Documenting the Coontie Island Collection
Last year, we had an amazing opportunity to document collection of artifacts from Coontie Island, one of the only known Archaic Period sites in St. Augustine! The objects, largely stone projectile points and stone beads, were collected in the 1920s from the Island's eroding shoreline by a local businessman and passed down through a family in private ownership. The current descendent now lives in Helena, Montana. We were invited to visit to document the hundreds of objects in an attempt to learn more about the site and digitize the collection so it could be shared with a wider audience of researchers and the public alike. The project was sponsored in part by the St. Augustine Archaeological Association's Eugene Lyon Educational Fund and was conducted in partnership with Dr. Jon Endonino of Eastern Kentucky University.
 |
| The Coontie Island Collection! |
 |
| Working hard to learn what we can from an amazing collection! |
The project had two main goals: archaeological analysis of the artifacts and 3D digitization of a selection of the tools and beads. Dr. Jon Endonino is a lithic specialist and conducted the analysis, while Emma Dietrich and I worked on the digital part using photogrammetry to create 3D models. We selected the objects best suited for the process, which included most of the lithic tools and around 20 of the beads.
 |
| Jon analyzing and artifact. |
 |
| Our photogrammetry set up. |
We're excited to share the models from the project! You can view them all on SketchFab at this link. You can also download and print copies of the artifacts.
As for the analysis, Jon will be in St. Augustine next week to share his findings with SAAA. We're also working on an article, so stayed tuned for more details!
Text and images by Emily Jane Murray, FPAN staff