The National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration awarded $19,150 to Victor Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, in support of his archaeological project “Mound Key: The capital of the Calusa kingdom.” Mound Key, situated in Estero Bay on Florida’s southwest coast, is an island built up more than 2,000 years ago by the Calusa from discarded material such as shells and pottery shards.