They buried their dead in a specific orientation, in a specific pond, with specific preparations, generation after generation.

The cemetery that the Windover excavation exposed is a record of community — of the full range of human experience from birth to death, in an Early Archaic Florida setting that has no written record and no other documented material trace of the same quality and completeness.

What the cemetery reveals about the community’s values is particularly striking.

Children were valued.

The grave goods of the youngest Windover individuals demonstrate investment, care, and specific attention to the identity of each child as an individual deserving of mortuary recognition.