Faculty researchers and archaeology students conducting a recent archaeological survey on the University of West Florida's Pensacola campus have discovered artifacts tied to multiple pre-Columbian Native American cultures.
The survey is required as part of the university's preparation for infrastructure improvements related to the construction of a new football stadium.
"Any ground-disturbing projects on state-owned land need to be reviewed by both the Environmental Protection (Agency) office as well as the Division of Historical Resources," said Ramey Gougeon, director of the UWF Archaeology Institute. "When DHR did their review of the infrastructure development related to the new football stadium, they determined that we needed to do an archaeological survey before that construction started."
After receiving a research permit from the state and starting the survey at the beginning of March, Gougeon said his team found that a part of the stadium development is sitting on a known (prehistoric) archaeological site that was first documented in 1989.
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