Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Approximately 400 years ago, a member of the Potano-Timucua tribe crafted a small, undecorated clay vessel. Its original use and history remain unknown, but it was recently excavated intact by University of Florida students.
“It’s very unique. Typically, we find things that were broken and discarded,” said Gifford Waters, collections manager for historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “You don’t leave things behind that you can still use, so why was this purposefully put into a pit?”
Credit: Gifford Waters
Although complete artifacts are often found at shipwreck sites, this is the first time in his career that Waters has helped uncover a fully intact pottery vessel on land. Typically, such vessels are broken over time by underground pressure or land development before archaeologists can recover them.
The students who discovered the pot were enrolled in a field course led by Waters and his colleague Charles Cobb, curator of historical archaeology at the museum. Each Friday during the spring semester, students learn essential archaeological fieldwork skills while studying the centuries-old Mission San Francisco de Potano site in northwest Gainesville.
The Search For Artifacts
Today, the wooded area where the mission once stood contains 1-by-1 meter excavation units where students carefully excavate soil in search of artifacts. Trails have formed as students move among plots marking the remains of a 17th-century kitchen, friar’s residence, and the surrounding Potano village.
In 1585, the Potano, a group of the Timucua people in North Florida, relocated to the area after Spanish forces displaced them from their original home, likely between present-day Payne’s Prairie and Orange Lake. In 1606, the Spanish government sent a friar to establish a mission in the Potano village, one of the first of over 100 Catholic missions created over the next century to support Spanish rule in Florida. Mission San Francisco de Potano was abandoned in 1706, and its traces faded until artifacts resurfaced in the 1950s.
At its peak, the village housed several hundred Potano people, with only one European friar residing at the mission. As a result, most of the more than 7,000 artifacts collected since 2006 are Native American pottery. Archaeologists and students have also found glass beads, stone tools, nails, and animal bones from meals of turtle, freshwater fish, and turkey.
“What tells us the most is not just the artifacts but the evidence of activities. Knowing that we have a bunch of pieces of bone at the site is great, but the fact we know that nearly all of them came from one spot tells us it was a cooking area and trash pit,” Waters said. “It’s not just artifacts themselves but where they were on the site, how they were distributed and what they were associated with that tells the story.”
Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History
Context is essential in archaeology. Although the small pot did not provide many clues, it contributes to the broader narrative of the site. The pot was found in a Spanish-made structure, but further excavation is needed to determine the structure’s purpose. Historical records indicate that a small garrison was stationed at the site after British raids on missions increased in the early 1700s. The discovery of a gun’s rear sight and a musket side plate nearby suggests the structure may have served as a barrack.
What Was The Pot Used For? No One Knows Yet
The pot’s depth and location suggest it was made during the mission’s century-long operation. However, its style is unfamiliar to archaeologists, and its specific use remains unknown.
Archaeologists often find cookware with burned food and charcoal residue inside. The absence of such residue on this pot suggests it was not used directly over the fire for cooking. However, it may still have been used during meals. The faint scorch marks could result from the pot’s original firing process or from being placed near the fire to warm individual portions of food.
Credit: Kristen Grace
Shortly after discovering the small pot, students unearthed fragments of a much larger and distinctly different vessel. Unlike the smooth pot, this piece had a rough surface and a composition that does not match local pottery traditions. Archaeologists believe it may have arrived through trade with communities in St. Augustine or present-day Jacksonville, or it may have been brought by a new resident with different traditions. People, goods, and ideas moved through the village, leaving their mark on the artifacts found below.
See also: More Archaeology News
“During the later years of this mission, folks from different parts of Florida and Native Americans from different areas moved into and around the site. It’s really neat to see these differences and connections in the artifacts,” Waters said. “It shows both the persistence and change of traditions over time.”
Source: Florida Museum of Natural History
Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
