Spanish Colonial Archaeology

Mission establishments in Alta California and elsewhere were home to complex, pluralistic communities in which native peoples actively but differentially negotiated aspects of colonialism through daily practice and the reinterpretation of identity. To explore these issues, we compare the archaeological evidence from two different indigenous dwellings at California’s Mission Santa Clara de Asís: an adobe barracks and a native-style thatched house. In particular, we consider possible differences between the dwellings’ inhabitants in terms of relative status, ethnolinguistic affiliation, and re-articulation of indigenous traditions.

The fortresses built in the Caribbean form a heritage of remarkable cultural values which are still not internationally known. All these buildings, whether they were finished or not and regardless of their state of conservation, are defined by two inseparable characteristics: their defensive function and their value as an element of an image of the governing power. The complexity of these proposals of strategy and propaganda, have led to propose as the main objective of this work to demonstrate that each European power raised a model of management. This was possible from some theoretical paradigms that were defined through the technical transference of the urban development of the cities and the geographical development of the regions, as well as the own defense of the populations under their government. The geographical scope chosen in this work includes both the ports of the Caribbean and those of the Gulf of Mexico, including not only the majority ports administered by the Spanish government but also those of other European powers such as France, England, Holland and Denmark. The chronological frame is developed between 1689 and 1748, which allows approaching the international war impact in the area, from the Nine Years War to the Jenkins' Ear or the Seat War. The results of the work are intended not only to increase knowledge but also to transfer it in order to respond to the interest raised among international tourism and local populations, or in academic circles, dedicated to this type of heritage.

El patrimonio militar construido en el Caribe cuenta con unos notables valores culturales, todavía poco conocidos internacionalmente. Todos estos proyectos, llegaran a construirse o no e independientemente de su estado de conservación, se definen con dos características inseparables: su función defensiva y su valor como elemento de una imagen del poder gobernante. La complejidad de estas propuestas de estrategia y propaganda, han llevado a plantear como objetivo principal de este trabajo demostrar que cada potencia europea planteó un modelo de gestión. Esto fue posible a partir de unos paradigmas teóricos que se definieron mediante la trasferencia técnica el desarrollo urbano de las ciudades y el geográfico de las regiones, así como la propia defensa de las poblaciones bajo su gobierno. El ámbito geográfico elegido engloba tanto los puertos del Caribe como los del Golfo de México, incluyendo no solo los mayoritarios administrados por el gobierno español sino también los de otras potencias europeas como Francia, Inglaterra, Holanda y Dinamarca. El marco cronológico se desarrolla entre 1689 y 1748, lo que permite abordar el impacto bélico internacional en la zona, desde la Guerra de los Nueve Años hasta la de la Oreja de Jenkins o del Asiento. Con los resultados del trabajo se pretende no solo un incremento de conocimiento, sino también su transferencia para, entre otras posibilidades, dar respuesta al interés suscitado entre el turismo internacional y las poblaciones locales, o en los círculos académicos, dedicados a este tipo de patrimonio.

Pedro Luengo Gutiérrez , Pedro Cruz Freire , Ignacio J. López Hernández , Manuel Gámez Casado , Alfredo J. Morales

Series: Bibliotheca Archaeologica, 66
ISBN: 9788891319531
Paperback
Pag.: 230, 1 ill. B/N, 172 ill. Col.
Format: 21,5 x 28 cm

Built in 1566 by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo, Fort San Juan is the earliest known European settlement in the interior United States. Located at the Berry site in western North Carolina, the fort and its associated domestic compound stood near the Native American town of Joara, whose residents sacked the fort and burned the compound after only eighteen months.

Drawing on archaeological evidence from architectural, floral, and faunal remains, as well as newly discovered accounts of Pardo's expeditions, this volume explores the deterioration in Native American–Spanish relations that sparked Joara's revolt and offers critical insight into the nature of early colonial interactions.

This paper examines the archaeology, folklore, and iconography attesting to the antiquity of the Apalachee Ball Game.  We examine the “Apalachee Ball Game Myth” as recorded by Friar Juan Paiva in 1676 as well as several Mississippian archaeological contexts and carved shell objects (ca. A.D. 1350-1550) that thematically portray episodes in this myth.  Using the evidence gleaned from these several sources, we can demonstrate that the ideology underlying the Apalachees’ Ball Game dates from at least the Middle Mississippian Period (A.D. 1150-1350).  Furthermore, we place these findings within the context of the historic Mission San Luis site to elucidate the impacts of the juego de la pelota’s removal before Colonel James Moore attacked the mission and scattered its occupants in 1704.  The overall emphasis is our hypothesis that the significance of games such as these permeates multiple spheres of cultural activity and functions as a means of social cohesion.

It seems almost too distant for events in central Mexico to have lasting effects on western Louisiana. However revolutionary events that began in Mexico in 1810 would have long lasting effects on western Louisiana. The resulting conflicts throughout New Spain and Texas would ultimately lead to settlement by refugees in Louisiana during the first few decades of the nineteenth century. The settlement commenced in 1813 when a large refugee population from Texas settled in western Louisiana. These people were escaping the carnage that ensued in the aftermath of the collapse of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. Although these refugees would settle throughout the Neutral Ground one particular group of Spanish refugees would found the Village of Adaes in northwestern Natchitoches Parish Louisiana. This village would be located two miles west of the old eighteenth century presidio and mission of Los Adaes.

Hernando de Soto's expedition through the southeastern United States between 1539 and 1543 is often regarded as a watershed moment for the collapse of Indigenous societies across the region. Historical narratives have proposed that extreme depopulation as a result of early contact destabilized Indigenous economies, politics, networks, and traditions. Although processes of depopulation and transformation were certainly set in motion by this and earlier colonial encounters, the timing, temporality, and heterogeneous rhythms of postcontact Indigenous histories remain unclear. Through the integration of radiocarbon and archaeological data from the Mississippian earthen platform mound at Dyar (9GE5) in central Georgia, we present a case of Indigenous endurance and resilience in the Oconee Valley that has long been obfuscated by materially based chronologies and typologies. Bayesian chronological modeling suggests that Indigenous Mississippian traditions persisted for up to 130 years beyond contact with European colonizers. We argue that advances in modeling radiocarbon dates, along with meaningful consultation/collaboration with descendant communities, can contribute to efforts that move us beyond a reliance on materially based chronologies that can distort and erase Indigenous histories.

Relatively few archaeological studies have examined the experiences of native people at Spanish colonial military installations. A small flaked lithic assemblage at the Presidio of San Francisco provides insight into the lives and labor of Native Californians there. Technically proficient knappers, making do with poor-quality, locally available material, engaged in freehand core reduction and produced non-symmetrical, bifacially flaked tools through percussion production. These tools were most likely used for cutting during specific tasks. The analysis reveals how Native Californians in colonial institutions maintained flintknapping traditions in social spaces that were likely shared by native people and colonists.

In the early nineteenth century there was a reemergence of intense Spanish settlement throughout western Louisiana. After the Presidio Los Adaes was closed in 1773 there began a forty year absence of significant Spanish settlement in what is today western Louisiana. The Spanish reemergence began in the Neutral Ground in 1813 when the Village of Adaes and the Bayou Scie settlements were settled by refugees from Texas. Around this same time the Bayou Pierre settlement also saw an influx of Spanish refugees. The Village of Adaes would be inhabited for several decades until the mid-nineteenth century when there was a steady population decline. It appears that around the 1850s the Spanish population began moving northward to found another settlement named New Spanish Town. This village would be in existence for several decades disappearing sometime before the turn of the twentieth century. Afterwards nearly all Spanish settlement in western Natchitoches Parish would be centered to the north in and around the Spanish Lake community.

Santa Elena, located on Parris Island along the coast of South Carolina, was the first capital, and northernmost permanent settlement, of Spanish La Florida. Over two decades of occupation (AD 1566-1587), five forts were successively built while by AD 1569 a burgeoning Spanish settlement of over 200 people, complete with artisans, farmers, and Jesuit missionaries, flourished. Here, we articulate the results of recent, full-coverage ground-penetrating radar and magnetic gradiometry surveys with over 40 years of extant archaeological data to elucidate organizational characteristics of the Spanish settlement at Santa Elena. In particular, we use geophysical data to identify the potential locations of buried Spanish wells across the site. We identify roughly 200 potential well locations and compare these locations to the distribution of Spanish artifacts across the site yielded through a full-coverage shovel test survey, the arrangement of Spanish structures known from large-scale block excavations, and the likely position of roadways and house lots. This new data is used to contextualize and refine extant understandings of Santa Elena's town plan while also contributing to a broader research program devoted to exploring Spanish colonial life and settlement in 16 th-century North America (The Santa Elena Landscape Project). As Santa Elena is a National Historic Landmark currently threatened by rising sea levels, this work contributes to an efficient, minimally invasive research program devoted to exploring the Spanish settlement at Santa Elena and to documenting the range of cultural resources present at the site for the purposes of protection and remediation in the context of significant, ongoing shoreline erosion.