In Search of the Spanish Wells: Freshwater Resources and the Florida Keys

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Florida Keys present a unique ecological and archaeological setting in the United States, but one which has traditionally been discounted as too marginal of an environment to support year-round occupation by Indigenous communities prior to colonization. Anecdotal accounts of “Spanish Wells” reliably employed for freshwater during the colonial and early modern eras have long complicated this narrative of marginality, however. In this paper, I report on ongoing work in the first systematic effort to locate and monitor the “Spanish Wells” in order to better understand the scope of these freshwater resources. Early data validates the reliability of local ethnohistoric accounts for locating “Spanish Wells”, which have demonstrated relatively stable salinity and water levels over the course of several months. The locations and stability of these freshwater sites suggest a complex local hydro-geology, however, which is poorly understood. The stability of these sites likewise raises questions about their possible significance to wildlife, and the impact human management of them may have had in the past. Many questions remain, however continued investigation of the “Wells” may help to better inform our understanding of precolonial Indigenous habitation and subsistence to strategies in both the Florida Keys and other small island contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36949.0