An Archaeological Cliff Hanger

It occurs to me that despite being an archaeologist, I have never written much about archaeology or what I am doing. That is because I am well aware of the fact that there are exactly 3 people in the world who are really all that interested in what I do…and two of them are my graduate students whose livelihoods depend on feigning interest in what I do. What I am going to write about is pretty interesting. It is as much iconography as it is archaeology and that is the attempt to find meaning in ancient symbols—still pretty cool if you ask me. As a way to make this more interesting, I am using that old trick of the early 20^th century radio, movie, and comic strip (and of course the Star Wars the Clones Wars show currently running on TV) —the cliff hanger.

This story starts in 1539 when Hernando de Soto landed on the Gulf Coast of Florida with 600 soldiers, about 300 of them mounted, and all of the equipment of a 16^th century European army…oh, and a herd of pigs. As a tangent, that is how the domesticated pig got to the New World and where our feral pig population (including Hogzilla) came from. De Soto was looking for a giant pile of gold like the ones Cortez found in Mexico and Pizzaro got from the Inca in Peru. De Soto and crew traveled northward through Florida, into southwestern Georgia and finally made it to central Georgia to a very populous and powerful Native American province called Ocute. The collection of archaeological sites that represent the remains of Ocute are likely near Milledgeville, GA. Between their landing and Ocute, de Soto and his army traveled from Native American town to Native American town. At each town, the army was “given” food, women, and burden bearers. I am certain they were given these things in the same way that you might give the class bully your pudding—as an exchange for not getting a wedgie that day. Or in the same way that a really bad State employee gets a sterling recommendation for a new job—to get rid of them as simply and quickly as possible. In other words, the Spaniards ate and coerced their way through Florida and Georgia.

The Native American leaders de Soto encountered usually tried to do two things. The first was to make an alliance with the Spaniards, often by making de Soto a relative through adoption or marriage. The other thing they did was make sure to tell them that the next town over was the one with the gold. The leader of Ocute did both of those things. In this case, he directed de Soto and army toward central South Carolina—to a province known as Cofitachequi. This place was located on what we now know as the Wateree River and the archaeological sites representing that province are near Camden. De Soto and army set out from Ocute and traveled eastward toward Cofitachequi. This route took the Spaniards across the Savannah River somewhere south of Augusta. Now in order for this giant army to survive, they needed the corn that they got from Native American towns along the way. The Spanish basically ate up all the stored corn along their route. The Native Americans traded their winter food supply to get rid of this giant collection of bad tempered, ill behaving foreigners. When de Soto got to the Savannah River he found that no one lived there. There were no Native American villages to be found. The army nearly starved to death and just barely made it to central South Carolina. There they found communities with stored food that they could take. The leader of this province was a woman (which was unusual) and some of the chronicles that survive of the de Soto expedition describe the first encounter between this Lady of Cofitachequi and de Soto—great stuff.

From our safe perspective of history, you can’t help but chuckle at the cleverness of the people at Ocute. Not only did they send this scourge that ate their food and took their wives into a no-man’s land where they were likely to starve, but they also sent that scourge to their mortal enemies. Ocute had been at war with Cofitachequi for years. People are people.

The story goes on, but the Savannah River is where I will stop. Along de Soto’s route he and his army left lots of evidence of his visit. Archaeologically, this has been found mostly in the form of European things like iron tools and glass beads. No evidence has ever been found of de Soto’s visit to the Savannah River valley. Probably that is because they didn’t stay in one place very long and they didn’t find anyone to “trade” with.

This is a photograph of a Native American pottery bowl. It was found by some local people digging into a mound in the Savannah River floodplain. I’ll save my take on unsystematic digging (aka looting) for another time. Inside this bowl is an image that was etched onto the bottom after the pot was fired. The current owner of the pot has hypothesized that this image actually is of a Spanish solider and that the H prominently placed on his chest is evidence of the visit of Hernando de Soto. You can form your own opinion of that idea. I have mine.

(click to enlarge)

I am part of a working group of scholars who study Native American imagery just like the one on this pot. I am going to send this image to a bunch of them to see what they think about it. Is it real or is it a fake…in other words, is it old or was it scratched in the bottom of that pot recently? Was the image made by Native Americans, 16^th century Spaniards, or modern South Carolinians? The pot is definitely old and without holding the pot, it is hard to tell if the etching is recent or ancient. Even if it is recent, it can be hard to tell if it was done 30 years ago or 300 years ago. In short, the best way to figure this out is to look at how the image is made and what it shows. As I get responses back from my colleagues, I'll let you know what they say.

I weighed 201.7 lbs today, after not exercising and eating pizza for dinner followed by some ice cream. I guess I should keep up that particular regimen since it has given me my best results so far. It is rainy and cold today, so my chances of going out for a nice walk or bike ride aren’t very good. That means only one thing. I have no choice but to help clean the house. Besides mowing the lawn, I can’t think of anything that I dislike more.