SUMMER SOLSTICE JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Join us on June 21st 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM to watch the sun set over the gulf from the Shell Mound pier in recognition of the summer solstice. Friends board member Lukas Desjardins will be providing a walking tour of Shell Mound, followed by a talk about the archaeological significance of the site and its relationship to the solstice. We will provide light refreshments and some bug spray, but participants are encouraged to bring their own bug spray to ensure they are fully covered.
During the its height of occupation around 1,500 years ago, Shell Mound was a site of regional gatherings by indigenous people on the gulf coast. Archaeologists have excavated extensive pits filled with the remnants of large feasts held during these gathering, and analysis of the juvenile white ibis bones from these pits indicates these gatherings coincided with the summer solstice. The significance of the solstice is also marked into the landscape, with the parabolic dunes on which the site was constructed aligning to the rising sun of the summer solstice. You can learn more about the site from the Shell Mound on our website and UF's Laboratory of Southeastern Archaeology.
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