Archeology

In January of 1742, while sailing around waters south of Florida in search of Spanish vessels to "sink, burn or destroy" the British Royal Navy’s HMS Tyger ran aground at Garden Key in what’s now Dry Tortugas National Park. What unfolded after the Tyger ran aground at Garden Key is a fascinating narrative that is compiled in a new paper published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology titled “Hunting HMS Tyger, 1742: Identifying a Ship-of-the-Line in Dry Tortugas National Park” co-authored by Andrew Van Slyke & Joshua Marano. To get a sense of the Tyger and its crew's story, and the archeological efforts that go into this kind of identification, we talk with the team lead for the HMS Tyger identification effort.

The IMAG History & Science Center in Fort Myers is currently displaying an exhibition titled “Tutankhamun: Return of the King,” which includes replicas of artifacts found in the tomb of Rameses VI, the 12th pharaoh of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty, also known as “the boy king.”

Florida celebrates Archaeology Month in March. This month Southwest Florida is finally recognizing some monumental discoveries that originally were revealed in early 2020, but were overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Calusa Coast events have been celebrated each weekend by the Randell Research Center in Pine Island, Koreshan State Park in Estero, Lover's Key State Park and the Mound House on Fort Myers Beach, the Marco Island Historical Society, and at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium in Fort Myers.