By Sarah Sell, University Communications and Marketing
A group of anthropology students is participating in new research using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate objects beneath the surface of Weedon Island Preserve.
The nature preserve along the western shore of Tampa Bay is located about eight miles north of the USF St. Petersburg campus in Pinellas County. It is considered one of the most significant archaeological sites in Florida. Every two years, students take part in an excavation field trip at Weedon Island as part of the USF course called Seminar in Method and Theory of Archaeology.
The use of GPR is part of a collaboration between John Arthur, professor of anthropology at USF St. Petersburg, and the cultural resource management company TerraXplorations.
“This is brand new research at this site,” Arthur said. “We have a group of former students who have successfully gotten jobs in cultural resource management companies and are working with me to understand how the site was formed.”
The company is using GPR technology to see if there are any subsurface features in a section of the Weedon Island site where a house floor has been discovered in the past. GPR is a noninvasive geophysical method that uses the reflection of electromagnetic energy to produce images that help archaeologists know where to dig in the future.
In the early 1900s, archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution studied Weedon Island’s mounds and recovered the remains of Native Americans, along with ancient indigenous tools and pottery. Since then, the site has been used for research and educational purposes.