Ancient boats surface as Florida Lake dries
Submitted by bat400 on Saturday, 12 January 2008 Page Views: 1825
EnvironmentFrom a distance, the brown object near the bank of Lake Trafford looks like a log, or maybe a big alligator. Close up, though, it becomes identifiable as a large section of a dugout canoe, possibly more than 1,000 years old.As lake levels have dropped during the ongoing drought, normally submerged areas have become dry. Ten canoes, long buried in the sand, have been exposed. “They started showing up a couple of months ago, but I wanted to verify what they were,” said Ski Olesky, owner of the Lake Trafford Marina. “That’s why I didn’t say anything. Now, the water is coming back up, and pretty soon, you won’t be able to see them.”
Archaeologist George Provenzali of Janus Research in Tampa was called in to measure the canoes and take samples for radiocarbon dating to decipher their age and to determine what kind of trees they’re from. The largest canoe fragment was almost 14 feet long; some seem to be cypress, others pine. Radiocarbon dating should be complete within two months, Provenzali said. “The dates will probably vary, and until we get the data back, we can’t say much,” Provenzali said. “But the dugouts are very old. Those things are amazing: You take a sample, and it looks like the trees were cut yesterday.”
Dredging activity at the lake and natural wave action have uncovered the canoes.
In the spring and summer of 2000, a drought in north-central Florida lowered water levels in Newnan’s Lake east of Gainesville, and archaeologists discovered 87 500- to 5,000-year-old canoes. Florida’s oldest canoes, discovered at DeLeon Springs in Volusia County, are 6,000 years old.
For more see, the article by Kevin Lollar at News from Indian Country. The location of Lake Trafford.
Note: Ten pre-contact dugout canoes appear during drought.
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