Archeological evidence indicates that the shores of Tampa Bay have been inhabited for thousands of years. Artifacts suggest that early inhabitants of the region relied on the sea for most of their resources. Consequently, a vast majority of inhabited sites in the area have been found on or near the shoreline.
The dominant culture at the time of European contact were the Tocobaga, a loose confederation of chiefdoms and villages located along the central Gulf coast and in a ring around Tampa Bay, with the principal village located on the shores of Old Tampa Bay near today's Safety Harbor in Pinellas County. Each village contained a temple mound, a central plaza, and one or more middens, which were trash heaps from which most archeological information has been obtained.
Many of these mounds and middens survived for hundreds of years after their builders were gone, but most (including one at the mouth of the Hillsborough River at the site of today's downtown Tampa) were leveled as Tampa and the surrounding communities grew in the 20th Century
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