Linking Archaeological and Documentary Evidence for Material Culture in Mid-Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida: The View from the Luna Settlement and Fleet

John Worth

Linking Archaeological and Documentary Evidence for Material Culture in Mid-Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida: The View from the Luna Settlement and Fleet

Author(s): John Worth

Year: 2018

Summary

The recent discovery and archaeological investigation of the 1559-1561 settlement of Tristán de Luna on Pensacola Bay, in concert with ongoing nearby excavations at the second and third Emanuel Point shipwrecks from Luna’s colonial fleet, has prompted new opportunities for research into the material culture of Spain’s mid-sixteenth-century New World empire. In an effort to develop systemic linkages between the material traces left behind in different archaeological contexts, both terrestrial and maritime, and the amply-documented material culture of the many different types of people and activities that formed part of mid-sixteenth-century Spanish culture, a wide range of documentary sources is being consulted for both qualitative and quantitative data, including estate papers, ship manifests, warehouse accounts, and notarial records from both Spain and the New World. This paper outlines investigative strategies and techniques being employed, and presents preliminary results and promising avenues for ongoing research.

Cite this Record

Linking Archaeological and Documentary Evidence for Material Culture in Mid-Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida: The View from the Luna Settlement and Fleet. John Worth. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441648)