Key Marco's Buried Treasure: Archaeology and Adventure in the Nineteenth Century
In 1895-1896, Frank Hamilton Cushing led the Pepper-Hearst expedition to Marco Island, Florida, where he discovered one of the richest archaeological sites in North America. Miraculously preserved in the coastal muck were artifacts of the vanished Calusa Indians, the prehistoric inhabitants of southwest Florida. The resulting collections of wooden sculpture, painted masks, carved bone and shell tools and ornaments, and netting and cordate are unique; and the fine craftsmanship and fortuitous preservation in the muck, remarkable. In a companion volume to her well-received book on the artifacts, The Material Culture of Key Marco, Florida, Marion Gilliland uses diaries, letters, and other firsthand sources to present an authoritative account of the expedition and the now-famous site. Using some reports never before published, Gilliland confronts the controversies that have lingered over Cushing and the site for nearly a century. She brings new evidence to bear on charges of artifact fabrication leveled against Cushing and fills gaps in the incomplete record of the artifacts. Gilliland's new book is primarily the story of Cushing, Wells M. Sawyer (fifteen of whose paintings are reproduced in color to illustrate the scenery and some of the artifacts), and William D. Collier, pioneer of southwest Florida. 150 pp. 6 X 9. Illustrations, map, bibliography, index 0-8130-0884-0 $39.95 (cloth)
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"Marion Gilliland's second volume on the Key Marco site carefully chronicles the amazing discoveries at this challenging site made by Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896. It is still one of the most significant excavations in American archaeology, by surely one of its most controversial figures. This interesting study details both the exciting events of the dig and the sordid cries of fraud that followed. Was Cushing a flawed genius or a bamboozling faker? It is a question that the reader must decide." -Stephen Williams, Peabody Professor of American Archaeology, Harvard University
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