A Geospatial Analysis of Pre-Columbian Florida Log Boats

Abstract

Log boats or dugout canoes are the earliest known watercraft in the global archaeological record. In pre-Columbian Florida, dugout canoes were used as early as 6,000 years ago. To date, more than 400 log boats have been recorded from archaeological contexts in Florida. Despite their antiquity and clear importance to indigenous populations, variation in their morphology is not well understood. Established typologies of log boat morphology in pre-Columbian Florida are examined here through geo-statistical analyses. Grouping and cluster analyses were implemented within ESRI ArcGIS in order to build a better understanding of variation in log boat size, form, and location of use. Potential relations were created using available characteristics of individual log boat finds and tested using cluster and outlier analyses. Though some correlations were found, characteristic data remains too incomplete for further interpretation.