PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—A study* reports the discovery of an ancient bead-making settlement on a Florida coastal island. Ancient cities in North America, including inland Midwestern cities like Cahokia, traded in marine gastropod shells and beads. Terry E. Barbour, Ken Sassaman, and colleagues analyzed high-resolution LiDAR data collected by a drone on Raleigh Island, off the northern Gulf Coast of Florida, revealing a settlement composed of 37 rings of oyster shells. According to the authors, the high spatial resolution of LiDAR enabled the discovery of the Raleigh Island complex as well as detailed analysis of the site, which was important to pre-Columbian economies. _______________________________________________________________________________________Article Source: PNAS news release*”Rare pre-Columbian settlement on the Florida Gulf Coast revealed through high-resolution drone LiDAR,” by Terry E. Barbour et al.