The Mark Pardo Shellworks Site is an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

site west of Bokeelia, Florida. It is located along the eastern edge of Cayo Costa Island in Cayo Costa State Park. On May 21, 1996, it was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The site has shell works, consisting of lines of shell deposits along the shore, and black dirt

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s inland from the shells. There may also be features underwater in the adjacent

black mangrove Black mangrove may refer to the plants: * ''Aegiceras corniculatum'' (Primulaceae) - south-east Asia and Australasia * ''Avicennia germinans ''Avicennia germinans'', the black mangrove, is a shrub or small tree growing up to 12 meters (39 fee ...

forest, dating to when the sea level was lower. The shell works are dominated by

lightning whelk ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is a species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It eats ...

, with some horse conchs.

Oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

, conch and lightning whelk shells are also found in the middens. The shell works and middens are attributed to the Caloosahatchee culture IIA-IV period, about 500–1500. In 1992, the NRHP Registration Sheet described the Mark Pardo Shellworks as "one of the best preserved archaeological sites in the region." Since then, however, feral hogs have seriously damaged the site.

References

External links

Lee County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places

Alachua County listings
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
** ''Note:'' ''above link is correct, but under wrong county of Alachua'' Mounds in Florida Native American history of Florida Archaeological sites in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Florida Shell middens in Florida {{LeeCountyFL-NRHP-stub