Attempting to Reconstruct a French Colonial Settlement on the Alabama Frontier: Geophysical Investigations at Fort Toulouse

Summary

Between 1717 and 1763 a French community associated with Fort Toulouse thrived near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in present-day central Alabama. Although several prior archaeological investigations have targeted the remains of the three forts built by the French in this location, until recently, few explicit efforts had been directed toward the recovery of archaeological data from the community that developed outside these defensive structures. During the summers of 2012 and 2013, remote sensing surveys were conducted at the site of Fort Toulouse in an effort to recover information on the distribution of French domestic structures at the site and determine the spatial organization of this community. This paper presents the results of these investigations and examines the various ways in which the French settlement, placed outside the confines of the fort proper, served as a locus for a range of daily interactions with local Native Americans and as a critical mechanism of French diplomacy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• More than Ramparts and Redoubts: Forts and Families of New France

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-21,08