Sarasota

These examples were part of the Lloyd Schroder collection

The Sarasota point was named by Ripley P. Bullen for Sarasota County, Florida where one of its type sites is located. Bullen’s report centered around his own research at the Terra Ceia site in Manatee County and the Sarasota County mound in Englewood, Florida (Bullen 1951).

The Sarasota is a medium to large size point measuring from 1.5 to 4.5 inches in length. The blade is developed with random flaking and slightly excurvate blade edges that meet at an acute distal and. The blade appears long and slender, being 2 to 3 times as long as its maximum shoulder with. The shoulders are angular and meet the base tang at right angles or a slight curve, sometimes forming a slight barb. The base is typically narrow and expands to about two thirds of the shoulder width. The basal corners are sharp in contrast to the rounded basal corners of the Broward point. The basal edge may be flat, concave or convex.

One of the earliest affiliations for the Sarasota point is its occurrence at the Republic Grows site in Hardy County, Florida, where the presence of Belle Glade ceramics date the site to between 1000 BC and A.D. 200 (Wharton 1981). An early Woodland Association was also reported by Ripley Bullen (1968) in a Perco Island (Manasota) site in Hillsboro County, Florida. A middle Woodland Swift Creek association is represented by their recovery at the Dent Mound in Duval County (Ashley 1995) and a St. Johns association with their recovery at Tick Island. Their use at the McKinsey mound at Lake Weir in central Florida, dating to the Weeden Island II periods between A.D. 800 and 1200, may indicate the terminal point of their use (Cedars 1959).

Sarasota points are associated with cultures from Bell blades to Weeden Island II. They were widely used from Northwest Florida, Eastern Florida and as far South as the Lake Okeechobee area.