What Windover Cannot Tell Us — And Why Honesty About This Matters

The extraordinary preservation at Windover has sometimes led to claims that overstate what the site reveals.

It is important to be clear about what the site can and cannot tell us.

Windover cannot tell us what language the community spoke.

Language leaves no physical trace in the archaeological record, and no amount of bone analysis, tissue preservation, or ancient DNA can reconstruct the language of a people who lived 8,000 years ago and have no documented descendants.

Windover cannot tell us what the community called themselves.