The site includes shell and sand mounds and other structures and prehistoric canals and artificial lakes.

[5] The site also includes historic buildings, such as the Pineland Post Office and the Ruby Gill House.

As of 2012, 63 acres (25 ha) had been acquired by the state, and negotiations were underway to buy full ownership or conservation easements on several remaining parcels.

A series of benches, courts and enclosures extended to the south of the main site, diminishing in size.

[b] The people of Pineland during this period left linear shell middens parallel to the shore.

Several lines of middens formed as people moved back and forth in response to variations in the sea level in the Sound.

As the climate shifted into a cooler period, sometimes called the Vandal Minimum, sea levels fell to the point that Pine Island Sound no longer supported a fishery adequate to the needs of the Pineland population.

During this period a natural waterway passing between the Brown and Randell mound complexes was altered into the western end of the Pine Island Canal.

A pronounced cool spell, around 1100, briefly lowered sea levels in Pine Island Sound, and the Pineland site was apparently abandoned from before 1100 until about 1150.

The Little Ice Age began around 1200, again lowering sea levels in Pine Island Sound, but never as low as during the Vandal Minimum.