--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ZEPHYRHILLS -- In parts of ancient Florida, fossilized coral, used for spearheads to hunt game, was an indispensable commodity, sort of like crude oil is today.

Archaeologists suspect that Wesley Chapel, where suburban development continues to unearth American Indian artifacts, was a steady producer of the coral in the ancient world.

Silicified coral is created when ocean animals' cells are replaced over the eons by silica from clay. The result is a smooth flint-like stone, which, once heat-treated, is good for flaking into tools.

Recent archaeological finds in central Pasco County point to the region's economic importance among hunter-gatherers 3,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Two years ago, on the Egg Hole site at the Cannon Ranch south of State Road 52, scientists found coral fragments at what they believe was a 3,000-year-old campground.

More of the worked fossilized coral turned up as engineers probed the terrain along the proposed route for the West Zephyrhills Bypass in Wesley Chapel. The proposed new road would connect Curley Road with Eiland Boulevard.

Near the eastern edge of Cypress Swamp, work at Westwood Estates, a proposed 89-home development in Quail Hollow, yielded coral tools below the topsoil.

Sam Upchurch, a former University of South Florida geology professor who specializes in stone used by ancient Indians, said coral quarries proliferated near Boyette Road north of State Road 54. In some places, boulders of the stuff dot the ground.

"They're finding this coral left and right as development goes forward," Upchurch said. "It's very obvious the Indians worked that site very heavily."

Archaeologists with Janus Research in St. Petersburg worked the Westwood Estates site last year. Sifting the soil across 250 feet, they found scattered coral fragments, likely the remains of a workshop dating to between 5,000 and 1,200 B.C.

Many of the spear points are what archaeologists call "preforms": recognizable as tools but not yet fine-tuned to completion.

After the developer agreed not to build a home on the dig site, Janus didn't venture beyond an initial investigation.

But John Whitaker, an archaeologist on the project, suspects the site was a stop for ancient peoples on trips between the coast and the interior.

"They would camp in these areas, sometimes one night, sometimes for weeks," Whitaker said.

On a peninsula where workable stone could be scarce, particularly south of what today is Sarasota, the Wesley Chapel material might have traveled widely.

Proving that is another question: Upchurch said coral rock from Wesley Chapel is chemically interchangeble with the stuff found in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

Pasco has more than its share of archaic Indian sites. More than 100 are recorded in the county. The area's rolling hills and plentiful water-filled sinkholes seem to have attracted ancient people.

Upchurch said the latest theory is that as Florida Indians grew more territorial in the centuries before Christ, coral rock became more valuable.

Before that time, small bands could wander the state in search of flint, a rock that cleaves more easily into tools.

Boxed into their own territory, people were forced to mine locally available rock, leading them to exploit coral for the first time.

Developers must dig up artifacts

Before the Cannon Ranch golf community takes hold, builders must excavate objects left behind by the people who walked Florida long before recorded history.
By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAN ANTONIO -- The aboriginals are in the details.

When the Pasco County Commission approved the 6,700-unit Cannon Ranch golf development last month, buried in the 12-page document was a brief mention of a potentially valuable historic find dubbed the "Egg Hole" site.

Before they build, developers must excavate and record artifacts that could date back more than 3,000 years, according to the development agreement and state documents.

The Egg Hole site is a "potentially significant cultural resource" that may be eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, according to a 1986 survey by archaeologist Elizabeth Horvath.

According to Horvath's findings, recorded with the state Division of Historical Resources, researchers dug 11 test holes on 12 acres along the southern border of the 2,000-acre Cannon Ranch property.

The ranch, about a mile east of Interstate 75 on the south side of State Road 52, is approved for a combination of houses, townhouses, condominiums and shops, as well as two golf courses. In addition, the county may require developers to build two elementary schools and donate land for a fire station and a library.

The site is under contract to developers Del Webb Corp., best known for building large retirement communities under the Sun City brand.

Thompson Station Enterprises, based in Tennessee, bought the ranch from the Cannon family for $7-million and still owns it.

Thompson Station's California-based development consultants did not return a telephone call for comment Wednesday, but University of South Florida archaeology professor Robert Tykot said investigating and documenting historic sites usually doesn't hold up development.

"A lot of times we're talking about a very short time," he said. "We're not talking about months and months, unless it's a very significant site."

Development has actually helped uncover many of the archaeological finds in rural areas, he said. As long as developers are willing to give scientists time to examine the site and record the finds, historians and builders can work together, Tykot said.

Tykot said residents of the area from around 1,000 B.C. are generally classified as "Woodland Peoples." They lived in small clans in a simple society.

In her report, Horvath said tool and coral fragments found at the Egg Hole site hint of a semipermanent camp where raw materials were collected and tools were made and repaired.

The spot was probably a frequent stopover for clans moving from the coast to settlements inland, she reported. It could be valuable in showing that coastal dwellers visited inland areas more frequently than originally thought.

"It is believed that data obtained from this site can contribute to an understanding of the relationship between the uplands/lowlands/coastal environmental zones and their use by prehistoric aboriginals," Horvath reported.

The county's development order requires builders to conduct a deeper study of the site and get approval of state officials before covering it.

Horvath, who has moved to the Panhandle since her study, said Wednesday she still remembered the site after years on the job because of its rich deposit of tools and remnants. In thousands of test holes dug across the state, findings of small tool bits are common, Horvath said. To stand out, and to be a candidate for the National Register, a site must offer something more. The Egg Hole site does, she said.

According to her report, it could offer a key to understanding the migration patterns of people who walked Florida long before recorded history.

The name came from the egg-shaped hole archaeologists dug while surveying the spot, Horvath said.

"There's a ton of lone-pine and twin-palm sites out there," she said. "It gets tough to come up with new names."