaeology at the Fig Springs Mission, Brent Richards Weisman, University Press of Florida/Florida Museum of Natural History, 1992.