The world they inhabited was meaningfully different from the Florida of today — the sea level was several meters lower, the climate slightly cooler, the landscape organized around different water systems and vegetation patterns.

But the people themselves were fully modern human beings: biologically identical to us in every way that matters, capable of complex thought, complex social organization, complex technology.

The pond beneath which they were buried had preserved them in ways that would take years of careful excavation to fully understand.

A Cemetery Under Peat

The scale of what lay beneath Windover Pond was not immediately apparent.

The first indication of human remains came from a few bones in construction spoil.