A base with an exciting history: archaeologists have discovered traces of the Fort San Antón de Carlos in Florida, which the Spaniards built in 1566 in the capital of the Indian empire of Calusa. So far, only historical texts have testified to the short-lived base and its fate. Now it is clear where the fort and its associated Jesuit mission stood in the mysterious Indian settlement.
The Calusa were an amazing Indian people: they built impressive buildings and lived in a complex society, although their livelihood, unlike the Incas or Aztecs, was not agriculture. Only recently have archaeological studies shown that they have been able to produce excess food using sophisticated fishing technology. The Calusa therefore drove fish from the lagoon areas into large pools and kept them there as a living supply.
In this way, they were able to produce a fairly large population and also considerable military strength. As a result, the Calusa ruled southern Florida for centuries and were able to resist the colonization attempts of the Spaniards for a long time. The Calusa Empire continued to exist until the end of the 17th century. After that, however, the Indian people fell victim to the introduced diseases – their culture disappeared and was forgotten. But for some years now, archaeologists have been researching the mysterious Indian society. The investigations in Estero Bay in western Florida have meanwhile confirmed that it was once the capital of Calusa, which the Spanish traditions report.
Texts tell of a dramatic story
It was a settlement made up of large houses built on mounds of artificial heights up to ten meters high. The largest were Mound 1 and Mound 2, which were separated by a channel. Mound 1 was the capital’s impressive rulership. According to the descriptions, the timber construction offered space for 2000 people. According to tradition, the first negotiations between the Spaniards and the Calusa took place in this “royal house”: in 1566 the ruler “Caalus” received the Spanish colonial official Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who previously had seven ships and 500 men on the Southwest Gulf Coast of Florida had landed.
The relationship initially developed positively: the Spaniards were allowed to build a fort and mission in the capital of Calusa from October 1566. According to the descriptions, it was a remarkable building with fortifications and accommodation for 30 soldiers. But tensions soon arose between the Calusa and the Spaniards. The ruler allegedly became hostile to the strangers and so they killed Caalus to replace him with a friendlier successor. But the latter also changed his view of the strangers and finally ordered an attack on a Spanish supply ship in June 1569. In retaliation, the garrison of the fort then killed the new ruler of Calusa. This in turn led to riots, as a result of which the capital burned down and was abandoned by the residents. Then the Spaniards gave up their base. However, the Calusa later returned to Mound Key and rebuilt their capital there. After that, they were able to maintain their culture largely undisturbed for a long time.
Straight walls and Spanish artifacts
“Before we started, we only had this information from the Spanish documents,” says William Marquardt of the University of Florida at Gainesville. “They showed that the fort once existed in Mound Key. Where exactly it was, however, remained unclear ”. Now he and his colleagues have succeeded in uncovering the location through ground-penetrating radar and subsequent excavations. As the archaeologists report, the fort was located on Mound Key’s Mound 2. This artificial increase apparently offered a sufficiently large platform for the building complex. The finds are parts of the walls of the fort and some artifacts that can be clearly attributed to the Spaniards. “It was very exciting for us to see the straight walls of the fort appear just a few centimeters below the surface,” says Marquardt.
As the archaeologists report, so-called “tabby” was used in the construction of the fort. It is a kind of mortar. During production, mussels are burned to produce lime, which is then mixed with sand, ash, water and broken mussels. In Mound Key, the Spaniards used this substance to stabilize the posts in the walls of their wooden structures, the scientists say.
As they emphasize, they have only exposed part of the entire fort. So there is still a lot to discover. “We now hope to shed more and more light on a time in the history of Florida and North America that very little is known about,” says Marquardt.
Source: Florida Museum of Natural History, professional article: Historical Archeology, doi: 10.1007 / s41636-020-00236-6