The reconstruction that emerges from these multiple lines of evidence is of a community making full use of the resources available in the central Florida interior: aquatic resources from the pond and nearby water bodies, terrestrial game, a variety of plant foods including fruits and seeds, and possibly cultivated or semi-cultivated plants like the gourds whose remains appeared in the excavation.

The diet appears to have been nutritionally adequate for the support of a robust population.

The skeletons do not show the widespread signs of nutritional deficiency that characterize some prehistoric populations in less productive environments.

The Florida interior, with its abundant water resources and its diversity of plant and animal species, supported the Windover community in ways that allowed most of its members to reach adulthood and some to reach old age.

The Second Opening — From Preservation To People