The reward for that difficulty was material that no other excavation in the Western Hemisphere had produced in comparable quantity: an organic archive of Early Archaic life in Florida that included things that should not have survived at all.

One Hundred Sixty-Eight People

The 168 individuals recovered from Windover Pond represent one of the largest and most demographically complete samples of Early Archaic human remains from anywhere in the Americas.

The demographic breakdown tells its own story.

Among the recovered individuals: approximately 37 infants and very young children.

Roughly 70 children and adolescents of various ages.

About 61 adults.

The proportion of young individuals is high — higher than in modern populations with access to modern medicine — but not surprising for a prehistoric community where infant and childhood mortality would have been substantially elevated compared to the present.