Research in Lake George was begun by CO-OP President, David Thulman in 2009 and reported in 2010 The field research was funded by an anonymous supporter. The project research design was to identify high-probability submerged locales in Lake George that could contain Paleoindian sites and to survey for and study new sites.
The 2009 field work included diver survey and collections in and around the Lake George Point site (8PU1470, Thulman 2012).
In 2017, with funding from Florida Division of Historical Resources and remote sensing equipment from SEARCH, Inc., Thulman and colleagues remotely sensed with sub-bottom profiler and side scan sonar to reconstruct the late Pleistocene paleolandscape (low water) features of the lake bed. Two locales offshore of Late Archaic and Woodland aged sites (Salt Creek and Silver Glen Springs) to see if there were potentials for earlier sites because lake levels were lower then.
in 2019 Thulman received a second FDHR grand to conduct additional remote sensing (GPR) and coring of features identified in 2017 sub-bottom data. However, Covid precluded GPR survey and set back the coring operations. Thulman (2020) describes the results of that research.
BACKGROUND
Several fluted points have been recovered from Lake George, and at least one large Suwannee-age base camp has been identified (8PU1470). Based on information from local collectors, the site has produced more than 40 Suwannee-type points and broken bases, other Paleoindian chipped stone tools, and fossils of extinct fauna.
Thulman, David K. (2012). Paleoindian Occupations along the St. Johns River, Florida. The Florida Anthropologist 65:79-86.in
UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY
Underwater archaeology presents challenges that are not encountered in traditional terrestrial archaeology, but the potential rewards, including significant organic preservation, make the expense worthwhile. Submerged sites in Florida, such as Windover, Page-Ladson, and Warm Mineral Springs, have produced 7,000-10,000 year-old organic artifacts that would never have survived more than a few decades in the harsh terrestrial conditions in Florida if they had not been submerged.
