TheGlades culture is anarchaeological culture in southernmostFlorida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly afterEuropean contact. Its area included theEverglades, theFlorida Keys, theAtlantic coast of Florida north through present-dayMartin County and theGulf coast north toMarco Island inCollier County. It did not include the area aroundLake Okeechobee, which was part of theBelle Glade culture.
Two, or possibly three, areas at the extremities of the cultural area are recognized as variant districts: theTen Thousand Islands district in southern coastal Collier County and northernMonroe County, the East Okeechobee district in eastern Martin andPalm Beach counties, and, with less certainty, the Florida Keys. At the time of first European contact, the Ten Thousand Islands district was part of theCalusa domain, the East Okeechobee district was occupied by theJaega tribe, and the area ofBroward andMiami-Dade counties was occupied by theTequesta tribe. The inhabitants of the Florida Keys were calledMatecumbes by theSpanish, but it is not clear how distinct they were from the Tequesta.
The Glades culture is defined almost entirely on the basis ofpottery. Much of the pottery throughout the Glades culture period was undecorated. It is identified as Glades primarily by the character of the sand and grit included in the clay used to form the pottery. Pots decorated with puncture marks and incisions appeared after 500, but were not very common. Decorated pots disappeared from the record in about 1100. Pots with a new type of incised decoration appeared about 1200 and lasted for about 200 years. Pottery attributed to theSt. Johns culture started appearing in the archeological record after that. On the basis of pottery sequences, the Glades culture period is divided into Glades I, 500 BCE to 750 CE, Glades II, 900 to 1200, and Glades III, 1200 to 1513.[1]
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