Douglass Beach Site

The Douglass Beach Site is a marine inundated archaeological site on the eastern side of southern Florida. The site has two components; a cultural formation and a natural formation. The cultural formation aspect of the site is an 18th-century Spanish shipwreck, created when the 1715 century Spanish Plate Fleet ran aground near shore. Famed for their transport of gold and silver from the New World to Spain, the Spanish Plate Fleet site has been a destination for salvagers since the early 1960s. An archaic terrestrial site lies under the remains of the Spanish Plate Fleet and makes up the site's natural formation. Fossils of megafauna from the Pleistocene era have been uncovered here as well as some Native American artifacts. The terrestrial site's formation is believed to have been caused by years of sediment deposition and the slow accumulation of faunal remains caused by barrier island formation. The duality of this site makes it unique and an area of intrigue for archaeologists interested in exploring the factors influencing marine-inundated site preservation and the processes responsible marine-site formation.