Posted on 11/03/2003 4:11:59 PM PST by blam
Seed Study Breathes Life In Old Remains
By JIM TUNSTALL jtunstall@tampatrib.com
Published: Nov 3, 2003
TITUSVILLE - She was in her 40s and had bone cancer.
She lived 7,300 years ago near what is now Kennedy Space Center.
And her last meal was a tea made from elderberries and other fruit. That's why anthropologists call her ``The Elderberry Woman.''
When her skeletal remains were found in the mid-1980s, there were 3,200 seeds in the mud beneath her lower abdominal cavity, where her stomach would have been.
The woman's bones and the seeds were remarkably well- preserved because she and other members of her ancient tribe were buried in a peat bog, which refused to allow decomposition to do all its dirty work.
It also allowed Lee Ann Newsom, a Penn State paleoethnobotanist, to pull a supersleuth maneuver.
Based on the number of seeds found, Newsom determined that shortly before death the woman consumed 550 elderberries, 40 grapes, a prickly pear cactus and a black nightshade.
But they weren't eaten.
``Only nine of the seeds were cracked or broken,'' said Newsom, who grew up in Jacksonville, then studied and worked for a number of years at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
More likely, the meal was a medicinal tea.
``She had extensive bone cancer and probably was in a lot of pain,'' said Newsom, 46.
``In that quantity, [the tea] could have been toxic. Maybe it was euthanasia.''
Newsom's field combines anthropology, archaeology, botany, ecology, forensics and wood anatomy.
Or, if you prefer, she's an expert in ancient plant remains, among other things.
``It's a very small field,'' she added with a laugh. ``I look at ancient landscapes and try to learn how people used them.''
Small as the field is, her work in it is important enough to have earned her a 2002 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, also known as a genius grant, which provided $500,000 over five years.
That came, in part, as a result of her work near Titusville.
Ancient Cemetery Unearthed
The Elderberry Woman's remains were found at the Windover Archaeological Site.
It was a burial ground that her Paleo-Indian (should say paleo-American) tribe used as early as 8,000 years ago.
In 1982, a backhoe operator scooping out a pond for a housing development uncovered human bones.
Soon, archaeologists at Florida State University were called, and the Florida Legislature in 1984 appropriated more than $800,000 to study the site, said Glen Doran, the FSU anthropology professor who was in charge of the site until digging stopped in late 1986.
``It has an incredible collection of bones, antler and wooden tools that were preserved because it is wet,'' Doran said.
``It was a formal cemetery, one of the largest, if not the largest, found in North America from that time. We found 169 individuals there, as well as an absolutely astonishing collection of sophisticated, hand-woven fabric.''(Some as fine as modern day T-shirts)
Remarkable as it sounds, 91 of the skulls recovered had brain tissue inside.
``If it were oxygenated water, you would have much more decomposition,'' Newsom said. ``If it's still and [the remains are] in muddy sediment, the normal agents of decay and the insects are not there.''
Rather than decomposing, The Elderberry Woman's stomach melted away, but many of the contents remained.
The pond where she was found was about 4 feet deep.
`Window To The Past'
Newsom worked the site during the last year of the dig.
``Out of all the projects on which I work, the Florida wet sites are the most interesting and revealing,'' she said.
``These were hunter-gatherers, not brutish people. They cared enough about their people to bury them with respect.''
Some of her beginning students recoil at the discoveries made at such sites.
``But you have to step back and see that woman as a person,'' Newsom tells them. ``You have to wonder if the child buried nearby was hers. It's a wonderful window to the past.''
Newsom is using the MacArthur grant to help her students.
She is also continuing her travels through the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean, looking through similar windows.
One, in Puerto Rico, involved a woman who died in childbirth.
``You can visualize that woman and her baby,'' Newsom said. ``It becomes very personal.''
She also searches for pieces of the past in other parts of Florida.
``I'm working on mastodon dung - you know, poop - in the Aucilla River in Jefferson County,'' she said.
``We're connecting ancient Paleo Indians to the site. We've found butchered bones, ivory spear handles and a giant bison skull with a projectile sticking out of it.
``It's fascinating work.''
Tribune researcher Marianne Hoeppner contributed to this report. Reporter Jim Tunstall can be reached at (352) 628-5558.
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And those would be.....
I'm working on mastodon dung - you know, poop
Thanks for clarifying that!
Fascinating, but I need to know more! I'll check out the site. Thanks for the article!
I'm envisioning a hammer and chisel.....
Maybe it was murder
Maybe it was drugs from Canada
Maybe it was an FDA approved abortion potion
Maybe it's love potion number 9
How many 'maybes' can we come up with? And why insinuate our cultural beliefs into a culture 8,000 years old?
"The nightshade plants cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract and can also affect the central nervous system. Signs can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, incoordination, weakness, depression, apparent hallucinations, convulsions, and possible death."
Unlikely as castor beans would have been readily available to quickly put someone down.
Maybe we ought not count the 'maybes.'
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