The Fig Springs mission site (
8CO1) is an
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
site in
Ichetucknee Springs State Park, in
Columbia County, Florida
Columbia County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 69,698, up from 67,531 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is Lake City.
Columbia County comprises the ...
. It has been identified as the site of a
Spanish mission to the
Timucua people of the region, dating to the first half of the 17th century. Found within the historical territory of the Timucua tribe known as the
Northern Utina
The Northern Utina, also known as the Timucua or simply Utina, were a Timucua people of northern Florida. They lived north of the Santa Fe River and east of the Suwannee River, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language known as "Timucua prope ...
, it is thought to be the Mission San Martín de Timucua, also known as San Martín de Ayacuto, which was founded in the important Northern Utina village of Ayacuto in 1608.
Description
The Fig Springs site is adjacent to a short tributary connecting Fig Springs to the
Ichetucknee River
The Ichetucknee River is a spring-fed, pristine river in North Central Florida. The entire of the river average wide, deep and most of the 6 miles lie within the boundaries of the Ichetucknee Springs State Park while the rest is to the south o ...
, about one mile downstream from the head springs of the Ichetucknee. An apparent
midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
was discovered in the tributary in 1949, and a survey with limited
excavations in 1986 found evidence of a mission on the adjacent land, including a church building, missionary residence (''
convento''), cemetery,
plaza and native village. More extensive excavations were carried out in 1988-1989.
Analysis of
sherd
In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well.
Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...
s found at the site indicated that the mission was occupied during the first half of the 17th century. The archaeologists identified the site as likely to be that of San Martín de Timucua, which is known to have been founded in 1608, and which does not appear in Spanish records after the Timucua rebellion of 1656. An earlier identification of the site as Santa Catalina de Afuerica, which is known to have existed in the area between 1675 and 1685, is less likely based on the evidence of the sherds. The mission appears to have been established at one of the five major towns that existed at the beginning of the 17th century in the
Province of Timucua
Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout ''La Florida'' in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent its ...
proper (also
Northern Utina
The Northern Utina, also known as the Timucua or simply Utina, were a Timucua people of northern Florida. They lived north of the Santa Fe River and east of the Suwannee River, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language known as "Timucua prope ...
or Utina), which included north Florida north of the
Santa Fe River from the
St. Johns River in the east to the
Aucilla River in the west.
The mission church was an open-air structure, with a
plank wall on the east end, and the other sides left open. Posts, about 10 cm square, supported a roof over an area about 10.5 m north-south and 8 m east-west. The floor had been cleared down to bare earth, and a clean sand subfloor supported a packed clay floor, which rose in steps from west to east. The structure apparently burned, and the remains were covered by a layer of clean sand. A cemetery on the north side of the church included several rows of burials. Unlike several other Spanish missions in Florida, no burials were found in the floor of the church.
References
*Weisman, Brent R. 1993. "Archaeology of Fig Springs Mission, Ichetucknee Springs State Park", in Bonnie G. McEwan. ed. ''The Spanish Missions of La Florida''. University Press of Florida.
Further reading
*{{cite book, last=Weisman, first=Brent Richards, title=Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier: Archaeology at the Fig Springs Mission, year=1992, publisher=University Press of Florida, location=Gainesville, Florida, isbn=0-8130-1119-1
External links
Comparative Mission Archaeology Portal - Fig Springs (Mission San Martín de Tmucua)
Archaeological sites in Florida
Spanish missions in Florida
Timucua
1608 establishments in the Spanish Empire