Presented Papers by John Worth
Spanish Olive Jar and other shipping containers of sixteenth-century Florida: quantifying the documentary record
Southeastern Archaeology, 2023
Spanish Olive Jar is a ubiquitous marker of the Spanish colonial period in the southeastern Unite... more Spanish Olive Jar is a ubiquitous marker of the Spanish colonial period in the southeastern United States, appearing on both terrestrial and maritime sites where colonists resided and traveled between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Olive Jar ceramic type has been the subject of many archaeological studies, most of which use vessel shape typologies and rim morphology to aid in the chronological placement of sites and proveniences where they are found, and more recently also using compositional analyses to determine locations of manufacture. Frequently lacking, however, is anything more than a cursory generic reference to what these vessels were likely to have originally contained, and how exactly they were used and reused by the people who lived and worked at the archaeological sites where their remains are so commonly found. The intent of this article is to explore primary source documents that provide quantifiable data to answer such questions, with the goal of enhancing the utility of Spanish Olive Jar for archaeological interpretation by situating it within its broader functional context as one of a number of different types of shipping containers used and reused in a variety of circumstances during the Spanish colonial period.
Paper presented in the symposium “Exploring the Settlement and Fleet of Tristán de Luna” organized by John E. Worth and John R. Bratten at the 37th Annual Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, Pensacola, Florida, October 17-19, 2019., 2019
Since its discovery in 2015, the University of West Florida has conducted archaeological investig... more Since its discovery in 2015, the University of West Florida has conducted archaeological investigations at the site of Santa María de Ochuse, Tristán de Luna y Arellano's 1559-1561 settlement on Pensacola Bay. After nearly four years of fieldwork and lab work, the site has already revealed a substantial and diverse assemblage of artifacts associated with equipment, supplies, and provisions brought both collectively by the army and its companies and subordinate residential and dining units, and by individuals as personal goods. Moreover, the discovery of features such as trash pits and postholes supplement an increasingly detailed understanding of the horizontal distribution of artifacts to provide important clues regarding the layout of the 31-acre settlement and the activities conducted there, supplementing what the documentary record tells us about this site and the people who inhabited it. This paper provides an update of our current understanding of this important mid-sixteenth-century Spanish settlement.
Since the 2015 discovery of the 1559-1561 Tristán de Luna settlement in Pensacola, the University... more Since the 2015 discovery of the 1559-1561 Tristán de Luna settlement in Pensacola, the University of West Florida has conducted archaeological investigations of the site of this earliest multi-year European settlement in the continental United States. Based on a comprehensive shovel-test survey, three summer field schools, and multiple mitigation projects in this residential neighborhood, we continue to learn about this short-lived colony. This paper discusses ongoing analysis of the spatial distribution of artifacts across the Luna settlement, focusing on the relative proportions of various functional artifact categories as a means for understanding patterns of residence and activity within the settlement.
Excavations at the terrestrial settlement of Tristán de Luna y Arellano on Pensacola Bay suggest ... more Excavations at the terrestrial settlement of Tristán de Luna y Arellano on Pensacola Bay suggest that the material culture of the colonists at the site between 1559 and 1561 included a significant amount of contemporaneous Native American ceramics evidently scavenged along with food from evacuated communities along the coast and interior. Combined with newly-discovered documentation detailing the establishment and use of a road between Pensacola and the temporary Spanish settlement at Nanipacana in central Alabama, and deteriorating Native-Spanish relations during this period, these new data offer important insights into the indigenous social geography of this region at a pivotal time.
Long-term research by the University of West Florida into the 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de ... more Long-term research by the University of West Florida into the 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano to Pensacola Bay has only accelerated following the 2015 discovery of Luna's terrestrial settlement and the 2016 discovery of a third shipwreck from Luna's fleet that wrecked just offshore. In addition to ongoing archaeological investigations in the field and lab, concurrent syntheses and analysis of both previously-known and several newly-discovered documentary sources relating to the expedition have provided important clues regarding Spanish-Native relations both in the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. This paper presents preliminary analysis and insights from these documentary sources.
The recent discovery and archaeological investigation of the 1559-1561 settlement of Tristán de L... more The recent discovery and archaeological investigation of the 1559-1561 settlement of Tristán de Luna on Pensacola Bay, in concert with ongoing nearby excavations at the second and third Emanuel Point shipwrecks from Luna's colonial fleet, has prompted new opportunities for research into the material culture of Spain's mid-sixteenth-century New World empire. In an effort to develop systemic linkages between the material traces left behind in different archaeological contexts, both terrestrial and maritime, and the amply-documented material culture of the many different types of people and activities that formed part of mid-sixteenth-century Spanish culture, a wide range of documentary sources is being consulted for both qualitative and quantitative data, including estate papers, ship manifests, warehouse accounts, and notarial records from both Spain and the New World. This paper outlines investigative strategies and techniques being employed, and presents preliminary results and promising avenues for ongoing research.
Following the fortuitous 2015 discovery of a substantial assemblage of mid-16th-century Spanish c... more Following the fortuitous 2015 discovery of a substantial assemblage of mid-16th-century Spanish ceramics in a residential neighborhood overlooking the Emanuel Point shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay, the University of West Florida Archaeology Institute worked with more than 120 landowners to conduct extensive archaeological testing across a broad area in order to bound and explore the site. This paper compares documentary and archaeological evidence to confirm the identification of the roughly 10-hectare site as Tristán de Luna's 1559-1561 settlement, making it the largest mid-16th-century Spanish colonial site in the Southeast, and the earliest multi-year European settlement in the entire United States.
The 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de Luna was the largest and most well-financed Spanish attemp... more The 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de Luna was the largest and most well-financed Spanish attempt to colonize southeastern North America up to that time. Had it succeeded, New Spain would have expanded to include a settled terrestrial route from the northern Gulf of Mexico to the lower Atlantic coast. While a hurricane left most of the fleet and the colony's food stores on the bottom of Pensacola Bay just five weeks after arrival, the colonists nonetheless struggled to survive over the next two years, supported by multiple maritime relief expeditions as well as a temporary relocation into central Alabama and the dispatch of a military detachment as far north as the Appalachian foothills. Though Luna's Pensacola Bay settlement was ultimately abandoned, the documentary record of the expedition details both its maritime and terrestrial dimensions, and provides an important window into the mid-16th-century Spanish colonial world.
Sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts are uncommon but widespread finds in the Southeastern United ... more Sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts are uncommon but widespread finds in the Southeastern United States, and documented assemblages have been variously used by archaeologists either as secondary indicators of the presence of passing Spanish explorers, or also as evidence of direct or indirect Spanish trade. The vast majority of such artifacts are found as grave goods within Native American villages or burial sites, apart from a handful of well-documented Spanish colonial settlements and encampments. Archaeological investigations at the recently-discovered 1559-1561 Tristán de Luna settlement provide a remarkable opportunity to examine a substantial though short-lived residential Spanish assemblage dating to this same era.
Despite the fact that archaeological ceramics have long been viewed as a proxy for ethno-politica... more Despite the fact that archaeological ceramics have long been viewed as a proxy for ethno-political identity, recent research exploring the precise relationship between ceramics and identity during the historic-era southeastern United States provides increasing support for the conclusion that geographic variability in archaeological ceramics is best viewed through the lens of practice, and that archaeological phases correspond better to communities of practice than communities of identity. When viewed through the lens of practice theory and social learning theory, it becomes clear that the coexistence of both communities of practice and communities of identity within the same social landscape does not guarantee automatic correspondence between the two realms, nor even does any demonstrated correspondence necessarily prove a causal link between a community of practice and a community of identity that happen to be coterminous. Each type of community must be studied independently using appropriate and available data, and only by first disentangling the two can any demonstrable connection between communities of practice (such as archaeological phases) and communities of identity (such as historically-documented polities or ethnies) be established empirically. Only then can the exact reasons for any congruence (or lack thereof) be explored in a systematic and rigorous manner.
Paper presented at the 49th Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Washingt... more Paper presented at the 49th Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C., January 9, 2016.
Paper presented in the symposium “Contact, Persistence and Change: Protohistoric and Early Histor... more Paper presented in the symposium “Contact, Persistence and Change: Protohistoric and Early Historic Archaeology of the Gulf Coastal Plain” at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Nashville, TN, November 19-21, 2015.
Abstract: Though sporadically visited early in the European exploratory era, Native American groups of the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain generally remained isolated from formal European colonization until Spain and France established twin colonies at Pensacola and Mobile after 1698. During the 18th century, multiple extralocal groups are documented to have migrated into an already transformed borderlands landscape, creating an ethnically diverse mix of cultures originally characterized by distinct regional material culture signatures. This paper uses a landscapes of practice approach to explore the extent to which emergent communities of ceramic practice correlated with documented ethnic and political identities in this region.
By 1706, the once-extensive mission system of Spanish Florida had been reduced to a handful of re... more By 1706, the once-extensive mission system of Spanish Florida had been reduced to a handful of refugee communities near the two remaining colonial Spanish settlements at St. Augustine and Pensacola, largely in consequence of demographic collapse and English-sponsored slaving during the 17th century. Over the next decades, these communities consolidated into an increasingly smaller number of refugee missions, the last inhabitants of which chose evacuation and exile with Spanish colonists in Cuba and Mexico in 1763. This paper explores the process through which indigenous political and ethnic subdivisions were ultimately minimized in favor of a single “Florida Mission Indian” identity.
Society for American Archaeology, 2008
Although South Florida was neither fully explored or assimilated during the Spanish colonial era ... more Although South Florida was neither fully explored or assimilated during the Spanish colonial era (1513-1760), ethnohistorical records from this era provide tantalizing clues as to the nature of hunter-gatherer complexity in this broad region. Detailed examination of Spanish sources reveal both similarities and differences between South Florida groups and the more well-documented agricultural chiefdoms to the north. Though variations in both space and time are apparent, South Florida as a whole displays an internal coherence that distinguishes it as a regional subset of the broader pattern of sociopolitical complexity across the Southeastern United States, and as a unique nonagricultural region sandwiched between the agricultural peoples of northern Florida and Cuba.
Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Nov 9, 2012
How can social entities derived from spatial and temporal patterning in material culture be recon... more How can social entities derived from spatial and temporal patterning in material culture be reconciled with social entities derived from documentary accounts based on the assertions of both colonial and indigenous informants? How can archaeologists and ethnohistorians translate their independently-derived conceptions of the social landscape for one another? Using the Southeastern U.S. as a backdrop, this paper explores fundamental ontological and methodological differences between how we perceive and construct these social entities using material and documentary data, highlighting the rarely-challenged assumption that ceramic assemblages are reasonable indicators of the ethnic identity of their makers, and suggesting potential alternatives and solutions.
Southeastern Archaeological Conference, 1988
Society for Historical Archaeology, 1992
Southeastern Archaeological Conference, 1994
Recent archaeological investigations in western North Carolina have revealed the presence of 16th... more Recent archaeological investigations in western North Carolina have revealed the presence of 16thcentury Spanish artifacts in association with contemporaneous aboriginal occupation. This paper examines the available Spanish historical evidence regarding the various mechanisms by which such items may have been disseminated among aboriginal populations in the deep interior Southeast. Possible sources include direct or indirect contact with the well-known Hernando de Soto or Juan Pardo expeditions between 1540 and 1568, dispersal as a result of several minor Spanish entradas into the northern interior between 1597 and 1628, and ongoing long-distance trade with aboriginal and Spanish populations along the Atlantic coastline.
Society for American Archaeology, 1997
This paper presents a current overview of documentary and archaeological evidence for aboriginal ... more This paper presents a current overview of documentary and archaeological evidence for aboriginal occupation associated with the Creek confederacy in the Flint River drainage of western Georgia, correlating specific archaeological sites with named towns where possible, and predicting locations for as-yet unrecorded sites. Largely depopulated soon after the 1540 DeSoto expedition, the Flint was resettled after 1750 by satellite communities of the core Lower Creek towns of Kasihta, Yuchi, Chiaha, and Hichiti. Comparatively well-populated during Benjamin Hawkin's tenure at the Flint River Creek Agency, occupation dwindled after the Creek War and the expansion of Georgia's border between 1814 and 1826.
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Presented Papers by John Worth
Abstract: Though sporadically visited early in the European exploratory era, Native American groups of the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain generally remained isolated from formal European colonization until Spain and France established twin colonies at Pensacola and Mobile after 1698. During the 18th century, multiple extralocal groups are documented to have migrated into an already transformed borderlands landscape, creating an ethnically diverse mix of cultures originally characterized by distinct regional material culture signatures. This paper uses a landscapes of practice approach to explore the extent to which emergent communities of ceramic practice correlated with documented ethnic and political identities in this region.