An Exploration for the Oldest European Colony on the American Gulf Coast
The archeological site of the Luna colony on Pensacola Bay has not been found. We are conducting an archeological survey to locate remains of that settlement.
The archeological site of the Luna colony on Pensacola Bay has not been found. We are conducting an archeological survey to locate remains of that settlement.
Two Spanish expeditions came deep into the interior of the current Southeastern United States during the 1500s; Hernando de Soto in 1539 and Tristan de Luna in 1559.
It was hypothesized in the early 1980s that a recently reported aboriginal mound and village site (1Ds72) in Dallas County, Alabama, might be a contact site of the sixteenth century Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto (1539-42) (figure 1) (Curren, Little, Lankford 1981).
On the eve of Alabama statehood, a large stone engraved with Latin inscriptions was found in the forest near Tuscaloosa.
Several years ago, prior to current laws regarding human remains, collectors at site 1Ds1 found a sixteenth century brass candlestick.
We went a long way. We went to a new world. The people were different. The plants and animals were different. We slept in hammocks on an old wooden boat as we traveled on the great river through that vast rainforest.
We were searching for 16th century Spanish Contact sites in central Alabama.
Shells and bones… something we pick up today on the seashore or in a streambed.. We take them home and put them on a coffee table or on a book shelf, a conversation piece for visits with friends.
The Pine Log Creek Site is unique and one of the most important Spanish Contact sites in the southeastern United States. The site was looted by pothunters in the 1980’s. Archeologists from the University of South Alabama, lead by Read Stowe, recovered many of the Native and Spanish artifacts from the site. The artifact inventory is one of…
An extraordinary artifact was found in a plowed field in a late Mississippian site (the King Site) in NW Georgia. It proved to be a Spanish sword from the mid-1500’s. Local men were walking a plowed field when they noticed a piece of iron protruding from the sandy loam. Digging into the immediate area, they found a Native…