Press Release
Archaeology Program Led by Fernbank Museum of Natural History Produces Unexpected Support of De Soto’s Path through Georgia
ATLANTA—What started out as an archaeology program allowing public participants to investigate South Georgia’s past has turned into a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, not only for the amateur participants but for seasoned archaeologists as well.
Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta, embarked on a public archaeology program in a partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in June 2006, enlisting teachers, college and high school students, descendents of the Muscogee-speaking Native Americans and other adults with longstanding dreams to dig with archaeologists to help search for a 17th-century Spanish mission settlement known to have operated between 1610 and 1640 in “The Forks” of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers.
Fernbank’s Curator of Native American Archaeology, Dennis Blanton, set out to find evidence of Georgia’s early mission system after Native American and Spanish artifacts suggested the possible location of mission Santa Isabel de Utinahica, one of the most remote mission settlements in the Southeast.
However, as the first season drew to a close, the discoveries of an iron tool and some unusual glass beads were more reminiscent of an earlier time in history—possibly the period of exploration—and perhaps were evidence of Hernando de Soto’s initial trek across Georgia.
“In spite of our scientific ambitions, archaeological excavation can still be likened to peeling open a box of Cracker Jacks,” Blanton said. “Mainly, we know what to expect, but we’re also certain there’ll be a surprise—yet there’s never any way to know just what kind of surprise it will be.”
The surprise came as Blanton investigated the first summer’s finds, noting the telltale Spanish artifacts didn’t square with expectations for evidence of Santa Isabel. The objects were simply too old, perhaps by as much as 100 years.
As Fernbank launched the second season of the program in June 2007, more Spanish artifacts were found. But again, each of the European objects predated the mission, leading Blanton to surmise it’s all but certain he was working not on a mission, but on a site touched by very early Spanish explorers.
The possibilities of who those Spanish explorers were left Blanton to believe it could be Hernando de Soto, or an even earlier explorer who led the first attempt by the Spanish to establish a colony in today’s Southeastern United States—a colony often sought but never found—that of Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon.
“Dennis was looking for a Spanish mission, Santa Isabel de Utinahica, but what he discovered looked like earlier material from the period of exploration in the 16th century,” said Marvin T. Smith, Professor of Anthropology at Valdosta State University, president of the Society of Bead Researchers, and an archaeologist who has spent more than 30 years researching the archaeology of Spanish contact with Native Americans. “The artifacts were typical of what we would expect to have been traded by the Ayllon Expedition of 1526 or the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540.”
Several distinctive European artifacts were recovered that were strongly indicative of Spanish exploratory activity in the region before 1550, prior to the mission period. Most of these objects were glass beads manufactured in places like Venice during the first half of the 16th century.
“We uncovered artifacts that are incredibly rare—rare because they are associated with the period of Spanish exploration,” Blanton said. “There are no archaeological sites—zero—that point to evidence of de Soto’s spring 1540 passage across Georgia; there are also no sites that positively point to Ayllon. That makes this a discovery of evidence unlike any found before.”
Such a discovery brings challenges to conventional wisdom about the routes of Spanish explorers. Before Fernbank’s field work, compelling archaeological evidence signaling the presence of Spanish explorers in this time and region had never been identified. As a result, Fernbank may be about to rewrite a portion of history through Blanton’s research.
Some of the early 16th-century artifacts are virtual calling cards of the conquistador. Serious attempts to establish the path of de Soto’s initial march across interior Georgia have, until now, relied upon imprecise accounts left by period chroniclers. Intensive scholarly research throughout the 20th century has generated several competing but archaeologically unverified proposals of de Soto’s and Ayllon’s passages through Georgia.
“The best way to draw a persuasive conclusion is to couple the historical record with the archaeological record, which is what we may be on the cusp of doing.” Blanton said. “Fernbank’s results are poised to place the first firm dot on a Georgia map that can anchor a more confident reconstruction of de Soto’s springtime route in 1540.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more vivid example of why good stewardship of our archaeological sites is so important” said Dave Crass, State Archaeologist at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “These critically-important sites exist only because the landowners have a strong conservation ethic. They took good care of their land—and in the process, took good care of the archaeological sites buried in the land.”
“These early results are testament to both the value and potential of Fernbank’s ongoing exploration of this fascinating period in Georgia’s history,” said Fernbank Museum President and CEO, Susan Neugent. “Even in the early going we can see that these findings are significant, but it will take more work to fully solve the puzzles they pose.”
Blanton plans to revisit the site this fall and continue investigating and researching the artifacts to better understand their meaning. To archaeologists and other researchers, the provocative nature of these early stages of the research process is what makes science so fascinating.
“Our situation at this stage can be likened to a biologist’s discovery of a new species, or a known species in an entirely new location,” Blanton said. “Ideally we will determine exactly who left these objects, what were they doing on the lower Ocmulgee River, and when were they there.
“The ultimate task will be to explain the discovery and contemplate its larger implications. And that is literally how history is often made.”
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This project is supported by Pat and Wilson Thorpe of Glass Land and Timber, LLC.
and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Frankie Snow of South Georgia College has also provided significant assistance.
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