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).
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…
The people who lived in the late Pleistocene (circa 10-20,000 years ago) in the deep South of the current USA have always been a bit of a mystery to researchers. Where did they come from? It is as if they just showed up one day with their very fine worked stone tools and weapons. Though relatively rare in…
1Ce308 is a very important Native / Spanish contact site in Cherokee County in northeast Alabama. Although the site is multicomponent, the European contact portion of the site is the most intriguing. The site, located in a plowed field, was dug by collectors. Caleb Curren, Keith Little, and George Lankford contacted the collectors and made photographs of a…
Two very important archeological sites (Magnolia Ridge and Hickory Ridge) are located on a large peninsula extending into Perdido Bay in northwest Florida. Three phases of research have been conducted at two sites on the peninsula, a Mississippian Period village and a Mississippian burial area (circa 1500 A.D). They are separated by a creek. The research was accomplished by the University of West Florida and…
The Catfish Point Site is a prehistoric site located on an eroding, low terrace along the east shore of Perdido Bay. Phase I investigations consisted of the excavation of 15 shovel tests in the site area and a shoreline artifact collection which indicated that prehistoric remains are present on the site. Prehistoric artifacts recovered consist of 102 lithic…
1Ba1 is one of the most important sites on the northern Gulf Coast relative to early Spanish contacts with Native populations during the 1500s. It is a burial mound containing Native and Spanish artifacts. It was first discovered by the intrepid C.B. Moore in 1901 who excavated numerous pottery vessels and Spanish artifacts from the site. Gordon…