THE PAGE-LADSON SITE

George M. Cole and John E. Ladson III
Aucilla Research Institute

One of the most interesting stories of the Aucilla, is that regarding the vast amount of evidence of early life that has been found in the river. An example of this is an 11,000 year old skull of a pre-historic bison found in the Wacissa River, just north of the entrance to the Slave Canal, by diver Roger Alexon. The skull was found to have a broken chert point embedded in it, clearly suggesting early human activity in the area.

Another example is the entire skeleton of a mastodon, discovered in the river in 1968 by retired U.S. Army Airforce B-29 mechanic and diver Don Serbousek. That skeleton was found in a mile-long section of the Aucilla known as Little River. With a great deal of effort, all of the bones of the skeleton were recovered over a period of three years, and reassembled. Named “Priscilla,” the 11 feet 4 inches tall at the shoulder skeleton is now on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Fla.

But the most exciting of such finds was at the Page-Ladson site, located in another section of the river that flows above ground for nearly a mile, although interestingly called “Half Mile Rise.” Perhaps the most striking portion of the river, large limestone formations are seen along the banks in some areas, replaced by dense forests in others. Passing through this segment of the Aucilla provides an almost spiritual experience, and the undulating limestone bottom has numerous depressions and sinkholes. Those depressions serve as ready traps for sediments burying organic materials and artifacts into an extremely well-preserved time capsule. Thus, it is an ideal site for archaeological research.

In 1983, articles appearing in the “Florida Anthropologist” described findings, by divers, of bones of extinct animals with butcher marks in the Half-Mile Rise. Those articles resulted in State Archaeologist James Dunbar and paleontologist David Webb of the Florida Museum of Natural History surveying that section of the river. After digging a shallow test pit at the site that former Navy Seal Buddy Page showed them bones and evidence of tool making dating back thousands of years were found. As a result, with the permission and support of the Ladson family who owned the surrounding property, a comprehensive study began. The site was appropriately named the Page-Ladson site in recognition of diver Buddy Page and the Ladson Family.

The Page-Ladson site itself can best be described as elliptical in shape, roughly 45 by 50 meters in size and situated between the “race” where the Wacissa falls into the Aucilla and the southern end of Half Mile Rise where the river re-submerges. Near the end of Pleistocene, 14,000 – 15,000 years ago, sea level was considerably lower and this section of the Aucilla was basically a long ravine interspersed with sinkholes. Such a sinkhole existed at the Page-Ladson site and served as a source of water, attracting numerous creatures, including mastodons and mammoths, making it an ideal ambush site for early hunters.

The launch of the project by Webb and Dunbar was a laborious and complicated process. Equipment and supplies had to be procured and mobilized, permits had to be obtained, safety and emergency procedures developed and everything moved to the site over the Ladson tract’s fragile road system through a swamp. Equipment included vehicles, boats, dive gear, air supply, screens, pumps, generators, tents and coring rigs in addition to many other items.

Due to the tannic stained water of Half Mile Rise, the excavation work had to be illuminated by a 1000 watt underwater light. Evacuation was accomplished by the use of a trowel and a vacuum hose powered by a water-lift pump mounted above on a floating barge which also contained a large screen. The suctioned materials were drawn up through the hose and into the screen for scrutiny by the screen operator. All artifacts uncovered were mapped and photographed in place prior to removal. As the excavation deepened, safety concerns were addressed by switching from SCUBA to a dive helmet with air supply lines and communication. In addition, instead of a vertical excavation, a stair-step pattern was used to prevent wall collapse.

It was rapidly found that the anaerobic, low acidic, peaty soils combined with the slow flow of the river had resulted in preservation far beyond the researchers’ expectations. As a result, the site yielded numerous artifacts and materials for analysis at different levels allowing accurate carbon dating. In 1993, at the Paleo level, which was conclusively dated at 14,400 years before present, a beautifully preserved mastodon tusk was found. Upon examination, it was determined that butcher marks from stone knives were evident at the base. At the same level, divers kept encountering what appeared to be a straw mat substance. It was finally concluded that the material was “digesta” (most likely the gut-track contents of the animal just before death) and analysis of that material added immensely to the investigation. By studying the pollens and food residues in the “digesta” together with the growth rings in the tusk, it was concluded that the ambushed mastodon migrated from the Flint River area of Georgia, probably following a seasonal pattern. Among the foods he consumed were round gourds providing the earliest evidence of gourds in North America.

The findings at the Page-Ladson site in 1993 by Dr. Dunbar and Dr. Webb flew in the face of what was then the currently accepted theory on the peopling of the Americas. At that time, it was accepted that the Clovis people, appearing in the western states about 13,000 years before present, were the first Americans. As a result, the evidence that humans had been in Florida over 14,000 years ago was not well received. It was argued that without a man-made artifact of the same age, the project’s findings were not validated.

Fortunately, a few years later, the findings were validated. Dr. Jessi Halligan, then a Texas A&M doctoral student, launched a new study of the Page-Ladson site in 2012. By 2014, her team had discovered a broken bifacial flint knife at the same level as the 1993 tusk. Radio carbon samples taken above and below the knife along with an adjacent wood sample provided irrefutable dates of 14,550 years before present. It proved that humans butchered or scavenged a mastodon carcass next to a Florida sinkhole over a thousand years prior to Clovis.

The studies at the Page-Ladson site have made it the oldest generally accepted archaeological evidence of humans in North America. Although there are some other sites that are believed by some to be even older, there is widespread controversy among archaeologists as to their validity. As a result, the studies have had a significant impact on our theories about where and how humans arrived in the Americas. Instead of the widely accepted theory that a band of people from Siberia marched across the Bering land bridge and into the Americas through an ice free corridor about 12,000 years ago and colonizing the new world all the way down to South America, it now appears that it did not happen that way at all. While most of the current research still points to Asia as their origin, how and when they arrived looks much more complicated. Wherever the future may lead in all this, the Aucilla River and the work accomplished at the Page-Ladson site will have played an important part of the ultimate story.