Fort San Juan: Lost (1568) and Found (2013)

Summary

Between 1566 and 1568, after 50 years of Spanish exploration in southeastern North America, Captain Juan Pardo succeeded at establishing six forts and related settlements in the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee. Fort San Juan and the town of Cuenca formed his principal outpost at the northern edge of the Spanish colonial province of La Florida. The archaeological remnants of Fort San Juan, Cuenca, and the native host community of Joara are located at the Berry site, in western North Carolina. Although favorable relations were formed at first between Pardo and the leadership of Joara, warriors attacked Fort San Juan in the spring of 1568. This fort and settlement and Pardo’s other outposts were abandoned. Archaeology at the Berry site sheds light on the lives of Spanish colonists and native people in this frontier setting, and the effects of interactions between them on the course of European colonialism in North America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• New Research on 16th and 17th century Forts in the Americas

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-8,01