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Nuestra Senora del Rosario de la Punta: Lifeways of an 18th Century Colonial Spanish Refugee Mission

Source: Nuestra Senora del Rosario de la Punta: Lifeways of an 18th Century Colonial Spanish Refugee Mission Community, St. Augustine, Florida #80

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NUESTRA SENORA DEL ROSARIO DE LA PUNTA: LIFEWAYS OF AN  EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL SPANISH    REFUGEE MISSION COMMUNITY, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA   By   WILLET A. BOYER, III   A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL  OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT  OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF   MASTER OF ARTS   UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   2005  Copyright 2005  by   Willet A. Boyer, III  This thesis is dedicated to Curtiss Baillie and to A. David Baillie, Jr. (1917-2005), two of  my connections with Florida’s past.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS   Since my return to academic endeavor in the fall of 2002, I have become far more  aware of the ways in which the work of a scholar is based on the work of those who came  before and prepared the ground for future students. I want to acknowledge and publicly  thank the many people who have helped me reach the goal of preparation of this thesis.   An archaeological site, any site, is located and excavated through the work of teams  of dedicated people, and analysis of the archaeological record found through such  excavation. I would like to publicly thank the people with whom I worked in the spring  of 2004 excavating and analyzing the material recovered from the 8 Hedrick and 11  Tremerton sites in the City of St. Augustine: Nick McAuliffe, Toni Wallace, Pat Moore,  Mike Tarleton, Helen Gradison, and Dr. Chester dePratter. Above all, I want to thank  Carl Halbirt, the City Archaeologist for St. Augustine, for his willingness to let me join  the team of excavators working on the La Punta mission site, for his work and effort  helping to teach me my craft, and for his endless patience with my questions and  comments throughout the process.   I would also like to acknowledge and thank the men and women of the University  of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History who have taught me my profession  and have guided and helped me to an understanding of the disciplines of archaeology and  anthropology: Dr. Kenneth Sassaman, Donna Ruhl, Dr. Michael Heckenberger, Dr.  Gifford Waters, Scott Mitchell, Al Woods, Dr. John Moore, Dr. Susan Gillespie, Dr.  Kathleen Deagan, and Dr. John E. Worth. I would most particularly like to thank and  iv   acknowledge Dr. Jerald T. Milanich, whose works drew my interest in studying Florida’s  archaeology, who helped and encouraged my return to study, and who has provided  continuing help, counsel and discipline throughout the course of my studies.   I would like to thank my younger brother, James A. Boyer, the Research  Coordinator for the Pine Acres Research Center of the Institute of Food and Agricultural  Sciences of the University of Florida, for his knowledge and insight into agricultural  conditions at the La Punta mission community during the eighteenth century and his  assistance with this research.   Finally, I would like to acknowledge five people whose help and encouragement  has sustained me throughout the course of my work and study. My dear friend, the  historian and author Karen Harvey, has provided me assistance and support throughout  the time of my work on this project. My cousin, Thompson Van Hyning, encouraged me  to “follow my dream” and has given me an example to follow in doing so. My  grandparents, A. David Baillie, Jr. (1917-2005), and Curtiss Baillie, have lifelong taught  me my passion for Florida’s history and archaeology, and my grandfather gave me help  and insight into Florida’s history and outdoors unmatched by no one else living. And  finally, my fiancé and then wife, Josyane Paige Boyer, has given me both love and  patience throughout the many months this work has been in progress. To all, thank you.  v   TABLE OF CONTENTS   page  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER   1 INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH FOCUS...........................................................1  2 THE HISTORIC EVIDENCE: INDICATIONS AND RECORDS OF THE  MISSION COMMUNITY’S PRESENCE .................................................................12  Eighteenth Century Florida: Disruption and Change .................................................12 The Historic Evidence for La Punta’s Existence........................................................18 Maps Depicting the Location of the La Punta Mission Community...................18 First Spanish Period maps of the La Punta Mission community.........................19 The Palmer Map of 1730..............................................................................19 The Arredondo Map of 1737...............................................................................20 Anonymous Map of the City and Port of Saint Augustine, 1740 ................22 The Castello Map of 1763............................................................................23 British Period maps of the former location of La Punta......................................24 The J. Purcell Map of 1777 ..........................................................................24 The H. Burrard Map of 1780........................................................................26 Anonymous Map of Saint Augustine and Environs, 1782...........................26 Documents Describing the Mission Community ................................................29 The Anonymous Mission List of 1736.........................................................29 The Benavides Mission List: April 21, 1738 ...............................................29 The First Montiano Mission List: June 4, 1738 ...........................................29 The Guemes y Horcasitas List of 1739 ........................................................30 The Second Montiano Mission List: June 23, 1739.....................................30 The Gelabert Report of 1752........................................................................30 The Griñan Report of 1756 ..........................................................................31 Discussion...................................................................................................................32 vi   3 ARCHAEOLOGY OF SITES IN THE STUDY AREA............................................36  The Physical Environment of the Study Area ............................................................36 Archaeological Projects Associated With the Study Area .........................................38 Methodology and Techniques .............................................................................39 Location 1: 161 Marine Street.............................................................................43 Location 2: 159 Marine Street.............................................................................47 Location 3: 321 St. George Street .......................................................................57 Location 4: 8 Hedrick Street................................................................................61 Location 5: 11 Tremerton Street..........................................................................68  4 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MISSON COMMUNITY AND ITS  LIFEWAYS ................................................................................................................78  Are the Archaeological Sites In the Study Area the Remains of La Punta?...............78 The Correlation Between the Historic and Archaeological Evidence of La  Punta’s Location ..............................................................................................79 The Presence of Ceramic Series Associated With Native American Groups  Present at La Punta...........................................................................................81 Correspondence Between the Archaeological Features Present at the Sites  and Structures Known from Spanish Mission Communities...........................82 The Presence of a Burial Area Within a Structure ..............................................84 Lifeways of an Eighteenth Century Refugee Mission Community............................85 The Living Area ..................................................................................................90 The Agricultural Area..........................................................................................96 The Sacred Area ................................................................................................101 Avenues for Future Research and Conclusions........................................................104  APPENDIX   A ARTIFACT COUNTS, LA PUNTA-RELATED SITES.........................................107  B ARTIFACT COUNTS AND WEIGHTS BY LOCATION AND  PROVENIENCE.......................................................................................................170  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................................215 vii   LIST OF TABLES   Table page 3-1 Overall Totals for 161 Marine Street .......................................................................47 3-2 Overall Totals for 159 Marine Street .......................................................................57 3-3 Overall Totals for 321 St. George Street..................................................................60 3-4 Overall Totals for 8 Hedrick Street ..........................................................................68 3-5 Overall Totals, 11 Tremerton Street (Burial Area) ..................................................76 4-1 Artifact Counts and Weights by Location................................................................86 4-2 Artifact Density by Number and Weight for Each Location....................................86 viii   LIST OF FIGURES   Figure page 1-1 The Colonial City of St. Augustine and the Study Area ..........................................11 2-1 The Palmer Map (1730) ...........................................................................................20 2-2 Arredondo Map (1737).............................................................................................21 2-3 Anonymous Map of 1740.........................................................................................23 2-4 Castello Map (1763).................................................................................................24 2-5 The J. Purcell Map (1777)........................................................................................25 2.6 The H. Burrard Map (1780) .....................................................................................27 2-7 Anonymous Map (1782) ..........................................................................................28 3-1 LIDAR Map of Study Area......................................................................................39 3-2 Plan Map: Features at 161 Marine Street Site - from White (2002) ........................44 3-3 Profile of Well Feature, 161 Marine Street – from White (2002)............................46 3-4 Plan Map: Excavation Units and Features, 159 Marine Street ................................48 3-5 Feature Map: Test Unit 1, Stripping Area 1, 159 Marine Street..............................49 3-6 Feature Map: Test Unit 2, Stripping Area 1, 159 Marine Street..............................52 3-7 Plan Map: Test Units and Site Features, 321 St. George Street...............................59 3-8 Plan Map: Test Units 1 and 2, 321 St. George Street...............................................60 3-9 Site Map, Post Holes and Test Units, 8 Hedrick Street............................................63 3-10 Plan Map and Profile, Test Unit 2, 8 Hedrick Street................................................64 3-11 Plan Map and Profile, Test Unit 3, 8 Hedrick Street................................................64 3-12 Plan Map: Features at 11 Tremerton Street..............................................................70 ix   3-13 Plan Map: Features, Southern Limits of Burial Area, 11 Tremerton Street.............71 3-14 Bone Placement, Burial Unit, Structural Feature, 11 Tremerton Street...................73 3-15 North-South Discrete Burial, 11 Tremerton Street ..................................................75 x   Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School   of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the   Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts   NUESTRA SENORA DEL ROSARIO DE LA PUNTA: LIFEWAYS OF AN  EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COLONIAL SPANISH   REFUGEE MISSION COMMUNITY, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA  By   Willet A. Boyer, III   December 2005   Chair: Jerald T. Milanich   Major Department: Anthropology   The eighteenth century refugee colonial Spanish mission communities of Florida  were created in response to the destruction of the earlier missions founded in the late  sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Spanish among the Native American groups  indigenous to Florida and southeastern Georgia. These refugee mission communities  were formed during a time of political, military, and economic conflict between the  colonial powers of Spain and England in the Southeast, and existed in a state of  demographic and cultural flux.   This thesis examines the lifeways of the inhabitants of one such refugee mission  community: Nuestra Senora del Rosario de La Punta, or more commonly, simply “La  Punta.” La Punta was founded during the 1720’s as a mission serving Native American  refugees, principally Yamassee Indians from what is today South Carolina. La Punta  continued to exist until at least 1752, prior to the mission community’s abandonment.  xi   The historic evidence suggests that the people of La Punta existed as a part of a  complex system of social and political conflict among the secular authorities of colonial  Florida, the regular priests of the Franciscan Order, and the secular parish priests of St.  Augustine, as well as between the Spanish, other European colonial powers, and the  Native American groups of the Southeast. Archaeological sites associated with the  mission community of La Punta indicate the presence of at three areas of activity within  the mission community: a living area where the inhabitants built their homes and engaged  in domestic activities, an agricultural area where crops were grown, and a sacred area  housing the mission church and burial ground.   The historic and archaeological evidence, taken as a whole, suggests that the people  of the mission community attempted to make maximum use of very limited physical  resources to survive, and attempted to maintain at least a part of their traditional lifeways  while embracing both the Catholic faith and some of the cultural environment of Spanish  St. Augustine. This evidence also suggests fruitful avenues for future research.  xii   CHAPTER 1   INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH FOCUS   The focus of this thesis is the eighteenth-century Spanish colonial mission of  Nuestra Senora del Rosario de La Punta (“La Punta”). La Punta was one of ten refugee  missons founded near modern St. Augustine, Florida after the destruction of the earlier  Franciscan missions established in La Florida during the late sixteenth and seventeenth  centuries.   The destruction and abandonment of the earlier missions severely impacted the  Native American population of Spanish La Florida. The original inhabitants of the  Florida missions were killed, taken as slaves, or forced to move from the traditional lands  they had occupied. Raids by other Indians and Carolinian militia in the first decade of  the eighteenth century effectively destroyed all the missions outside the area of St.  Augustine. The survivors of Apalachee, Timucua, and Guale provinces who did not flee  north, west, or south down the Florida peninsula and who chose resettlement by the  Spanish were placed in refugee missions near St. Augustine, where they could both be  protected by the Spanish authorities and serve as a part of the colonial capital’s defenses  (Halbirt 2004:40-41). The original survivors of the earlier mission communities were  joined by Native American groups from outside Florida, groups such as the Yamassee,  who also came as refugees to Spanish Florida.   In this study of the La Punta mission community, I have three goals. The first is to  examine the results of five excavations south of the colonial city of St. Augustine in light  of the historic documents relating to La Punta, to conclusively show that these sites are  1   2   the remains of the La Punta mission community. The second is to use the historic and  archaeological record of the La Punta mission to begin to provide a picture of the  lifeways of the mission’s inhabitants. Finally, I intend suggest avenues for future  research into the eighteenth-century Spanish missions of colonial Florida.   The first chapter of this thesis provides a brief overview of the history surrounding  the creation of the eighteenth-century missions of Spanish Florida. It delineates the area  of study in terms of its geographical boundaries; it then provides the research focus which  will shape the form of the remainder of the thesis.   Chapter 2 provides a more in-depth examination of the historical circumstances  surrounding the shaping of the eighteenth-century missions near St. Augustine; this  section specifically examines both the broad context of Spanish-English interaction and  interplay in North America and the limited context of the jurisdictional issues  surrounding regular and secular priests’ areas of responsibility and control and their  relationship with the secular government. It then examines in detail the documentary  evidence for La Punta’s existence, focusing first on the mission’s visual depictions in  maps and thereafter on the census lists which give some indication of the community’s  demography.   Chapter 3 examines the archaeological evidence from the hypothesized area of La  Punta’s existence. It first presents a detailed consideration of the physical environment  within the delimited area of study. It then presents the results of the excavations of five  sites within the study area: 161 and 159 Marine Streets, 321 St. George Street, 8 Hedrick  Street, and 11 Tremerton Street.  3   Chapter 4 first takes the results of the investigations presented in Chapters 2 and 3  and argues that the sites within the study area are the remains of the La Punta mission  community, based on the following four factors: the correlation between the historic  evidence and the archaeological evidence as to La Punta’s location; the presence of  ceramic series associated with the Native American groups which were known to be  present at La Punta; the correspondence between the form of the structures present at the  sites examined and those known through research elsewhere to have been present at  Spanish mission communities; and the presence of a burial ground within a structure,  which is a clear indicator of the presence of a mission church.   Thereafter, it is argued that the sites, taken as a whole, represent three areas within  the mission community: a living area for the mission’s inhabitants, an agricultural area  where crops were grown, and a sacred area where worship and other religious activities  took place. Avenues for future research are discussed, and conclusions about the site are  presented, along with the theoretical underpinnings that might guide research on the  eighteenth century missions as compared to the earlier missions of Spanish Florida.   During the time of the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the sixteenth and  seventeenth centuries, the mission system was the principal institution under which  Spanish and Native American interaction took place (Crow 1992:191-208; Worth  1998a:35–43). In southeastern North America, as elsewhere under the rule of imperial  Spain, the mission system was ideally intended to provide a mechanism for the  integration of Native American groups into Spanish colonial society, and to provide a  source of labor and food for the Spanish crown (Crow 1992:207-208; Worth 1998a:42- 43; Milanich 1995:202, 206, 1999:146, 149).  4   The missions of Spanish La Florida changed significantly through time. At the  height of the mission system’s expansion during the First Spanish period [1565-1763],  prior to the Timucuan Rebellion in 1656, the area missionized by the Spanish included all  of the northern third of modern Florida, the southeastern portion of Georgia, and all of  the Atlantic Coast between modern Ponce de Leon Inlet and St. Catherine’s Island (Hann  1996:174-190; Milanich 1999:128). Later in the seventeenth century population decline  in the original Native American groups missionized by the Spanish – the Guale,  Timucua, and Apalachee – resulted in an influx of Native American groups from outside  the original area of missionization to the La Florida missions (Worth 1998b:9, 16-21;  Hann 1996:257-267).   Furthermore, the area directly controlled by the Spanish contracted continually  throughout much of the first Spanish period. As a result of the English settlement of  Charles Town in 1670, English colonists and soldiers and English-allied Native American  groups could raid into Spanish Florida to capture Indians to be sold as slaves and to  destroy the mission settlements. The coastal Guale missions of what is now Georgia were  abandoned as a result of such attacks late in the seventeenth century (Milanich 1995:222- 223). During the first decade of the eighteenth century, major English invasions and  attacks took place in 1702, 1704, and 1706, ultimately resulting in the Spanish deciding  to abandon most of the area west of the St. Johns River and to concentrate mission  settlements within a defensible distance of the colonial capital at St. Augustine (Hann  1988, 1996:300-303; Milanich 1999:188-190).   While the mission system continued to provide an arena for Spanish/Native  American interaction during the eighteenth century, the collapse of Florida’s original  5   Native American population, the immigration of Native American groups from outside  the earlier mission territories, and the need to concentrate mission settlements for  defensive purposes all suggest that the mission communities of the eighteenth century  may have differed from the missions founded by the Spanish in the late sixteenth and  seventeenth centuries. The original missions founded by the Franciscans in the late  1500s and the first decades of the 1600s in Spanish Florida were founded in two stages.  First, a Native American leader, usually a principal chief within a group, would formally  “render obedience” to the Spanish crown, thereby creating at least a nominal and  voluntary subordination of chiefly authority to Spanish colonial officials; often this took  place during a visit by this principal chief to St. Augustine, the colonial capital of Spanish  Florida. Thereafter, a mission with a resident friar would be formally established within  that leader’s territory (Worth 1998a:36-41), typically within the “principal town” of the  converted chiefdom (Worth 1998a:41; Milanich 1995:178 –179).   Thus, the original missions of Spanish Florida were originated in a way which  tended to reinforce chiefly authority, and were placed in areas which were chosen by  Native Americans for their own reasons rather than the convenience of the Spanish  (Milanich 1995:178; Gannon 1983:54). For the earlier missions of Spanish Florida, then,  it is likely that mission placements were in areas where resources were abundant enough  to support “principal towns,” and they would have been dependent on choices made by  Native American groups regarding resource availability, routes of contact with other  Native American groups, and their own defense and ability to travel.   The missions of the eighteenth century, however, were located where they were for  very different reasons, particularly to allow them to protect and be protected by St.  6   Augustine. The decision to concentrate missions within a defensible distance of St.  Augustine meant that eighteenth-century colonial Spanish missions needed to be placed  in a relatively small area, on the St. Augustine peninsula or nearby, within the defenses  established for the protection of St. Augustine by the Spanish (Waterbury 1983:69-71).  Because the primary factor governing the placement of eighteenth-century Spanish  missions was the defense of the colonial capital (Hann 1996:300-303), as well as  movement in response to raids or attacks (Parker 1999:47-51), the missions of the  eighteenth century would not have been in traditional native locales with ample resource  availability. Such mission communities would have had to make use of the limited  resources available within the defensive perimeter established by the colonial authorities.  This was in contrast to many of the earlier missions, particularly those established within  the territory of the Apalachee, which were in areas very well suited for crop production.  Such missions provided food not merely for the mission’s inhabitants but for the Spanish  colonists of La Florida, as well as for export from the colony (Hann and McEwan 1998;  Scarry 1993:369; McEwan 1993:296-297; Worth 1998a:176-186).   Furthermore, the people of the eighteenth-century missions would have been  substantially different both in ethnic (tribal) affiliation and in cultural practices from the  Native American groups first missionized by the Spanish - the Timucua, Apalachee and   Guale Indians. The mission populations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would  have principally been those Native American groups indigenous to the areas colonized by  the Spanish: the Guale of the coastal region of Georgia (Saunders 2000:29, 43), the  Apalachee of the eastern Panhandle region of Florida (Hann 1988:6), and the Timucua speaking groups of the northern third of peninsular Florida (Milanich 1994:247, 1995:80- 7   87, 1999:31). But the process of missionization meant exposure to European-introduced  diseases, leading throughout the mission era to catastrophic population collapse over time  (Dobyns 1991:74; Worth 1998b:8, 9) and consequent changes in cultural and political  alliances and territories among Native American groups. Ultimately, raids by the English  and their Native American allies into Spanish Florida resulted in the eventual cultural  extinction of the original people of Florida (Worth 1998b:144-146) and the movement of  new groups into the traditional mission territories.   Native American groups from outside Florida began to enter the lands of the  original groups in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, settling in areas  outside Spanish control or, in some cases, seeking the protection of the Spanish (Worth  1998b:27-35, 147-149). The largest such group was the Yamassee, a “colonial tribe of  refugees…comprised of a diverse assortment of individual communities that seem to  have aggregated around several important core towns” (Worth 2004: 1-2), many of whom  were fleeing English Carolina after the Yamassee War of 1715 (Worth 1998b:48-149,  Hann 1996:306-318; Crane 1929: 162). The Yamassee had been English allies prior to  the Yamassee War, and had been one of the groups participating in the destruction of the  mission system during the raids of 1702-1706 (Milanich 1999:178, 183; Wright 1986:8,  13, 16). With the expulsion of the Yamassee in 1715, and their decision to seek refuge in  Spanish Florida, the Spanish were placed in the position of incorporating a Native  American group into the mission system whose members had long experience dealing  with the English. The Yamassee, as the principal cultural group seeking refuge at the  eighteenth-century missions, had been in contact with the English, had regularly traded  with them, and had served as English allies during the earlier raids into Spanish Florida.  8   Some Yamassee groups had already been missionized by the Spanish prior to the first  decades of the 1700‘s (Hann 1996:306-307; Milanich 1999:171-174). Thus, some people  of the eighteenth-century missions would thus have been culturally different and perhaps  more experienced dealing with Europeans than the earlier mission populations, and  would quite likely have had the knowledge necessary to take advantage of the proximity  of the Spanish colonial presence.   For these reasons, it seems likely significant differences would have existed  between the eighteenth-century refugee missions and the missions founded earlier. Since  the sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish missions were placed at considerable  distances from St. Augustine (Worth 1998b:Appendix A), the Spanish presence at the  earlier missions was in most cases minimal. A doctrina – a mission which had resident  friars – would typically have had one or two priests living alone among many hundreds  of Native Americans (Milanich 1995:167), with small garrisons of soldiers at missions of  unusual size or importance (Milanich 1995:172; Hann and McEwan 1998). Thus, the  Spanish would not have been able to enforce their cultural norms on the people of the  sixteenth and seventeenth century mission communities primarily by force and needed to  work more through persuasion and negotiation (Worth 1998a:36-41).   But the eighteenth-century missons were placed within a defensive perimeter in  walking distance of the colonial capital and of one another (Arredondo 1737), shifting  their locations in a “concertina” movement in response to military and economic  pressures (Parker 1999: 47). For that reason, far more Europeans would have been in  close proximity to the eighteenth-century refugee missions than the earlier missions,  9   exposing the people living at these missions to continuous close contact with European  ways of life and thought and to the conflicts taking place within Spanish society.  The focus of this thesis is the lifeways which existed at one eighteenth-century  mission community: Nuestra Senora del Rosario de La Punta, more commonly known as  “La Punta” for short, the term used throughout this work. A small part of the La Punta  mission community has been examined in earlier study (White 2002), both to compare  the mission with Yamassee archaeological sites located in South Carolina and to identify  the form of the material culture record of Yamassee communities.   In this work, I want to analyze the historic and archaeological record of the La  Punta mission community for the purposes of understanding the living conditions and  cultural practices of the people of the eighteenth-century colonial Spanish mission  communities and to outline how those communities differed from the earlier mission  communities of the interior of La Florida (the missions of Apalachee, Guale and  Timucua). The research questions addressed in this thesis are as follows:   1. Are the early to mid-eighteenth century archaeological sites south of the colonial  city of St. Augustine associated with the La Punta mission community? The  historic evidence suggests that the only early-to-mid eighteenth century occupation  of the area south of the colonial city of St. Augustine proper, on the St. Augustine  peninsula, was the refugee mission community of La Punta. Are the archaeological  remains dating to the eighteenth century in that area indeed associated with the  mission community of La Punta?   2. If so, what does the historic and archaeological information relating to the La Punta  mission community reveal about the lifeways of a Spanish refugee mission of the  eighteenth century? How are those lifeways different from those of the earlier  missions found well outside the St. Augustine locality?   In the chapters which follow, the historic record of the eighteenth century is  analyzed and evidence is presented which suggests that any site in the study area, dating  to the eighteenth century and showing archaeological evidence of Native American  10   occupation is almost certainly associated with the La Punta mission community. Then  the archaeological evidence from sites located within the study area is presented and  discussed to provide a clearer picture of the form of the La Punta mission community,  including patterns of land use, spatial positioning of structures and activity areas within  the larger area analyzed, and lifeways of the people of the mission community, including  agricultural, domestic and burial practices. Third, the historic and archaeological  information from the La Punta mission community is discussed to begin to create a  picture of that community and the lifeways of its inhabitants. Lastly, theory is used to  suggest future research to further describe the eighteenth-century refugee missions of St.  Augustine and to explain how and why they differ from the earlier mission communities.   Prior to this discussion, the geographic area of study within this work will be  defined. The colonial city of Spanish San Agústin was built on a peninsula defined on the  west by Maria Sanchez Creek, on the east by the Matanzas River, on the south by the  joining of the creek and the Matanzas River, and on the north by the Castillo de San  Marcos and the Cubo Line, a palm log wall which extended westward from the fort (see  Figure 1.1). The western and southern boundaries of the city itself were defined by the  Rosario Line, which with the Cubo Line formed a “line of circumvallation” ending in a  redoubt “a short distance south” of St. Francis Street (Chatelain 1941: 86-87; Chatelain  undated:7). Thus, the area of study consists of the land south of the National Guard  Headquarters and cemetery, west of the Matanzas and east of Maria Sanchez Lake, south  to the southern tip of the peninsula, and just south of the colonial city of St. Augustine  itself (see Figure 1.1).  11   Figure 1-1 The Colonial City of St. Augustine and the Study Area  CHAPTER 2   THE HISTORIC EVIDENCE: INDICATIONS AND RECORDS OF  THE MISSION COMMUNITY’S PRESENCE   To understand the colonial-era documents which refer to the La Punta mission  community, it is necessary to understand the historic context in which the documents  were written. The eighteenth century in North America was a time of tremendous  demographic and political change, and the existence of the St. Augustine refugee  missions of that era in Spanish Florida was a consequence of the shifting political,  economic, and military alliances among the European powers of the time – in the  Southeast, particularly England and Spain – and the Native American groups in whose  territory Europeans were settling. Accordingly, I first will discuss the historic events  taking place in the Southeast and elsewhere immediately before La Punta’s founding,  during its existence, and immediately thereafter. I will then present the historic  documents discussing the La Punta mission community, and their relevance to the  research questions presented.   Eighteenth Century Florida: Disruption and Change   The opening years of the eighteenth century set in motion events which would  determine the form of life in Spanish Florida for the remainder of the first Spanish period.  Prior to 1702, English entry into Spanish Florida had been relatively minimal. While  raids on the missions of Florida and on St. Augustine had increased, such attacks were  relative pinpricks compared to what came after (Milanich 1999:168-174).  12   13   In 1702, Governor James Moore of Carolina led a major military force consisting  of some 500 Carolina colonists and more than 300 Native American allies, principally  Yamassee Indians, into Spanish Florida. During this raid, Moore destroyed all of the  Spanish coastal missions between Charles Town and St. Augustine, laid siege for nearly  two months to the Castillo de San Marcos, and ultimately burned St. Augustine to the  ground prior to his withdrawal (Arnade 1959: 23, 58; Halbirt 2002: 29-30; Milanich  1999:177-185: 2002:1-2). Moore led two further major raids into Spanish Florida. The  first, in 1704, devastated the Apalachee missions of the eastern Panhandle of Florida  (Hann 1988:264-265), while in 1706, the last surviving Timucua missions of San  Francisco de Potano and its satellites, near modern Gainesville (Milanich 1995:225-227;  Hann 1996:300-303; Worth 1998b:142-146) were destroyed. During these raids, Creek  and Yamassee Indians, as allies of the English, were encouraged to take slaves from the  mission populations. Some Apalachee Indians threw off their allegiance to the Spanish  and returned to Carolina with the English; others fled west to Mobile and beyond. As a  result of the raids, the mission chain of Spanish Florida west of the St. Johns River was  totally destroyed (Milanich 1999:187-188; Worth 1998b:142-146).   Following the destruction of the missions, particularly during the first two decades  of the eighteenth century, Native American slavers allied with the English were able to  range freely throughout the Florida peninsula, even to the Keys (Hann 2003:179; Worth  1998b:146). The decision was made by Florida’s Spanish governors, beginning with  Joseph de Zúñiga y Zerda in 1706, to concentrate all Native American groups within  Florida close to the Spanish capital, behind the Spanish defensive works and near to or  within the city of St. Augustine (Hann 1996:303). This meant a large increase in the  14   Native American population in St. Augustine, a fact which is reflected archaeologically  in a substantially increased proportion of Native American to European ceramics in St.  Augustine sites dating to the eighteenth century, as well as the increasing presence of  colonoware in early eighteenth century contexts (Deagan 2002:107). The Native  American refugees arriving in St. Augustine were organized into mission towns  surrounding the colonial capital. Some of these missions – Nombre de Dios and  Tolomato – already existed prior to the destruction of the interior missions (Worth 1998b:  Appendix A). Others were constructed in areas that had not been previously occupied by  missions, within the limits of the town’s defenses or near enough to the defenses to be  effective as a “first line” of obstacles for an attacking enemy to overcome (Worth  1998b:147). Ultimately, the chain of missions near St. Augustine formed a semicircular  perimeter enclosing the city on the north, west and south (Arrendondo 1737), though the  locations of the refugee mission communities changed through the time of their existence  (Parker 1999:47).   The Native Americans relocated to St. Augustine in the first decade of the  eighteenth century primarily included survivors of the missions destroyed by Moore’s  raids into Florida: Timucua, Guale, and Apalachee Indians (Hann 1996:303-305).  However, events during the next decade would drastically alter the demographic makeup  of the refugee missions. In 1715, many Native American groups in Carolina, including  the Yamassee, Creeks, Choctaw, and to some degree the Cherokee (Crane 1929:162),  joined in a general uprising against the English at Charles Town, an uprising which  became known as the Yamassee War (Hann 1996:306; Hann 2003:179). The uprising,  incited by abuses against Native Americans perpetrated by English traders (Hann  15   2003:179), was defeated by the English. As a result, the Yamassee fled from Carolina,  many of them seeking sanctuary with the Spanish in Florida. While this movement by  recent adversaries may at first seem unusual, the Spanish needed Native American allies  for the defense of the capital, and the Yamassee, long familiar with the political and  military conflicts between Spain and England, needed European allies opposed to  England. The Yamassee were quickly integrated into the existing mission system.   The Yamassee have been characterized as “a historic period aggregation of diverse  coastal and interior peoples” (Saunders 2000:48), which appear to have principally  centered on the remnants of the De Soto-era chiefdoms of Altamaha/Tama, Ocute, and  Ichisi (Worth 2004:2-3; Smith 1968:51-65). The Yamassee appear to have spoken a  Muskogean dialect related to Hitchiti and Guale (Worth 2004:1). While it has been  claimed that the term “Yamassee” was a name given to the Yamassee by Spanish  observers (Carl Halbirt, City of St. Augustine archaeologist, 2005, personal  communication), the name is actually Native American in derivation and appears to have  been the term used by the Yamassee themselves (John Worth 2005, personal  communication).   The refugee missions around St. Augustine existed within a complex jurisdictional  system of both ecclesiastical and secular government and within the social statuses  associated with these institutions. The Catholic Church was the common cultural bond  for all of the residents of St. Augustine and its environs:   Regardless of how the citizens of St. Augustine might describe themselves in terms  of race, origin, or profession, they always identified themselves as Catholics…This  corporate identity was essential in demarcating the sociopsychological boundaries  of colonial St. Augustine…Race, nationality, familial background, and economic  standing determined one’s place within St. Augustine’s social order, but without a  16   profession of Catholic faith, one would remain decidedly outside that social order.  (Kapitzke 2001:8)   However, one’s place within the Catholic faith and the social order was also  determined by jurisdictional conflict between the regular and the secular clergy. In the  Catholic religious hierarchy, “regular” clergy are those clergy who are members of  religious orders, such as the Jesuits or Franciscans, which are committed to particular  tasks and are exempt from the jurisdiction of the local bishop (Gannon 1983:XIV).  “Secular” clergy, on the other hand, are those priests who work “in geographically  defined parishes under the direct supervision of a bishop” (Gannon 1983:XIV).   The mission system of Spanish Florida was under the control of regular clergy from  the Franciscan order, and their support was, in theory, to be provided by the governors of  Spanish Florida through the support of the crown (Gannon 1983:37). During the  sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Franciscans would primarily have been  concerned with missions at substantial distances from the “secular” parish priests in St.  Augustine itself (Worth 1998b:Appendix A). Though the center of operations for  Franciscan missionary efforts was located within the urban area of St. Augustine at the  friary of St. Francis (Hoffman 1993:62), the Franciscans’ principal concern during this  time would have been with the missions located in the hinterland, out of the geographic  boundaries of the parish priest’s jurisdiction.   But during the eighteenth century, the refugee missions were placed in close  proximity to St. Augustine. This tended to create questions of jurisdiction and conflicts  between the Franciscans, as regular clergy overseeing the refugee missions, and the  parish priests of the city:   Their harmonious interaction was essential in maintaining social and religious  stability in the frontier town of St. Augustine. Yet at times, their relationship  17   turned acrimonious. When this occurred, the ensuing struggles disrupted the social  order and presented the citizens of St. Augustine with the image of a house divided  against itself. (Kapitzke 2001:124)   During the period of the refugee missions, one of the primary areas of dispute  centered on “secularization”: the shifting of control of parishes and parishioners from  regular to secular clergy (Kapitzke 2001:124). In eighteenth century St. Augustine, the  process of “secularization” would have meant the movement of mission populations from  the control of the Franciscans to St. Augustine’s parish priest (Kapitzke 2001:124-125).  Another area of dispute between the friars and parish priests centered on the rights and  privileges attached to each office, including the right to administer the sacraments  (Kapitzke 2001:124, 125, 128-130).   The Native American groups living at the refugee missions thus lived in a religious  and social atmosphere centered on the Catholic Church and its traditions, and affected by  conflict between both regular and secular clergy and the secular authority, led by the  governors of Spanish Florida.   English raids and attacks on St. Augustine continued throughout the remainder of  the First Spanish period, including Palmer’s 1728 raid and destruction of several Native  American mission settlements near St. Augustine (Chatelain 1941:88) and the 1740 siege  conducted by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia (Waterbury 1983:76-79).  Throughout this time, the populations of the refugee missions steadily declined, from a  high point in of 1,011 total Native Americans in 1717 to 89 people in the year 1763, the  year of the first Spanish withdrawal from Florida (Hann 1996:328). During these years,  however, the refugee population fluctuated somewhat, though the overall trend was  down.  18   The 89 Native American mission inhabitants were withdrawn from Florida with the  Spanish in 1763, when La Florida was passed from Spanish to British rule. During the  time of British rule in Florida (1763 -1784), the British created a plantation agricultural  system in Florida, concentrated east of the St. Johns River, with St. Augustine serving as  principal military outpost in Florida (Schafer 2001:48-58, 76-99). The Seminoles, Creek  descendents who had begun moving into central Florida during the last decades of  Spanish rule, visited St. Augustine but were never allowed to settle there by the British.  Treaty agreements between the British and the Creek and Seminole leaders fixed the St.  Johns River as the boundary between British occupation in the east, and Native American  occupation in the west (Schafer 2001:48-58, 76-99).   The Historic Evidence for La Punta’s Existence   The founding of Nuestra Senora de La Punta as one of the refugee mission towns  around St. Augustine appears to have taken place after the Yamassee War of 1715. The  historic evidence for La Punta’s presence as a mission community, and its demographic  composition, comes from two sources: depictions of the mission community in maps, and  documents noting the mission’s presence. Each of these sources is discussed in turn.  Where applicable, I also will note descriptions of the mission community incorporated in  the visual depictions.   Maps Depicting the Location of the La Punta Mission Community  Colonial-era Spanish and British maps from the early to mid-eighteenth century  provide depictions of the La Punta mission community and its placement relative to St.  Augustine proper and the other mission towns; they also provide evidence regarding the  time of the community’s founding and its abandonment by the Spanish. British maps  from Florida’s era of British rule (1763-1784) provide some indication of the land’s use  19   immediately subsequent to the time of the mission community’s existence. Together  these sources suggest that the La Punta mission occupied the area south of St. Augustine,  on the St. Augustine peninsula, from the late 1720s until 1752, less than 30 years, and  that British structures occupied the land where the mission community had existed during  the time of British rule (Halbirt, in preparation).   First Spanish Period maps of the La Punta Mission community  The Palmer Map of 1730   The Palmer map, made by an English officer who led a raid against the Native  American mission communities near St. Augustine in 1728 (Chatelain 1941:88) and was  killed besieging the city of St. Augustine with Oglethorpe in 1740 (see Figure 2.1),  depicts an “Indian Town” immediately to the south of the southern wall of the city,  between what appears to be Maria Sanchez Creek and the Matanzas River (Palmer 1730).  To the west of this first “Indian Town” is noted a second “Indian Town,” across what  appears to be Maria Sanchez Creek and east of the San Sebastian River. These two  “Indian Towns” appear to correspond with the missions of La Punta and Pocotalaca,  respectively, as listed on the 1737 Arredondo map (Arredondo 1737).   There is no information listed on the 1730 Palmer map as to the nature of the  inhabitants of these two “Indian Towns.” However, two other such towns, located  northwest across the San Sebastian River and immediately to the north of the city wall  extending to from the Castillo, are listed as: “Yamacy Town taken by Col. Palmer from  Charles Town”, and “Yamacy Hutts”, respectively (Palmer 1730), suggesting the  presence of Yamassee Indians in the towns when the Palmer map was drawn.  Furthermore, the primary objective of Palmer’s raid in 1728 was “the destruction…of the  20   remnants of the once powerful Yemassee nation” (Chatelain 1941:88), suggesting the  “Indian towns” depicted on Palmer’s map would have been inhabited by Yamassee. Figure 2-1 The Palmer Map (1730)   The Arredondo Map of 1737   The Antonio de Arredondo map of St. Augustine and its environs, dated May 15,  1737, depicts St. Augustine and the refugee mission communities in existence at the time.  It also shows superimposed plans for future defensive works surrounding the city (see  Figure 2.2). The map includes a legend numbering each of the mission communities’  residents.   The Arredondo map locates La Punta immediately south of the city. It depicts a  road running south of the city’s southern wall to the peninsula’s tip (see Figure 2.2). A  21   Figure 2-2 Arredondo Map (1737)   single larger structure, probably the mission church, is surrounded by sixteen smaller  structures, with four smaller structures at the road’s southernmost end. Presumably these  22   are individual houses of the mission villagers. These houses are surrounded with what  appear to be cultivated fields. The mission community is bounded on the west by Maria  Sanchez Creek, on the east by the Matanzas River, and on the south by the confluence of  the two.   The legend accompanying the map lists each feature by number. La Punta, number  21, is described as “Church and town of La Punta 17 men and 17 women and children  accordingly” (Arrendondo 1737).   Anonymous Map of the City and Port of Saint Augustine, 1740   This map by an unknown maker, written in French, depicts an “Indian Town”  located to the south of the southern city wall between what appears to be Maria Sanchez  Creek and the San Sebastian River (see Figure 2.3).   This map appears to depict twelve structures present at the designated “Indian  Town,” centered on a road running to the southern tip of the peninsula between them  (Anonymous 1740). A dock or wharf of some sort is shown on the southeastern side of  the Indian Town,” extending into the Matanzas River (see Figure 2.3).   This map is not a clear depiction of La Punta as an individual town; the town itself  is designated only as “Ville Ind”, and its location would place it in the vicinity of the  mission community of Pocotalaca rather than that of La Punta (Arredondo 1737).  However, the notation of the town’s existence suggests the presence of Native American  communities south of the colonial city during this period.  23   Figure 2-3 Anonymous Map of 1740   The Castello Map of 1763   The Pablo Castello map of 1763, drawn to provide a clear reference for the British  authorities occupying St. Augustine after Spanish withdrawal from Florida, depicts the  ruined remains of the La Punta mission community immediately south of the southern  city wall, between Maria Sanchez Creek and the Matanzas River (see Figure 2.4). The  Castello map describes the ruins as “Ruined church that was of the Town of Indians of La  Punta” (Castello 1763). This indicates the mission community no longer existed in 1763,  though its location was still known to the Spanish, and was still apparently visible on the  ground. This further suggests that the British, at least at the beginning of the British  occupation of Florida, would have known and recognized the area occupied by the La  Punta mission when determining placement of their own buildings in the area.  24   Figure 2-4 Castello Map (1763)   British Period maps of the former location of La Punta   The J. Purcell Map of 1777   The J. Purcell map of British St. Augustine shows a trail running south of the  southernmost wall of the city to the area of the La Punta mission and the “Indian Towns”  noted on the earlier Spanish maps (see Figure 2.5). This trail terminates within what  appears to be a walled enclosure containing three structures, one larger and two smaller  (see Figure 2.5) These features are placed on the southern tip of the peninsula of St.  Augustine, between Maria Sanchez Creek and the Matanzas River (Purcell 1777).   The legends accompanying this map do not indicate the nature of the walls of the  enclosure or of the structures, nor their occupants (Purcell 1777), though other documents  25   Figure 2-5 The J. Purcell Map (1777)   suggest the structures may have been a hospital (McGee et. al. 2005). Furthermore, the  enclosure and structures are dissimilar to any of the depictions of the La Punta mission  community as drawn on the earlier Spanish or English maps (Palmer 1730; Arredondo  1737; Anonymous 1740), suggesting that the features depicted on the Purcell map, while  26   built on the La Punta site, were not part of the mission community ruins and were built  subsequent to the Castello map’s drafting (Castello 1763).   The H. Burrard Map of 1780   This map depicts two separate features to the south of the southern wall of St.  Augustine: an enclosure within what appears to be a single structure, and, to the south of  that feature, what appears to be a separate enclosure with three structures inside (see  Figure 2.6). Immediately beside the southern wall, within the city itself, is a legend  noting “Barracks”, also depicting an enclosure with three structures within (see Figure  2.6). The southernmost feature is clearly placed between Maria Sanchez Creek and the  Matanzas River (Burrard 1780).   This southernmost feature is very similar, though not identical, to the features  depicted on the Purcell map, and appears to be placed in the same location. Furthermore,  the Franciscan mission headquarters where the British later built their principal barracks  was north of the site of La Punta and appears to be north of the features depicted on the  Burrard map at the southern extreme of the St. Augustine peninsula (Schafer 2001:55;  Hoffman 1993:73-74). Thus, given the cartographic imperfection of the maps of the  time, it seems reasonably certain that the southernmost features depicted on the Burrard  map are the same features depicted on the Purcell map, and that these features were built  on the site of the earlier La Punta mission.   Anonymous Map of Saint Augustine and Environs, 1782   This map depicts the enclosure and three structures appearing on the earlier British era maps; it has a legend labeling this cluster of features as “Fort Wright” (see Figure  2.7), while other versions of this map label the same cluster of features “Dr. Wright” or  “Hospital” (McGee et. al. 2005). As with the earlier maps, this cluster is placed between  27   Figure 2.6 The H. Burrard Map (1780)  28   Maria Sanchez Creek and the Matanzas River south of the walled city. It also appears to  be placed in the area labeled as La Punta mission or “Indian Town” on the maps drawn in  1763 or earlier.  
Figure 2-7 Anonymous Map (1782)   The British built a number of new defensive structures to protect St. Augustine  during the time of their control of Florida, including redoubts and barracks (Schafer  2001:48-58). Since the structures depicted in the study area on the British-era maps are  relatively consistent through time, it seems likely that this cluster of features, whether a  fort or a hospital, were British structures built during the first half of the British period  29   and remaining in existence through at least 1782. The cluster was clearly located south  of the barracks built on the site of the Franciscan convent.   Documents Describing the Mission Community   Documents listing the refugee mission communities of the early eighteenth century  provide a time frame for Nuestra Senora del Rosario de La Punta. They also provide  some clues as to the identity and ethnic affiliation of the people living within the mission  community.   The Anonymous Mission List of 1736   The first written mention of the La Punta mission occurs in a 1736 mission census  (Swanton 1922:105). La Punta is listed as one of eight refugee missions in existence at  the time, the others being Pocotalaca, Nombre de Dios Chiquito, San Nicolas, Tolomato,  La Costa, Palica, and a “Village of Timucua” (Swanton 1922:105; Hann 1996:316). La  Punta’s inhabitants are described as being “Cacique Juan and 16 men, 1 of them  Apalachee” (Swanton 1922:105; Hann 1996: 316.)   The Benavides Mission List: April 21, 1738   This mission census lists a total of nine refugee missions: La Punta, Macharis, La  Costa, Tolomato, Palica, Pocotalaca, Nombre de Dios Chiquito, San Nicolas, and an  unnamed “Chapter House (St. Augustine” (Benavides 1738). La Punta is described as  having “41 people, 15 of them warriors”, suggesting the earlier 1736 census may have  only listed fighting men available to the Spanish rather than the total number of  inhabitants.   The First Montiano Mission List: June 4, 1738   This 1738 census names ten refugee missions, suggesting a new influx of people  between April and June of 1738. This list includes La Punta, as well as Macaris, La  30   Costa, Tholomato, Palica, Pocotalaca, Nombre de Dios Chiquito, San Nicolas, Pojoy and  Amacaparis, and “Chapter House” (Montiano 1738). La Punta’s inhabitants are listed as  “43 people (10 men, 13 women, and 20 children)” (Hann 1996:316).  The Guemes y Horcasitas List of 1739   This document from late 1738 lists only eight mission communities, suggesting that  some amalgamation of the mission populations may have taken place subsequent to the  compilation of Montiano’s listing. N. Senora del Rosario, Punta is present, as well as  Nombre de Dios Macaris, San Antonio de la Costa, N. Senora de Guadelupe, Tolomato,  N. Senora de La Assumpcion, Palica, N. Senora de la Concepcion, Pocotalaca, Santo  Domingo de Chiquitos, and San Nicolas de Casapullos (Guemes y Horcasitas 1739).  The inhabitants of the La Punta mission were 14 families and 51 total inhabitants (Hann  1996:317). Because 43 inhabitants were listed as present at La Punta on Montiano’s  listing, it seems likely that some of the inhabitants from one of the other missions had  been moved to La Punta by this time.   The Second Montiano Mission List: June 23, 1739   This census lists a total of eight mission communities: Nuestra Senora de Rosario  de la Punta, Nombre de Dios de Macaris, Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe de Tolomato,  Santo Domingo de Chiquito, Nuestra Senora de la Assuncion de Palica, Nuestra Senora  de la Concepcion de Pocotalaca, Pueblo de San Nicolas de Casapullos, and Pueblo de San  Antonio de la Costa (Montiano 1739). This census of mission towns contains no  demographic data; it simply lists the communities in existence at that time.  The Gelabert Report of 1752   This census of the mission communities indicates that six mission communities  were present in 1752. They are La Punta, Tolomato, Pocotalaca, la Costa, Palica, and  31   Nombre de Dios (Gelabert 1752). La Punta was the largest of the refugee mission  communities with 25 men and 34 women. No children are listed. The leader of the La  Punta mission community is “Antonio Yuta”, a Yamassee name, suggesting that the  inhabitants of the mission community were primarily Yamassee at this time (Hann  1996:323).   The Gelabert report is the last direct mention of the mission community of La  Punta. By 1759, the six refugee missions listed by Gelabert had been consolidated into  two mission communities, Nombre de Dios and Tolomato (Hann 1996:323). This is  consistent with the information included on the Castello map, indicating that La Punta  mission was in ruins by 1763 (Castello 1763).   The Griñan Report of 1756   This document was written in 1756 by a royal official who had lived in St.  Augustine from 1731 to 1742, for the purpose of providing a comprehensive summary of  Florida’s conditions and defenses for Spain’s new secretary of State for the Navy and the  Indies (Scardaville and Belmonte 1979:1). Griñan’s report provides a description of the  conditions of the mission towns as they appeared to him during his time stationed in St.  Augustine, which would have applied to La Punta, since the mission was in existence  during that time.   16. Christian Indians. There are 50 to 60 armed men in the Indian villages around  the town who serve on frequent expeditions, by regularly accompanying the  cavalry squads on patrols in the vicinity.   ***   26. Inclinations, Vices and Villages of the Christian Indians. In the environs of  Florida (but outside of the circumvallation line and under the cannon of the  fortresses), there are five small villages of Christian Indians from the Yamassee  Nation that are inhabited by up to one hundred families. Their dwellings are small  palm houses, much distant from one another, and they plant corn and legumes on  32   their respective plots. But because of their limited efforts at farming, for they do  not put much effort into this work, they produce only a very small harvest. They  use most of their time to hunt, for which they have more inclination, and also to  wage war. They are brave, but greatly inclined to inebriety, consuming in this vice  whatever they earn from their hunting and even from the fruits of their sowing.  (Scardaville and Belmonte 1979:9, 11)   While Griñan’s report was written well after his time of residence in St. Augustine,  and is clearly not perfectly impartial in its observations, it does provide some insight into  how conditions at the refugee mission communities, including Nuestra Senora de La  Punta, appeared to the Spanish residents of St. Augustine during the time of the refugee  missions’ existence.   Discussion   The data from the historic documents relating to the La Punta mission community  suggest two things. First, the physical location of the La Punta mission community  appears to have changed relatively little if at all throughout the time of its documented  existence, from at least 1728 to at least 1752. Second, the community itself, as well as  the system of which it was a part, was under constant demographic change.   The maps, when taken as a whole, seem to indicate that from the time of La Punta’s  first depiction on the Palmer map (Palmer 1730), the mission community remained in the  same physical location. Palmer depicted an “Indian town” south of St. Augustine, yet  apparently located on the St. Augustine peninsula (Palmer 1730); Arredondo depicted La  Punta as being south of the city of St. Augustine proper, on the southern tip of the  peninsula between Maria Sanchez creek on the west, the Matanzas River to the east, and  their confluence to the south (Arredondo 1737). Subsequent maps of the area around St.  Augustine, through the end of the First Spanish Period in 1763, continue to depict a  mission community in that same location; the last map from the era, the Castello map,  33   notes that the ruins of the La Punta mission community were still visible in the same  location that La Punta had been depicted by earlier cartographers (Castello 1763;  Arredondo 1737; Palmer 1730; Anonymous 1740). Accordingly, it seems highly likely  that the physical location of the La Punta mission community changed very little over  time.   But while the physical setting of the La Punta mission community may have  changed little through time, its demographic composition appears to have been in a state  of flux. The numbers of people present at La Punta through time appear to have slowly  increased, from the sixteen warriors listed as present in 1736 (Swanton 1922:105), to the  fifty-nine people listed as present at the mission in 1752, including twenty-five men and   thirty-four women (Gelabert 1752; Hann 1996:323). The numbers of people present at  La Punta, when taken in conjunction with the changing numbers of other refugee  missions, suggest that this increase was likely due both to the consolidation of other  mission populations with the population of La Punta itself, as well as a continuing  movement of refugees to the area. The overall decline of the total refugee missions’  population throughout this time (Hann 1996:317-325) suggests that continuing in migration of people would have been necessary for La Punta’s population to remain  constant, let alone increase. The proximity of the refugee missions to the colonial capital  would have increased the risk of disease, as well as social and psychological pathologies,  and would have subjected the inhabitants to attacks on the city, all of which would have  contributed to population decline.   It may be significant that there is no data for La Punta and the other mission  communities between 1739 and 1752. Those years would have been a time of great  34   danger for the refugee missions: James Oglethorpe, the governor of Georgia, had laid  unsuccessful siege to the city of St. Augustine in 1740 (Chatelain 1941:91-92; Waterbury  1983:76-79), as a part of the War of Jenkins’ Ear, and open hostilities between Spain and  England continued until 1742. It is known that a mission community of free blacks,  Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, which existed north of the colonial city, was  moved within the city walls until 1752, the year of the Gelabert report (Landers 1992:27;  Deagan and McMahon 1995). The lack of data for La Punta, as well as the other refugee  mission communities during this period, may be due to their populations being moved  within the city walls as well. Given the clear record of changing numbers of people  present at the mission through time, this suggests that La Punta’s people were subject to  being moved from mission to mission, and from mission to city, at the decision of the  colonial authorities.   From an archaeological standpoint, the historic data relating to La Punta suggests  several things. First, archaeological sites related to the La Punta mission community will  be located in the area south of St. Francis Street and the National Guard cemetery, the  location of the southern wall of the colonial city, between modern Maria Sanchez Lake  and the Matanzas River (see Fig. 1.1). Second, such sites should exhibit archaeological  complexes related to the early to mid eighteenth century, both European (Spanish) and  Native American. The names and tribal affiliations existing on the mission lists indicate  that La Punta’s inhabitants were most likely Yamassee, with some Apalachee present  (Swanton 1922:105).   Finally, archaeological sites which are a part of the La Punta mission community  should show evidence of subsequent British occupation in the same area. The British  35   period maps of the area (Purcell 1777; Anonymous 1782) indicate the presence of either a  fort or a hospital in the same physical location as the La Punta mission community.  Accordingly, sites associated with the La Punta mission community should show some  evidence of British occupation in the same location. CHAPTER 3   ARCHAEOLOGY OF SITES   IN THE STUDY AREA   This chapter examines the archaeological record of the sites within the study area  defined in the first chapter of this thesis and hypothesized to include the remains of the  eighteenth century refugee mission community of La Punta. Chapter 4 will examine how  the archaeological data from the study area sites relate to La Punta, and it will examine  what those data tell us about the La Punta mission community.   In 1987, the City of St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European  settlement in the mainland United States, established an archaeological protection  ordinance which requires archaeological investigation of any building or utility  construction with “ground-penetrating activities that exceed 100 square feet in area and 3  or more inches in depth…located within one of the City’s archaeological zones” (Halbirt,  in preparation). The archaeological sites reported here were all located and excavated as  a part of the City’s archaeological program, under the terms of the ordinance.   In presenting the archaeological evidence, the physical and geological environment  of the study area, including what is known of its natural topography and soil conditions,  are discussed first. Then the archaeological sites associated with the La Punta mission  are discussed as individual locations and as an integrated whole.   The Physical Environment of the Study Area   As noted in the first chapter of this thesis, the study area is the southern end of the  peninsula on which St. Augustine is located, bordered by Maria Sanchez Lake and marsh,  36   37   the Matanzas River, and their confluence. Prior to the nineteenth century building  activities of Henry Flagler, Maria Sanchez Lake was Maria Sanchez Creek, and extended  northwards along the western boundary of the colonial city, adding a natural barrier in the  form of a tidal creek to the town’s defenses (Waterbury 1983:114).   Both Maria Sanchez Creek and the Matanzas River are tidal rivers connected to the  Atlantic Ocean. Neither has any direct discharge of fresh water supplying their natural  flow and levels. Consequently, the natural environment of the study area is best  characterized as salt marsh surrounding tidal hammock land (Smith and Bond 1984;  Audubon 1998). In the salt marsh environment, the principal plant species are smooth  cordgrass, red cedar, and needle palmetto (Smith and Bond 1984; Audubon 1998), all of  which were likely present in the eighteenth century. Plant species typically present in  tidal hammock environments include some hardwoods such as pignut hickory and live  oak, as well as scrub pine and sabal palmetto (Audobon 1998).   The soil association present in the environment of the study area is the Myakka Immokalee-St. Johns, which is characterized as “sandy…poorly to very poorly drained”  (Smith and Bond 1984:25).   Overall, the soils of St. Johns County [including the area of study] are sandy,  acidic, and wet. These conditions do not lend themselves to widespread  agriculture. In fact, none of the soils are rated as good cropland. To farm in the  area requires drastic changes to the soil structure; the most common of these are  drawing down the water table and raising the soil’s PH and nutrient levels. (Smith  and Bond 1984:24)   The plant species naturally occurring in the environment are adapted to such acidic  soil conditions, but introduced plants of most kinds are unable to tolerate the environment  of the study area without some modification of the soil conditions.  38   The topography of the study area prior to human modification included dune ridges  characteristic of the Atlantic coastal environment (Smith and Bond 1984). Within the  study area, a north-south ridge extends from the colonial city’s southern edge to the  southern tip of the peninsula (see Fig. 3.1). Based on a post hole survey conducted at the  159 and 161 Marine Street sites, it was hypothesized by Halbirt (Halbirt, in preparation)  that   The ridge appears to be more expansive and better defined toward the north end of  the [study area] than at the south; the north end exhibits a mound shape appearance,  whereas the rise at the south end of the property is less pronounced. On the east  (Matanzas Bay) side the ridge slopes into the river, whereas on the west (Maria  Sanchez Creek) side the ridge slopes into a terrace surface. The ridge crest appears  to follow an undulating pattern that is reminiscent of dune ridges: a vertical  displacement of approximately one foot (28cm) distinguishes this pattern. (Halbirt,  in preparation) (See Fig. 3.1)   Fauna present in the immediate area of the study area include oyster, quahog clam,  and saltwater fish species such as mullet, drum, and white grunt (Audobon 1998).  There is no record of extensive modification of the topography of the study area  prior to the late nineteenth century (Halbirt, in preparation). Consequently, it appears  likely that the physical and topographical environment occurring naturally in the area  prior to the eighteenth century would have been the environment existing when the La  Punta mission community was founded in that century (Halbirt, in preparation). It is in  that context that the data from the archaeological sites associated with the La Punta  mission are considered.   Archaeological Projects Associated With the Study Area   The study area is currently occupied by a series of private homes, two assisted  living facilities, the offices of the St. Johns County Council on Aging offices, and  associated parking lots (see Fig.1.1).  39   Below, the general methodology used during the location and excavation of sites  within St. Augustine is discussed. Then the specific information recovered during the  archaeological investigation of each of the sites within the study area is presented.  Figure 3-1 LIDAR Map of Study Area   Methodology and Techniques   Since the adoption of St. Augustine’s archaeological protection ordinance in 1987,  certain methods and techniques have been developed to allow the maximum recovery of  information from sites investigated within the city limits (Halbirt 1992). All of the sites  40   discussed here were excavated after the adoption of the ordinance, and thus were  excavated using those methods.   When the requirements of the ordinance trigger the need for archaeological  investigation at a location within the city, the first phase of analysis is a posthole survey  within the limits of the property under investigation. The postholes are dug to a depth  which varies with the depth below the ground surface of culturally sterile soils. Material  from the postholes is screened through ¼” mesh for the purpose of recovering artifacts.  Artifact location and density are then plotted on a map of the site (Halbirt, in  preparation). Based on artifact distribution and density, plans are then formulated for  more extensive excavations.   During this second phase of the investigation, either 1 m by 2 m excavation units or  2m by 2m excavation units are laid out on the site, placed in areas which had high  concentrations of artifacts, features, or for other reasons, based on the data collected  during the first phase of testing. Since most sites tested under the City’s program have  modern fill and overburden present, the City archaeologist may lay out and excavate  profile trenches prior to digging excavation units to reveal the soil stratigraphy and the  depth of modern fill and overburden. When this information has been collected, larger  “stripping areas” may be laid out within which excavation will take place. These  stripping areas will then have the upper layer of modern fill and overburden stripped off  with a backhoe to expose the historic layer, subsequently excavated in either 1m by 2m or  2m by 2m test units (Halbirt, in preparation; Carl Halbirt, City of St. Augustine  archaeologist, personal communication, 2005). In St. Augustine, the historic 18th century  layer throughout the city generally consists of a concentration of fine, grayish brown to  41   brown soil, which represents the cultural midden layer produced by human activity  (White 2002). If no modern overburden is present at a site, stripping areas are not  utilized.   Each excavation unit is excavated by hand, with the soil removed from the unit  either dry-screened through ¼in mesh for artifact recovery or, if water is present at the  site, wet-screened, also through ¼in mesh (Carl Halbirt, City of St. Augustine  archaeologist, personal communication, 2005). To locate all features present within a  unit, the cultural midden is excavated down to sterile soil, represented throughout most of  St. Augustine by a layer of clean yellow-gold-colored soil.   Features within each unit are then mapped, and either bisected for profiling or  completely excavated. Based on features and material recovered from each unit, adjacent  or nearby units plotted on the site map are then excavated to recover further information.   Each unit is mapped both separately and on the overall site map prepared as a part of the  second phase of archaeological testing. At this juncture, prior to analysis, the City  archaeologist will either certify the owner’s compliance with the ordinance, allowing use  of the property, or recommend further excavation (Carl Halbirt, City of St. Augustine  archaeologist, personal communication 2005).   In the third and final research phase of testing, the artifacts and material recovered  from the site are weighed and analyzed, and the city archaeologist makes a final  determination as to the site’s significance and nature.   Five archaeological projects have been conducted in the study area. All such  projects are within the boundaries of the modern City of St. Augustine, and consequently  are designated – both here and within the records of the city’s archaeology program – by  42   their physical addresses within the city: 161 Marine Street; 159 Marine Street; 321 St.  George Street; 8 Hedrick Street; and 11 Tremerton Street. All of these locations appear  to be associated with the hypothesized La Punta mission site as a whole, designated as  8SJ94 in the Florida Master Site File.   All of the projects associated with the study area were tested and excavated under  the methodology outlined above. However, the 11 Tremerton project was also partially  excavated using a different system, for reasons which will be discussed. Each of the sites  tested and excavated are discussed below. For each project, the numbering system,  stripping areas, unit numbers, and feature numbers are unique; that is, each was tested as  a distinct unit.   In analyzing the artifacts and other material found at each of these locations, the  categories for analysis are those which have been created for Florida historic archaeology  by Dr. Kathleen Deagan of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of  Florida. Those categories are as follows: 1) majolicas, 2) utilitarian wares (made by the  Spanish), 3) non-Spanish tablewares, 4) non-European ceramics (i.e., Native American),  5) kitchen items (including glassware), 6) non-masonry architecture, 7) military items, 8)  clothing/sewing, 9) personal items, 10) craft/products, 11) unidentified metal objects, 12)  masonry, 13) domestic furnishings, 14) tools or implements, 15) toys, games, or leisure,  16) tack or harness, 17) religious items, 18) miscellaneous weighed items, 19 truly  unknown items, and 20) 20th century (modern) items.   The artifact counts and weights for each of the project locations, by test unit and  level, are provided in Appendix A to this thesis. The tables provided in Appendix B for  each location include the total counts and weights for each of the above-listed categories  43   by test unit and stripping area, where applicable, and are the basis for the tables in this  chapter containing the relative percentages by count and weight for each location as a  whole. Through this analysis, the types of activities which took place at each location  will be suggested.   Location 1: 161 Marine Street   A portion of the 161 Marine Street excavation was analyzed by Andrea P. White in  her thesis comparing a Yamassee site in Florida with a similar site in South Carolina  (White 2002), to determine the archaeological “signature” of Yamassee sites in both  locations. A part of the information presented here is drawn from White’s study, for the  purposes of integrating it with other sites related to La Punta; for the purposes of this  thesis, however, the entire collection of artifacts and features found at 161 Marine Street  is considered.   Excavations at this site revealed the presence of 43 features which appeared to date  to the time of mission occupation (White 2002: 49) (see figure 3.2). Some of these  features appear to be associated with between three to four structures, including a  probable structure located over a walk-in well. There also were five daub processing pits,  including two which were later used as trash pits; two trenches running parallel to each  other; and 18 miscellaneous pits, as well as the cultural midden layer relating to human  activity present throughout the site (White 2002:49).   The structures noted by White were all circular to ovoid in shape (White 2002:56– 58). One such structure appears to have been relatively complete, consisting of six  44   Figure 3-2 Plan Map: Features at 161 Marine Street Site - from White (2002)  posthole/postmold features (Features 29/30, 46, 63a, 76, 77, and 92) forming an outer   wall, and a single center support post (Feature 50) (White 2002:56). Other features found  within the site (Features 112, 110, 115, and two unnumbered features) appear to represent  the remains of two more structures (White 2002:58), each one also circular in shape (see  figure 3.2).   Present near these structures was a well feature (see figures 3.2 and 3.3). As noted  by White, this well is atypical of wells in Spanish St. Augustine. Rather than employing  a wood-lined shaft from which water was drawn, the well found at 161 Marine Street had  a saucer-shaped depression surrounding a barrel within which was a footpath leading to  45   the water source (White 2002:54). Furthermore, the well appeared to have been covered  by a structure which also was unique, as other wells found in Spanish St. Augustine are  typically uncovered and open (White 2002:55; Carl Halbirt, City of St. Augustine  archaeologist, personal communication 2005). Aeolian deposits and animal remains  within the well suggest that the well – and possibly the entire community of La Punta –  was abandoned for a time (White 2002:54).   The two trenches identified during excavations appear to intersect at least one of  the structures identified by White (White 2002; figure 3.2). This trench, which had filled  in with sediment, appears to have been intruded into by this structure (White 2002:67).  This, like the deposits present in the well feature, suggests the possibility of the  abandonment of La Punta for a time during the course of its existence.   Artifacts recovered from the 161 Marine Street site consist overwhelmingly of fired  clay ceramics and cookware, which comprised 90.48% of the total collection of artifacts  recovered during excavations (White 2002:71). Of this total, 69.71% were Native  American in origin, including San Marcos ware, Mission Red Filmed, and St. Johns  ceramics series, as well as unidentified aboriginal ceramics (White 2002:74). Also  present within this total were Hispanic and some non-Hispanic European ceramics, as  well as glassware and metal cooking vessel fragments (White 2002:71).   The form of the structures found at the site strongly suggests that they were Native  American in origin. Native American structures in Spanish Florida were typically  circular or oval in shape, consisting of posts set into the ground and either bent to form a  curving roof or surmounted with a conical roof (Manucy 1997:15-19). The presence of  daub processing pits at the site tends to strengthen this interpretation of these features.  46   Figure 3-3 Profile of Well Feature, 161 Marine Street – from White (2002)  Wattle-and-daub construction consists of a technique whereby branches or vines are  woven between posts set into the ground (wattles), which are then coated with a mixture  of clay and plant fiber, usually palm leaf (daub) (Manucy 1997:144). While Manucy was  describing Timucuan structures, the archaeological evidence suggests the Yamassee used  similar structures (White 2002:115-116; citing Southerlin, et. al. 2001). The presence of  circular structures with daub processing pits adjacent thereto is thus strongly indicative of  Native American occupation of this site, an inference which is reinforced by the presence  of Native American ceramic series as the largest ceramic type found at 161 Marine  Street.  47   Appendices A and B contain the artifact counts and weights for each provenience  within the 161 Marine Street site. The following table provides the total counts, weights,  and relative percentages of each for the location as a whole.   Table 3-1 Overall Totals for 161 Marine Street  
Category Artifact  Count   % of Total  Count for  Location   Artifact Weight % of Total  Weight for   Location  
1.Majolicas 105 1% 222.1g <1%  2.Util. Wares 185 2% 1,494.1g 2%  
3.Non-Spanish   Tablewares   4.Non-European   Ceramics   (+NAUID/disc.)   5.Kitchen Items, non ceramic (+bone weight)  6.Architecture, non masonry   579 6% 1,219.4g 2%  4,504 44% 32,240.9g 54%   1,498 15% 2,679.3g(5,211,7g) 9%  845 8% 8,893.4g 15%  
7.Military Items 21 <1% 85.4g <1%  8.Clothing/Sewing 21 <1% 67.4g <1%  9.Personal Items 148 2% 162.5g <1%  10.Craft/Product 48 <1% 558.6g 1%   11.UID Metal 1,753 17% 2,718.8g 5%  12.Masonry 198 2% 2,781g 5%  13.Domestic Furn 6 <1% 12.4g <1%  15.Toys/Games/Leisure 1 <1% 4.8g <1%  16.Tack/Harness 2 <1% 13.4g <1%  17.Religious 1 <1% 0.6g <1%  18.Misc. Weighed 191 2% 4,416.6g 7%  20.20th Century 33 <1% 130g <1%  
TOTALS: 10,139 100% 60,233.1g  (60.23kg)   Location 2: 159 Marine Street   100%  
The 159 Marine Street site is immediately to the north of the 161 Marine Street  site. This location was excavated under the city ordinance prior to the development of  condominiums on the property (Halbirt, in preparation). During the excavation of this  location, six stripping areas were cleared and excavation units placed within four of them  (see figure 3.4). These stripping areas were placed within those areas of the highest and  48   most diverse artifact assemblage, based on the results of the posthole survey of the  property.   Stripping Area 1: Three excavation units were dug in stripping area 1. Test Unit 1  was found to contain twelve features. Feature 2, consisting of a saucer-shaped depression  with embedded charcoal, appeared to be a hearth (see figure 3.5). Near this feature were  six other features appearing to be postholes/postmolds, five of which (Features 4, 7, 10,  11, and12) may have represented a structure adjacent to Feature 2. The other features  Figure 3-4 Plan Map: Excavation Units and Features, 159 Marine Street  49   Figure 3-5 Feature Map: Test Unit 1, Stripping Area 1, 159 Marine Street  present in this unit were all pits (Features 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9). Feature 3 consisted of a  circular pit with a flat base, filled entirely with oyster shell and some fragments of  aboriginal pottery. The other features were simply depressions with brown cultural  midden soil extending into the culturally sterile layer.   Test Unit 2 was found to contain ten features (see Figure 3.6). Only one (Feature  14) appears to have been a posthole. Two possible hearth or firepit features (Features 17  and 20) were found in this unit, as well as an isolated iron ring of unknown function  (Feature 18). The remaining features within this unit all appear to be related to food  preparation or discard: two of the features were found to be oyster shell pits similar to the  pit found in Test Unit 1 (Features 15 and 19), while the other features appear to be  50   depressions or deliberately constructed pits used either for storage or for discard  (Features 13, 16, 20, 21, and 22).   Test Unit 3 was found to contain six features. One (Feature 23) was a postmold  surrounding an associated posthole. All of the remaining features within this unit appear  to be pits of unknown functions, although one (Feature 32) contained clay similar to that  used for daub processing and may have been used for that purpose.   Artifacts recovered from these units consisted principally of Native American  ceramics including San Marcos ware fragments and Mission Red Filmed, Spanish  ceramics including Puebla Polychrome and unidentified majolica, and daub and lead shot  fragments.   Stripping Area 2: Five excavation units were dug in stripping area 2. Test Unit 1  was found to contain five features. Two of the features appeared to be trenches of  uncertain function (Feature 76, 74b). Both of these features were found to have postholes  associated with the trench feature. In Feature 76, the posthole features were noted as  being spaced along the deepest part of the trench feature; in Feature 74b, the trench  feature contained a posthole depression (Feature 74a) and a possible animal burrow. The  other two features found in this unit were a posthole believed to date to the nineteenth  century (Feature 79) and an area of mottled soil of indeterminate nature (Feature 77).   Test Unit 2 was found to contain four features. Two of these features (Feature 71a  and 71b) appear to have served as storage or processing pits of some type; artifacts found  in these features included English slipware dating to the early eighteenth century,  delftware, and thirty sherds of Native American ceramics, as well as bone and charcoal.  51   Adjacent to these pit features were two postholes (Features 71d and 72). Feature 72 also  contained English slipware and Native American ceramic sherds present.  Test Unit 3 contained three features: an apparent floor surface (Feature 77), with an  iron spike protruding from the southern wall; an irregular pit which appears to have been  a larger posthole 43 cm in diameter at its maximum width and associated with the floor  surface (Feature 77a); and a trash pit associated with a wall trench and postholes (Feature  76). This test unit was also found to contain substantial quantities of material dating to  the early eighteenth century, including more than 200 sherds of Native American  ceramics, a variety of European ceramics including English slipware, delftware, Puebla  Blue on White majolica, San Agustín Blue on White, gun flints, pipe fragments, and  metal fragments. The presence of the floor surface suggests the presence of a structure in  this area.   Test Units 4 and 5 contained no visible features. However, both units yielded a  substantial amount of cultural material, including more than 150 Native American  ceramic fragments, Mexican Red and El Morro sherds, pipe fragments, iron fragments,  English slipware, and a shell disc in excess of 1 kg. in weight. Beyond those artifacts, all  of the units located in Stripping Area 2 were found to contain both Native American and  European ceramics dating to the early eighteenth century, as well as scattered iron and  brass fragments and charcoal.   Stripping Area 3: Four excavation units were dug in stripping area 3. Test Unit 1  was found to contain only one definite feature, Feature 64, a posthole. However, three  depressions were noted near Feature 64 which suggest human activity. Artifacts  recovered from Test Unit 1 included more than 100 fragments of Native American  52   Figure 3-6 Feature Map: Test Unit 2, Stripping Area 1, 159 Marine Street  pottery (San Marcos ware fragments and Mission Red Filmed) and “abundant charcoal.”   Test Unit 2 had three definite features present. Feature 45 was a pit in excess of 80  cm in diameter which contained gray, ashy sand with some charcoal, as well as San  Marcos ware fragments and iron fragments. Feature 48 was a shallow, irregular pit  varying between 33 and 42 cm in diameter and 11 cm in depth, of unknown function.  Feature 49, like Feature 48, was a pit of unknown function and approximately the same  size (38 x 36 cm diameter, 13 cm depth). In addition, several depressions apparently  resulting from human activity were present within Test Unit 2. Native American  ceramics in excess of 100 small sherds were found in this unit, as well as bottle glass, San  53   Agustín Blue on White majolica, English slipware, faience, and a fragment of Mission  Red Filmed pottery.   Test Unit 3 contained five features. Four (Features 40, 41, 42, and 44) were pits of  undetermined function. Feature 40 contained a gaming piece made from olive jar and  one fragment of San Luis Polychrome, as well as in excess of 75 fragments of Native  American sherds. The other features contained only Native American pottery fragments.  The fifth feature, Feature 43, was a posthole which contained a San Marcos ware  fragment and three discs made from Native American pottery, as well as green bottle  glass and charcoal.   Test Unit 4 had no confirmed features present. However, depressions in the sterile  soil surface suggested human activity. Two discs made from aboriginal pottery, charcoal,  and burned bone and shell were the only artifacts found within this unit.  Stripping Areas 4 and 5: These areas were not excavated.   Stripping Area 6: Nine excavation units were dug in this stripping area. Test Unit  1 had no features clearly present; more than 40 sherds of San Marcos ware and Mission  Red Filmed pottery were recovered, as well as bone, nail and other iron fragments, and  more than 100 pieces of charcoal. The area appeared to be a midden deposit.   Test Unit 2 had one feature present: Feature 81, which consisted of a ditch with two  layers. The uppermost layer of this feature was between 140 – 170 cm in width and  extended to a depth of 47-49 cmbd; the lower section of the feature was between 50 – 65  cm in width and extended to a depth of 73-77 cmbd . More than a thousand Native  American sherds were recovered from this feature, including San Marcos ware, Mission  Red Filmed, and a single piece of St. Johns pottery. Also recovered were European  54   ceramics including Puebla Blue on White majolica, pipe stem fragments, olive jar, and  delftware. Other artifacts were animal bone including turtle and unspecified mammal  fragments; iron fragments; glass fragments; and more than 100 fragments of charcoal.   Test Unit 3 also had a single feature present, Feature 84, a shallow trench running  north and south and extending between 25 and 35 centimeters below datum in depth.  Eight sherds of Native American pottery and five iron fragments were recovered from the  feature itself, while more than 15 iron nail fragments and more than 20 additional San  Marcos Ware sherds were recovered from the rest of the unit.   Test Unit 4 contained features which appear to be associated with Feature 81: a  series of irregular pits which correspond with the upper level of Feature 81. This feature  contained a pipe bowl fragment, bone fragments, Native American pottery of unknown  type, and three iron fragments. More Native American sherds were found within the unit  itself, including sand-tempered plain fragments, San Marcos ware, and Mission Red  Filmed fragments, as well as unidentified animal bone fragments and pieces of iron nail.   Test Unit 5 had three features. The first two appear to be a trench (Feature 81b)  extending east and west and between 45 and 77cmbd in depth. The fill of the same ditch  (Feature 81a) appears to date from the eighteenth century. Feature 82 was a saucer shaped pit immediately adjacent to Features 81a and b, which may have been the remains  of a lateral trench associated with the other trench feature.   Features 81a and b were found to contain more than 180 Native American ceramic  sherds, all either San Marcos ware or Mission Red Filmed; European ceramics present in  these features included olive jar, El Morro sherds, and a pipe bowl. A tabby fragment  and a raw daub fragment were found within Feature 81 a. The nature of the ditch and fill  55   suggests two episodes of use, since the upper deposits appear to be much wider than the  lower deposits (Halbirt 1997).   Test Unit 6 contained a single feature – Feature 83 – a trench 110 cm in width and  extending between 23 and 45 cmbd in depth, oriented north-south. This feature appeared  to be both wider and shallower than the other trench features found at the site. Artifacts  present in this feature included more than 50 Native American potsherds (San Marcos  ware, Mission Red Filmed, and a single St. Johns pottery fragment); olive jar fragments;  more than 30 bones including turtle and unidentified mammal fragments; and more than  50 charcoal fragments. This feature appeared to be associated with the other trench  features present in Test Units 5, 8, and 9.   Test Unit 7 contained two features. The first, Feature 81, appeared to continue into  this unit from Test Units 2, 5, and 8. In this area, Feature 81 extended between 22 and 75  cmbd in depth, with a width comparable to that observed in the other excavation units.  The other feature, Feature 85, was a posthole which appeared to have a squared outline  deepening and tapering to a point, extending between 30 and 71 cmbd in depth. Native  American potsherds – all Mission Red Filmed – were found in both features, as well as  iron and glass fragments. In the unit as a whole, more than 30 additional Native  American sherds – all San Marcos ware – were recovered, as well as glazed Spanish olive  jar and porcelain which date to the early eighteenth century.   Test Unit 8 had four features. The first two, Features 81 a and b, were  continuations of the same trench and fill features observed in Test Unit 5. As observed in  Test Unit 5, these features appeared to represent two episodes of use and re-use. The  other two features observed in Test Unit 8 were Feature 86, a rectangular pit 35 by 22 cm  56   in length and width and extending between 26 and 37 cmbd in depth, and Feature 87, a  rectangular posthole which tapered to a shaped point and extending between 25 and 70  cmbd in depth. Features 81 a and b contained more than 30 Native American sherds, 2  pipe bowls, bird shot, and iron and glass fragments. The unit as a whole had more than  50 additional Native American sherds (San Marcos ware, Mission Red Filmed, and sand  tempered plain pottery), a pipe stem, and more than 20 iron nail fragments, as well as in  excess of 125 grams of shell.   Test Unit 9 contained no visible features. However, more than 70 Native American  sherds were found within the unit, including Mission Red Filmed, San Marcos ware, and  several unidentified fragments. Also recovered were a single olive jar fragment, in excess  of 20 nail fragments, a chert flake, bottle glass fragments, and charcoal.   The presence of postholes in close conjunction with some of the trench features  found at the 159 Marine Street site suggests the possibility that the trenches may have  been in some way associated with the structures present in the area. However, trenches  found at other sites associated with the La Punta mission community appear to have other  functions, as will be discussed. It is also possible that the trenches and posthole features  present at the site, while both belonging to the mission community, may be evidence of  two periods of use of the site by the mission community, utilizing the land for differing  functions each time (White 2002).   Appendices A and B present the total artifact counts and weights for each  excavated provenience within the 159 Marine Street site. The following table presents  the total artifact counts, weights, and the relative percentages of each for the location as a  whole.  57   Table 3-2 Overall Totals for 159 Marine Street  
Category Artifact  Count   % of Total  Count for  Location   Artifact Weight % of Total  Weight for   Location  
1.Majolicas 32 1% 39.2g <1%  2.Util. Wares 92 2% 518.2g 1%  
3.Non-Spanish   Tablewares   4.Non-European   ceramics   (+NAUID/disc.)   5.Kitchen Items, non ceramic (+bone weight)  6.Architecture, non masonry   219 5% 811.9g 2%  1,703 39% 14,140.3g 39%   847 19% 5,338.8g(9,430.6g) 26%  782 18% 3,102.9g 9%  
7.Military Items 12 <1% 97.8g <1%  8.Clothing/Sewing 6 <1% 6.9g <1%  9.Personal Items 53 1% 46.7g <1%  10.Craft/Product 6 <1% 43.4g <1%  
11.UID   Metal(+uncounted fr.)   459 10% 1,601.3g(2,387.4g) 7%  
12.Masonry 62 1% 931.6g 3%  13.Domestic Furn. 3 <1% 6.1g <1%  14.Tools/Implements 1 <1% 1.1g <1%  15.Toys/Games/Leisure 1 <1% 21.8g <1%  16.Tack/Harness 2 <1% 675.6g 2%  18.Misc. Weighed 61 1% 2,460.6g 7%  20.20th Century 47 1% 64.3g <1%  TOTALS: 4,388 100% 36,387.7g(36.39kg) 100%   Location 3: 321 St. George Street   The 321 St. George Street site is approximately 200 m northwest of the 159 and  161 Marine Street sites, on the western side of the peninsula on which the study area is  located, within 20 meters of Maria Sanchez Lake. At this location, initial testing revealed  only a scant presence of artifacts, and the area of work was limited in size; for these  reasons, stripping areas were not utilized.   Three test units were dug immediately adjacent to each other, forming a larger  continuous excavation area (see figure 3.7). Test Units 1 and 2 contained the two  features: two parallel trenches (Features 1 and 2), 28 cm in width, and extending between  58   60 and 84 cmbd (see figure 3.8). These trenches were found to run roughly north northwest and south-southeast. Floors of the trenches varied between 80 and 84 cmbd,  with what appeared to be regularly spaced depressions present in Feature 1 – all 84 cmbd  in depth (see figure 3.8), and between 2-4 cm deeper than the rest of the floor of the  trenches. Between these two features was a raised area of sterile sands some 60 cm in  width.   The only artifacts found within these trench features were Native American  potsherds, all San Marcos ware pottery. Within the units themselves, nineteenth-century  artifacts were found from the surface of the ground to a depth of 45 cmbd. Beginning at   45 cmbd, San Marcos ware pottery began to be found intermixed with nineteenth-century  artifacts to 57 cmbd; below 57 cmbd, only San Marcos ware ceramic was found,  suggesting that the trench features located at this site were most likely associated solely  with Native American activity. No European ceramics or metal artifacts of any sort were  found at this level. However, the brown cultural midden soil previously noted as being  associated with human activity in the area was present throughout the lowest layer to the  sterile layer beneath.   Appendices A and B contain the artifact counts and weights for each provenience  within the 321 Marine Street location. The following table represents the artifact counts,  weights, and the relative percentages of each within the total counts and weights for the  location as a whole.  59   Figure 3-7 Plan Map: Test Units and Site Features, 321 St. George Street  60   Figure 3-8 Plan Map: Test Units 1 and 2, 321 St. George Street   Table 3-3 Overall Totals for 321 St. George Street  
Category Artifact  Count   % of Total  Count for  Location   Artifact Weight % of Total  Weight for   Location  
1.Majolicas 2 <1% 1.2g <1%  2.Util. Wares 27 2% 315.3g 6%  
3.Non-Spanish  Tablewares   4.Non-European  Ceramics   (+NAUID/disc.)  5.Kitchen Items,  non-ceramic  (+bone weight)   182 15% 636.4g 12%  160 13% 464.2g 8%   279 23% 1,131.1g(2,112,8g) 38% 
61   Table 3-3 Continued  
Category Artifact  Count   % of Total  Count for  Location   Artifact Weight % of Total  Weight for   Location  
6.Architecture,  non-masonry   54 4% 182.8g 3%  
7.Military Items 4 <1% 36.7g 1%  8.Clothing/Sewing 7 1% 5.4g <1%  9.Personal Items 6 <1% 17.3g <1%  10.Craft/Product 1 <1% 31.4g 1%  11.UID Metal 451 37% 668.8g 12%  12.Masonry 12 1% 707.4g 13%  18.Misc. Weighed 21 2% 302g 5%  20.20th Century 21 2% 42g 1%  TOTALS: 1,227 100% 5,523.7g 100%   Location 4: 8 Hedrick Street   The 8 Hedrick Street site lies due west of the boundary between the 159 and 161  Marine Street sites, and is directly adjacent to Maria Sanchez Lake, with the western side  of the property terminating in the marsh itself. During initial post hole testing at this site,  prior to construction of a new building on the property, thirty postholes were dug on a  regular grid. Since this location was a single family residence, and limited in size,  stripping areas were not utilized. Nine test units were dug during the course of  excavations (see figure 3.9).   Test Unit 1 contained no features. Artifacts present in Test Unit 1 included more  than 100 Native American potsherds, predominantly San Marcos ware (88 sherds), as  well as Mission Red Filmed, sand-tempered plain, and unidentified Native American  sherds. Also recovered was an unidentified piece of Spanish majolica, bone fragments,  shell, and two fired daub fragments.   Test Unit 2 had five features present (see Figure 3.10). Features 1 and 4 were bowl  shaped depressions, each filled with a concentration of whole, uncrushed oyster shell (see  62   figure 3.9). Feature 3 appeared to be a trench running roughly west-northwest and east southeast, adjacent to Feature 1. This feature was at its shallowest (70 cmbd) nearest  Feature 1, and deepened to 77 cmbd nearest the eastern wall of the test unit. The other  two features found within this unit were a 14 by 11 cm piece of unfired daub (Feature 2),  and what appeared to be either a post hole or, possibly, the beginning of a second trench  in the southeast wall of the unit (Feature 5). The presence of a large root made precise  identification of this feature impossible, but the presence of unfired daub suggests the  possibility of a structure nearby. The only artifacts within Features 1, 3, and 4 were  Native American potsherds including San Marcos ware, sand-tempered plain sherds, and  unidentified pieces. In Test Unit 2 as a whole, more than 100 more fragments of Native  American sherds were found, principally San Marcos ware. Also found within this unit  were European ceramics including glazed coarse earthenware, slipware, San Luis  Polychrome, San Luis Blue on White, and coarse molded earthenware; lead shot; iron  fragments; and a brass fragment appearing to be a personal strap from a belt.   Test Unit 3 contained two features (see Figure 3.11). Feature 6 was a trench  running west-southwest and east-southeast; this feature aligned with Feature 3 found in  Test Unit 2, appearing to narrow as it ran from west to east within the unit. Feature 7 was  a bowl-shaped concentration of unfired daub found in the northeast quarter of Test Unit  3, suggesting that this feature was a daub-processing pit. Two pieces of European  ceramic were found in Feature 6, San Luis Blue on White and a fragment of unidentified  majolica; 32 Native American potsherds were also found in this feature. Present in Test  Unit 3 as a whole were historic glass fragments including a wine bottle fragment; a  63   European kaolin pipe fragment; and more than 60 more Native American sherds,  including San Marcos ware and Mission Red Filmed.   Figure 3-9 Site Map, Post Holes and Test Units, 8 Hedrick Street  64   Figure 3-10 Plan Map and Profile, Test Unit 2, 8 Hedrick Street   Figure 3-11 Plan Map and Profile, Test Unit 3, 8 Hedrick Street  65   Test Unit 4 contained a single feature, Feature 8, a bowl-shaped concentration of  whole oyster shell extremely similar to Features 1 and 4 present in Test Unit 2. This  feature appeared to be placed in an east-west alignment with Feature 1. More than 130  Native American sherds were found in this unit, with San Marcos ware (71 pieces)  predominating. A large number (67 pieces) of the Native American ceramics found in  this unit were not clearly identifiable due to the small size. Also found were two burned  daub fragments, two fragments of European ceramic (olive jar and coarse earthenware),  lead shot, and iron and brass fragments.   Test Unit 5 contained no features which were assigned numbers; however, three  areas of light gray soil were found in the eastern wall of the unit, with no corresponding  stains in the floor of the unit. These soil stains appeared to be the very beginning of three  parallel trenches similar to those found at the 321 St. George Street site. However, due to  the presence of trees which could not be removed, an adjacent unit to Test Unit 5 could  not be opened. Native American ceramics including San Marcos ware and Mission Red  Filmed fragments, as well as 30 unidentifiable Native American sherds (size too small for  identification), were found in Test Unit 5. Also present were European ceramics  (unidentified majolica, coarse earthenware), iron fragments, and charcoal fragments.   Test Unit 6 had a single feature present, Feature 9, an oblong dumbbell-shaped  trench similar to and parallel to Feature 6 found in Test Unit 3. This trench became  shallower as it extended from west to east within the unit – 82 cmbd at the western wall  of the unit and 74 cmbd at the eastern wall. Only a single bone fragment, appearing to be  a mammal, was found within Feature 9; however, Test Unit 6 contained Native American  ceramics (San Marcos ware, Mission Red Filmed), fired daub fragments, a Native  66   American red-paste elbow pipe, and a whiteware fragment appearing to date to the mid eighteenth century.   Test Unit 7 had four observable features. Features 11, 12, and 13 each appeared to  be a shallow (3-5 cm in total depth) posthole, all of which were placed in an arc, while  Feature 10 appeared to be a shallow concentration of whole oyster shell. Unlike the other  features containing whole shell at this site, Feature 10 was oblong and comparatively  shallow. Taken as a whole, these features appear to represent a Native American  structure of some type, with an associated shell scatter. Feature 10 contained a sherd of  Puebla Polychrome majolica, as well as Native American ceramics (San Marcos ware,  Mission Red Filmed, and unidentified series), and burned daub fragments. Artifacts  found within the unit as a whole included more than 100 additional Native American  sherds of the same types as in Feature 10, iron fragments, two pieces of slag, and a  burned daub fragment.   Test Unit 8 contained a single feature, Feature 14, a trench which appeared to be a  continuation of Features 3 and 6, running in the same direction. This feature deepened as  it ran east through the unit, reaching 95 cmbd in the western end of the feature and  deepening to 102 cmbd at the eastern end. Feature 14 contained no artifacts, but Test  Unit 8 was found to contain more than 200 Native American ceramic fragments,  including the ubiquitous San Marcos ware and Mission Red Filmed. However, some 80  of the Native American sherds recovered from this unit belonged to no clearly  identifiable ceramic tradition. In addition to the Native American ceramics found in this  unit, European ceramics including two pipestem fragments, unidentified majolica and  67   earthenware. There also were iron and slag fragments, historic glass fragments, and two  pieces of burned daub.   Test Unit 9 contained three features. Two of these, Features 15 and 17, were  trenches running east and west and appearing to be parallel to the other trench features  observed throughout this site. The third feature, Feature 16, was a posthole which was  driven through Feature 17 and extended below the surface of the water table. Feature 16  contained a part of the original wooden post which was preserved by the water table;  beneath the post was found a Civil-War era bottle base, suggesting the feature post-dates  the La Punta mission. Feature 17 contained Native American ceramics including San  Marcos ware and Mission Red Filmed sherds. Test Unit 9 as a whole contained more of  the same ceramic series, as well as unidentified Native American sherds (small size  prevented identification). Two European ceramic fragments, one English slipware and  one unidentified, were also found in this unit, together with iron fragments, a piece of  burned daub, and historic glass fragments.   The trench features found at this site, as noted, appear to vary significantly in  depth; they also appear to be perpendicular to the trench features which were found at  321 St. George Street. The presence of similar ceramic series and comparable depths of  the upper part of the trenches at each site suggests that these features at both sites are  contemporaneous.   The artifact counts and weights for each provenience within the 8 Hedrick Street  site are included in Appendices A and B. The following table represents the artifact  counts, weights, and the relative percentages of each within the total counts and weights  for the location as a whole. 
68   Table 3-4 Overall Totals for 8 Hedrick Street  Category Artifact Count % of Total  Count for   Location   Artifact Weight % of Total  Weight for   Location  
1.Majolicas 8 <1% 39.7g 1%  2.Util. Wares 3 <1% 14.1g <1%  
3.Non-Spanish  Tablewares   4.Non-European  Ceramics   (+NAUID/disc.)  5.Kitchen Items,  non-ceramic  (+bone weight)  6.Architecture,  non-masonry   11 1% 120.9g 3%  1,762 78% 2,192.6g 55%  18 1% 99.7g(108.4g) 3%  12 1% 19.8g <1%  
7.Military Items 7 <1% 19.1g <1%  8.Clothing/Sewing 4 <1% 7.8g <1%  9.Personal Items 7 <1% 23.9g 1%  11.UID Metal 81 3% 408.2g 10%  12.Masonry 22 1% 339.4g 9%  18.Misc. Weighed 48 2% 42.4g 1%  20.20th Century 269 12% 628.9g 16%  TOTALS: 2,252 100% 3,965.2g 100%   Location 5: 11 Tremerton Street   As previously noted, the 11 Tremerton location was excavated using two separate  methodologies. The property was slated for the development of a small subdivision,  Bonita Bay, within the city limits, triggering the need for archaeological investigation  under the ordinance. No initial posthole survey was done at this location due to extensive  disturbance of the soil, which had occurred during the demolition of a doctor’s office  building and parking lot which had previously existed on the property (Carl Halbirt, City  of St. Augustine archaeologist, personal communication 2005). Instead, backhoe  trenches extending east and west were dug on the property to determine if the property  contained significant archaeological features. However, during the course of excavation,  human remains were found in the northern third of the site (see figure 3.12). Pursuant to