And it resulted, entirely without intention, in the extraordinary preservation of the biological and cultural record that the excavation eventually recovered.

The Windover community was not trying to preserve its dead for the benefit of future archaeologists.

They were doing what they believed should be done for their dead.

The conditions of the pond did the rest.

What Windover Changed About The Archaeology Of The Archaic

Before Windover, the standard picture of Early Archaic people in the eastern United States was one of relatively simple, materially sparse communities.

The archaeological record of the period, dominated by stone tools and essentially nothing organic, suggested communities that were mobile, flexible, and technologically basic — people who left few material traces because they had few material things.