It had been a bountiful autumn for the people who lived near Florida’s Atlantic coast more than 7,000 years ago. They had harvested prickly pears, sedge, hickory, and chestnuts in the subtropical forests that covered the land around their village. They had fished the sea, streams, and lakes with nets and bone hooks, catching catfish and sharks, and collecting shellfish. In the forests, they had hunted opossum, rabbits, and deer, fat after summer grazing. But even in this time of plenty, death was never far away. Accidents, disease, and violence…
