I've walked an eroding midden beach site for more than 20 years before it was "fixed" and no longer collectible. It is a Manasota site. The Manasota culture was an archaeological culture that was practiced on the central Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula from about 500 BCE until about 900, when it developed into the Safety Harbor culture. It was visited by the Spanish and the British and was occupied during the 1st and 2nd Indian Wars as well as the Civil War on into the present day. I picked up every little piece of pottery, indian or not, and kept them together. Found a few pipes, some gunflints etc etc.... I'm not going to do anything with them and I never researched every little piece like I wanted to. I have a friend who works at the Weedon Island center and I took them over to the research area to donate them. They were VERY happy since archaeologists dig little holes here and there and I combed the entire site over and over for years. I just got a breakdown of some of the donation and also got this form. Apparently they are on loan per agreement. I was real happy to see the results of their analysis and to add to the history of the site and st. Petersburg. A friend of mine found six or so Spanish gunflints at this site and they were giddy to see those but my friend did not donate them...yet. Donating these gives me more satisfaction than finding them and keeping them in a box in a drawer. btw these archies totally agree that picking these up was not harmful and most helpful...even though it is, especially now, illegal to pick any artifact up on the site.
AWIARE_Curation Agreement_Tom Clark.pdf
AWIARE_Curation Agreement_Tom Clark.pdf
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