The Diaspora of Eighteenth-Century Mexican Figurines: The intersection of Spain, Mexico, and La Florida

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Spanish West Florida, a military presidio was established in 1698 to try to protect Spanish shipping and interests in the naturally deepwater port of the Pensacola Bay from constantly encroaching British and French pressure. Over the next 65 years the presidio was moved four times, enduring British-led Indian raids, French occupations, and eight hurricanes. The presidio was completely abandoned in 1763 when Florida was awarded to the British in the Treaty of Paris. All four locations have been relocated and extensively archaeologically and historically investigated. One result of this expansive study was the finding of 142 figurine fragments that come exclusively from the final two presidio locations, and are seemingly associated with the arrival of families and several groups of 100 young women brought from “central Mexico” to become wives of soldiers and tradesmen as the former Spanish garrisons transitioned into permanent settlements. We hope to present identification of a source area for these figurines, and others encountered in other eighteenth-century Florida shipwrecks, using PIXE, pXRF, and NAA analyses among others, thus providing a window into figurine production, export, and use for a time period for which we currently have no such information from Mexico itself.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35608.0