Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter March 2019

MARCH-2019 PRESERVATION EDUCATION RESEARCH INSPIRE Dear Member: We love it when we are able to bring you ground breaking information. This month we are really excited to have Dr. Jessi Halligan of Florida State University. She has been spearheading a major dig in Florida, the Page-Ladson site on the Aucilla River where she has found artifacts that have pushed the date for human occupation in the Americas further back to at least14,000 years ago. Please join us on March 20th for this exciting presentation. Time Sifters has two vacancies on the Board. If you are interested, drop me a line or call and I will describe what the duties of a Board member are. If you have any topics or subjects you would like to hear about, please let us know because we are starting to put together ideas for next season’s lectures. We are always open for compliments and suggestions. Thank you for being a member of Time Sifters. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President [email protected] March 20, 6:00 PM Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota The Pre-Clovis Page-Ladson Site: Implications for Our Understanding of the First Americans Dr. Jessi J. Halligan, Archaeologists have been Assistant Professor of Anthropology, searching for the evidence of the earliest Americans for decades. Florida State University Clovis points, dating to ca. 13,000 years ago, have long been considered this evidence. However, recent research at the inundated Page-Ladson site in the Aucilla River of northwestern Florida has demonstrated that people were here at least a millennium earlier than that because of the site’s well preserved organic remains and stone tools. When this site is placed within the context of recent paleo environmental research, it has profound implications for when and how the first people could have arrived in the Americas.

Notes from a Time Sifter By Evelyn Mangie, Time Sifters Board Member Thin and Crusty to Thick and Cheesy! Who does not love pizza? be placed on bread (What’s Cooking It has become one of the most America). Pizza popularity spread popular dishes in America with all over the peninsula and especially to many variations such as thin and Naples where it had long been a crusty to thick and cheesy and favorite because it could be bought with toppings from pepperoni to from street vendors, eaten on the pineapple. Where did the idea for run, and it was cheap making it this wonderful treat come from? especially liked by the large working There is an amazing amount of class that could not afford meat. evidence to indicate that people There were no tomatoes on any have been enjoying “pizza” in of these pizzas because there most regions of the world at least were no tomatoes in Europe since before the Neolithic period. until the 16th century. They were Each culture created its own Watchmojo.com a Western Hemisphere domesticate called xitomatl by the Aztecs. The name for it, but the first time the their shields and put cheese and Spanish explorers brought them word “pizza” is documented is from Peru to Europe where they were from 997 in the tiny town of dates on it. Virgil (70-19 B.C.E.) gradually adopted in southern Gaeta, Italy where, in a Latin wrote in his Aeneid that Aeneas European kitchens (The Veggie document, the son of a feudal lord and his men ate the cooked vegeta- Cage). The first recorded recipe for promises to give the bishop 12 bles and the “cakes of bread” on tomato sauce comes from 1692 in a pizzas every Christmas and Easter. which the vegetables were served! cookbook by Antonio Latini of The origin of the word is disputed, Naples (Vintage Cookbook Trials). some tracing it to Lombardy This flatbread with toppings seems Tomato plants grew well in in Germanic “bizza”, (bite) while others to have been especially popular Naples and so were added to many claim it came from Greek with the people of the Italian peninsula. dishes. In 1889, to celebrate a visit “pita” (flatbread) or Latin First century Roman soldiers to Naples by Italian Queen Margherita, “pinsa” (flatbread). There are several stationed in Palestine were said to a Naples baker, Raffaele Esposito, other suggestions for the word’s have added cheese and olive oil to baked a pizza for her with green origin but no good evidence to the Jewish matzahs. From the basil leaves, white mozzarella confirm any of them. However, same time period in Pompeii, cheese and red tomatoes to copy the there is plenty of evidence for the archaeologists have found a flat colors of the Italian flag (Office of the origins of the pizza itself (S. Pozzebon, flour cake preserved in a shop that Historian). It was named Pizza Business Insider, 2/10/15). had smooth marble counter tops Margherita in her honor (New World For example, we know that people which closely resemble a modern have been making bread for at pizzeria. First century Roman A History of Pizza The beijinger Vintage Cookbook Trials least 30,000 years in nearly all regions of the world. Long before Encyclopedia). The queen loved it, ovens were created, a flour-water sent Esposito a thank you note, mixture was fried on hot stones and the green, white and red pizza to make an unleavened flatbread became the most popular pizza in (Veneti). We know that thousands of town. This is the Italian prize that is years ago, the Chinese made a the ancestor of our beloved pizza. bread and scallion “pancake” (the beijinger) and that ancient Egyptians gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius This was also the time that many had a tradition of sprinkling wrote a cookbook recommending Europeans emigrated to the U.S. seeds and spices on bread. toppings such as pine nuts, The immigrants from Naples Archaeologists in Sicily have cheese, garlic, pepper, and oil (all brought their recipes with them found tools for making flatbread, ingredients of a modern pizza) to and America’s first pizzeria was and Achaemenid King Darius opened in Manhattan in 1905 the Great (521-486 B.C.) claims by Gennaro Lombardi. It wasn’t his soldiers baked flatbread on Notes continued on page 3 ...

Notes continued from page 2 ... fried flatbread of the Neolithic immigrants who bring us wonderful long before pizza became an period. Today, three billion pizzas are new ideas to add to our eclectic American favorite. Recipes vary sold each year in the United American culture. but whatever the crust or topping, States alone (A History of Pizza). it is a direct descendant of the It is a salute to Naples and to News & Events Thursday, March 14 5:00 - 7:00 Tampa Bay Shipwrecks of the Civil War with Jeff Moates, Director of the West Central Public Archaeology Network Saturday, March 23 10:00 - 3:00 Five Centuries of Florida History Experience History — Walk through time as you explore Florida’s great history at De Soto National Memorial. Reflections of Manatee presents: Freedom Seekers at the Manatee March 30, 2019 Angola was a community of freedom seekers in the 1810s located between the Manatee River 10am-2pm and Sarasota Bay. It was a place of refuge and peace until it was destroyed in a massive slave raid in 1821. What were the events that brought the freedom seekers to the Manatee River? What happened to those who were captured, and those who escaped? View the first permanent exhibit that tells the story. Hear three lectures by researchers who helped uncover this history and designate the site as part of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. 11:00 Willard Steele: The Negro Fort- Where the Underground Railroad met the Trail of Tears 12:00 Dr. Uzi Baram: Tragedy and Survival: Archaeology and Commemoration of Freedom at the Manatee River 1:00 Shari Jackson, National Park Service, and Judith Wellman: The Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Reflections of Manatee, 1305 4th Avenue East, Bradenton, FL 34208 941-746-2035 www.reflectionsofmanatee.org Officers: Board of Directors Copyright © 2019 Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Time SiftersArchaeologySociety,Inc., Sherry Svekis, Vice President Directors: Steven Derfler All rights reserved. vacant, Secretary Robert Bopp Evelyn Mangie We send newsletters to people Laura Harrison, Treasurer Dorothy Cascio Sharon McConnell who have attended or expressed Karen Jensen, Membership Glenn Cooper interestin our lecturesand given us their email address.

Membership Speakers & Events Calendar Lifetime: $350 Unless noted, all will be held at 6:00 PM Individual: $25 Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236 Family: $35 Student: $10 March 20 The Page-Ladson Site—15,000 Year old Florida Pay online at: Dr. Jessi Halligan WWW.TimeSifters.org Or mail checks to: April 17 Time Sifters, Inc. 2018 Cornelia Futor Memorial Student Paper Winners PO Box 5283 1st and 2nd Place Winners Sarasota, FL. 34277 May 15 Manasota Key Offshore Site Dr. Ryan M. Duggins Time Sifters Archaeology Society P. O. Box 5283, Sarasota, FL 34277