Real Backyard History

     Imagine growing up on a thousand-year old (minimum) historic site? On the water in beautiful St. Petersburg Florida, no less?  David Anderson knows. David's family has owned the Jungle Prada Park site for decades, and it's not just a home. David gives tours of the historic site under the company name of Discover Florida Tours  ( https://discoverfloridatours.com/ ), and his parents use the site  for various activities aimed at promoting preservation through their non-profit organization, Sacred Lands ( http://www.sacredlandspreservationandeducation.org/ ).

    Jungle Prada's history goes back at least one thousand years. The name, however comes from the 1920s when an entrepreneur built the building of that name. It's kind of like a 1920s strip mall. The building housed a nightclub/restaurant and several retail shops. The building is currently an apartment building, but during the 1920s and 1930s, the Prohibition years, it was a popular hangout for locals and for major celebrities as well. Legendary musical royalty like Count Basie and Duke Ellington regularly performed there, and Babe Ruth and Al Capone were among the most famous club patrons.

    The site's history goes back much further. From 500 to 1000 years ago, it was home to a village of the Tocobaga nation. The Tocobaga were the dominant nation in the Tampa Bay area for centuries. They built villages along the coast  which featured prominent  mounds and plazas constructed of shells and sand. This village's plaza and mound are literally in the Anderson family's backyard.  The 900-year-old shell midden (Midden is an archaeological term for trash dump.) was measured at over 900′ long, 300′ wide, and 23′ tall and probably took decades to build. The mound wasn't just a trash heap though. It also was not a burial mound; no human remains have been found in the archaeological surveys done there. In this case, the mound and the plaza were used as gathering places and for ceremonies. It's also probable that some important structures (temples, homes of important people) were located on the elevated ground for protection from flooding.    

    The Tocobaga were part of the Moundbuilder culture that built villages throughout the southeast, from Florida to Ohio and Kentucky. Like other Moundbuilders, the Tocobaga likely engaged in a robust trade network, bringing them goods from as far as the Great Lakes/Midwest region and maybe even Mexico. There is a growing body of research that  support theories that the Mayans traded with Floridians or even colonized Florida.

    Prohibition hotspot and Moundbuilder village? That's a lot of history, BUT WAIT there's more! The site was also the landing site of the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition in 1528, and  the first Catholic mass in Florida, decades before the founding of St. Augustine. Unfortunately for Narvaez, his expedition was a disaster. He lost all of his ships, and only four of his men survived. Alvar Cabeza de Vaca and the three other survivors spent years trekking through North America before finally reaching the west coast of Mexico.

    There is so much history at Jungle Prada, and David  Anderson is a great storyteller, plus visitors see a lush garden populated by about 50 peafowl. I highly recommend the tour if you're in the area.

Pompeii: The Immortal City

 

    In A.D. 79, Italy's Mount Vesuvius erupted. Within 24 hours the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under tons of ash and rock, virtually untouched until 1748.  Their discovery coincided with the beginnings of archaeology as a real discipline. The hardened ash  served as a preservative, allowing archaeologists to see life and death as it occurred on that day.  Today, tourists flock to the cities to marvel at the ruins and to see archaeologists at work.

    A company called EDG has created a traveling exhibit that incorporates 80 actual artifacts, 10 model reproductions, and videos. In the last year, the exhibit has been in three cities in the United States, and the Orlando Science Center is its last planned stop, through January 24. (https://www.osc.org/pompeii/ ) 

    Visitors begin in a circular room with an immersive video presentation that replicates the disastrous day, and then they move through the exhibits which tell the story of the cities and their citizens. 

One sees decorative frescoes, various tools, medical equipment, and other items of their daily life --- even a preserved loaf of bread. The actual artifacts are supplemented by some great working models of ancient technology, like a crane, an odometer, and a model of a villa. Each model is accompanied by an animated video demonstrating how the actual machine worked.

    Of course, no Pompeii exhibit would be complete without plaster cast models of the victims, and this exhibit has two. As the ash covered the dead, the bodies deteriorated, leaving cavities which archaeologists filled with plaster. The results are eerie and moving.

    Altogether, it makes for an interesting an informative experience.