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On May 19, 2000, while Terry Simpson, an archaeologist from Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society, was visiting a test dig at Blueberry Site, (8Hg678) in Highlands County, Florida, KVAHC members Chris Christiansen and Rod Phelps uncovered another significant archaeological find. It was found about two feet deep in unit D2.
The teardrop shaped object, which measures about 1 1/4-by-2 1/2 inches, has the appearance of a pendant, complete with a groove around the narrow end that might have been used for securing it with a strip of leather or other material.
Similarly shaped artifacts are classified by archaeologists as "plummets" or "plummet-pendants" or even "charm stones." The term plummet is used because objects of similar size and weight were used by Indians as fishing sinkers; however, the craftsmanship on some of them leads their discoverers to believe that certain pendants played a prominent role in Indian societies, denoting artistry, status and power.
"I feel it was used as a charm," KVAHC's president, Anne Reynolds, suggested, "or a pendant of power." It resembles the upper mandible of a duck's bill; a shovel-nosed duck. The Indians believed there were three worlds: the land, the sky or air and the water. The duck was seen as going into all three. And the way the shovel-nosed duck holds its bill in the water led the Indians to believe the fowl talked to the underworld."
Reynolds indicated objects similar to the one found were often considered so potent that they were kept buried, to be dug up only when needed; perhaps for a ritualistic ceremony to heal someone who was ill.
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