to 6,800 years ago, Bay West (in Collier County) 5,940 to 6,840 years ago, and Republic Grove (in Hardee County) 5,690 to 6,470 years ago. A site currently below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near Venice, Florida, the Manasota Key Offshore site, was discovered in 2016. It has multiple burials in multiple areas. The burial site was a freshwater peat pond when the burials occurred 7,200 years ago. At Windover, stakes were driven into the peat through fabrics wrapped around the bodies. Similar stakes were found associated with burials at Bay West, Republic Grove, and Manasota Key Offshore. The stakes may have been used to help hold the bodies underwater. There were also burials (although not in peat) in the sinkhole at Warm Mineral Springs, dating as much as 12,000 years ago. Robin Brown notes in connection with these underwater burials that many Native American groups have a tradition that spirits of the dead are blocked by water. As recently as 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, bundled, defleshed bones were stored on a wooden platform set in the middle of a pond at Fort Center. Significance Windover Pond is one of a number of sites in Florida excavated since 1970 that have led to a major reassessment of the Archaic period in Florida. Jerald T. Milanich states that Windover has provided "unprecedented and dramatic" information about the early Archaic people in Florida, and that the Windover site may be "one of the most significant archaeological sites ever excavated." The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 in recognition of this significance. References Bibliography Further reading Tuross, Noreen, et al. "Subsistence in the Florida Archaic: The Stable-Isotope and Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Windover Site". American Antiquity 59.2 (1994): 288–303. Wentz, Rachel. "Life and Death at Windover:Excavations of a 7,000 Year-Old Pond Cemetery". 2012. External links Brevard County listings at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs Windover Archeological Site at National Historic Landmarks Program America's Bog People Windover Burial Site at A History of Central Florida Podcast Archaic period in North America Archaeological sites in Florida National Historic Landmarks in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Brevard County, Florida Prehistoric burials Underwater archaeological sites