Tick Island DeLeon Springs Lake Woodruff Florida north of Orlando and northwest of Windover Archaeological Site marks Stars at the Circlet of Pisces

The Shell and Sand Mounds of Tick Island, Volusia County, are located on the western shore of Lake Woodruff, near DeLeon Springs, Florida, not far from Daytona Beach, ca. 40 miles north of Orlando, Florida and about 80 miles northwest of Windover Archeological Site.

Although we early identified the location of stars as represented by Tick Island as being at or near the Circlet of Pisces, the decipherment of this site was unclear until we found the 1960 map by Francis F. Bushnell of Tick Island as reported by Ripley P. Bullen in "Francis F. Bushnell at Tick Island: A Résumé" in Otto L. Jahn and Ripley P. Bullen, The Tick Island Site, St. Johns River, Florida, The Florida Anthropologist, Volume 31, Number 4, Part 2, December, 1978, http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00027829/00071. That resolved the matter.

It is ironic that the archaic Windover Archaeological Site, 7000 to 8000 years old, and perhaps showing skeletons having European DNA ancestry, as located in Brevard County, near Titusville, Florida, is only about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the modern rocket and space center Cape Canaveral, located in an area named "the Space Coast", whence the "Daily" name below.

The Space Coast Daily, December 28, 2014, reports that "Windover Pond archaeological site" was purchased in 2013 by The Archaeological Conservancy, "the only national non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring and preserving the best of our nation’s remaining archaeological sites."

The Space Coast Daily writes further:

"Windover Pond – named after the development — is the site of one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in North America, an underwater cemetery created by ancient people about 8,000 years ago."

The Brevard Museum, "the official exhibitor of the Windover story," writes:

"Among the tools of daily life that have been recovered are split conch shells for dipping water, bone awls used as needles, weaving tools, a wooden mortar and pestle used to crush and mix food, shark teeth used for wood carving, and mussel shells used for scraping. Chert spear points indicate trade, since the nearest deposits of this substance was in the Tampa Bay area."

This reminds of Terra Ceia Island and Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site Mounds and Earthworks Between St. Petersburg and Bradenton Florida Represent Stars in Cetus as Mortar Pestle Dough & Bakers Peel. Take a look.

As written about the finds at Windover at the Wikipedia:

"The collection of human skeletal remains and artifacts recovered from Windover Pond represent among the largest finds of each type from the Archaic Period." [emphasis added]

See especially The Windover Archaeological Research Project, which writes:

"Radiocarbon dating over the three seasons of excavation indicated ages ranging from 6,990 years to 8,120 years, plus or minus 70 years....

The fabric used to wrap the dead is the oldest flexible fabric ever found in this part of the world. The "yarn" was made with fibers from native plants--probably palmetto or queen palm--using at least seven different complex weaves that required the use of some type of loom." [emphasis added]

This would then also be a good time to review Flinders Petrie and the Shelton Mound Wall and Boulder Complex Groups 1 2 3 Together as a Weaver & Vertical Warp-Weighted Backstrap-Type Loom. Check out that loom.

Taking now a look at the Tick Island Shell and Sand Mounds and Earthworks near De Leon Springs, Florida, these are by distance so close to Windover that they could easily be seen as "related" in origin, especially given what Morgan has written about Tick Island and Ripley Bullen (William N. Morgan, Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America, Ripley P. Bullen Series, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL, 1999, p. 45, see also http://www.upf.com/.):

"Shortly after completing his fieldwork, Bullen died. He did not know that some of the materials associated with the burials he had recovered from the south mound would yield radiocarbon dates in the range of 3500 to 3450 B.C."

Otto L. Jahn and Ripley P. Bullen, The Tick Island Site, St. Johns River, Florida, The Florida Anthropologist, Volume 31, Number 4, Part 2, December 1978, have written, in fact:

"[T]he corrected calendrical dates for the Tick Island radiocarbon dates are roughly 4160 B.C. to 4375 B.C."

Our initial decipherment efforts regarding the Tick Island earthworks were based on the only map reconstruction of the site that we could find then, as found on page 44 in William N. Morgan, Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America, Ripley P. Bullen Series, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL, 1999, http://www.upf.com/.

Based on Morgan's reconstruction, we thought Tick Island marked the Circlet of Pisces. There was good reason for this. As John Scalzi writes in The Rough Guide to the Universe at page 334:

"The most notable sight in Pisces is the Circlet, an asterism composed of seven stars laid out in a rough circle. 19X Piscium (also known as TX Piscium) is one these; it is also a variable star that fluctuates by nearly half a magnitude at irregular intervals. Pisces is home to a number of double and multiple stars, including Alrescha, Zeta Piscium, and Psi Piscium...."

However, it was by no means clear which stars at or near the Circlet of Pisces were represented at Tick Island since only one mound was shown by Morgan's reconstruction. That was cleared up by Bushnell's map, which shows multiple mounds that settle the matter of identification of the most important stars, though one can argue about the stars represented at the bottom left.

Here is the decipherment both the initial decipherment effort left and the final decipherment to the right, showing that this decipherment business is not cut and dried and very difficult if there are not enough mounds available for cross-checking purposes. Click the image to enlarge it:

If the main mounds marked the Winter Solstice point then the entire complex could date to somewhere in the middle of the fifth millennium B.C.

THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 76 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America

Tick Island DeLeon Springs Lake Woodruff Florida north of Orlando and northwest of Windover Archaeological Site marks Stars at the Circlet of Pisces