KVAHC Meeting

Crystal River Site - Culture and History

Presenting - Nigel Rudolph

Crystal River site

• Mound c-f main burial complex
• Mound f is a large mound
• Found copper breasts plates, ear spools etc. in the conical mound F
• Mound H is a rectangular platform mound with a long ramp
• Mound a is a large platform mound that used to have a long ramp
• Mound k and j small midden mound (catfish, mullet etc.)
• Midden b is three feet high
• Trading spot

C.B. MOORE

• Got hired by big museums like Smithsonian
• Rating burial mound and lagoons
• Did amazing artifact drawings (the travel of CB. Moore is a Book he wrote)
• He was called Donut Moore because he dug out artifacts and ended up with a circle of debris around him

Ridley Bullen

• Dug out of the burial mound and extensively destroyed the burial mound and discovered 200 bodies

Main Burial Complex

• Has sand from the Gulf of Mexico, four miles away
• Area E has local pottery and blankets of oyster shells that covered the people
• Area C also had local pottery
• Mound F had fancy artifacts
• 70% was rebuilt because of the destruction
• Mound C is 100 meters across (4 foot and 10 feet wide)
• Mound E is 20 meters wide
• Excavated my Moore and Bullen

Biggs Mound Kentucky

• Ceremonial center
• Same time period where crystal river was being occupied

Mound H

• 15 feet tall
• No other mound shaped like this one in the United States
• Excavated by Bullen
• Oyster shell sand to have good support for structures
• Mound H and A are across from each other and are just below the milky way and can see the it at night very clearly

Mound G

• Small
• 5 feet tall
• Made out of sand
• It was built at the same time as the burial complex
• Bullen excavated over 30 burials in the 1960

Stele at Crystal River

• A carved large chunks of rock
• Limestone
• Only stele 1 has carvings
• Sitting on a bed of cottle stones
• Excavation was done and found broken ceramics, charcoal etc.
• Deterating very quickly
• Lichen was there at first and protected items

What's next?

• New interpretive signage
• All based on imagery coming from the mural