Coontie Tubers and Bottle Gourds: Archaic Use in the Florida Panhandle

A Late Archaic (4210-3710 BP) occupation along a salt water bayou in the Florida panhandle left a baked clay griddle fragment similar to griddles from the Caribbean. Food residue yielded a phytolith from a bottle gourd (Lagenaria), which has an 8000 year record of use in Florida, beginning with the Windover site.  This phytolith was heat altered, suggesting using the gourd for cooking on the griddle.  A distinctive starch recovered from the food residue indicated cooking conti or coontie (Zamia) tubers, which are large (over 1 foot diameter) and contain hydrocyanic acid (cycasin, a central nervous system toxin).  Historic descriptions of processing include washing after grinding or grating to remove toxins, further suggesting ceramic graters might be present in antiquity.  Historic references suggest improper processing (intentional?) contributed to the death of at least one of DeSoto’s men and some Union soldiers in the Civil War.