Another Brick in the Wall: Analysis of a Ladrillo Scatter Near the Emanuel Point II Shipwreck in Pensacola Bay, Florida

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In July of 1559, the Spanish crown funded an ill-fated expedition which attempted to seize a colonial foothold in what would one day be Spanish Florida. Spain’s efforts were thwarted by a hurricane in September of that year which wrecked seven of the expedition’s vessels in modern-day Pensacola Bay, Florida. Survey operations undertaken by the University of West Florida in the summer of 2023 revealed a scatter of Spanish bricks (Ladrillos) near EPII, one of the three vessels from the expedition whose archaeological remains have been recovered. Investigation of the Ladrillo assemblage was undertaken during the summer of 2024 to explain how the bricks came to rest under the seafloor and to characterize the site formation processes of EPII. This paper aims to review what is now known about the Ladrillo assemblage within the greater context of the 1559 wrecks while contributing to the growing understanding of Florida’s Spanish history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow