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Bioarchaeological Evidence for a Spanish-Native American Conflict in the Sixteenth-Century Southeast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert L. Blakely  and
David S. Mathews
Robert L. Blakely
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303
David S. Mathews
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303
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Abstract

As the state of Georgia marks the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of Hernando de Soto, we reflect on the other actors in the encounter. The King site, a Native American village in the sixteenth-century chiefdom of Coosa, yielded an unusually high crude death rate of 36 per 1,000. We attribute the elevated mortality to casualties from a clash with the Spaniards. Twenty percent of the King site skeletons exhibit injuries-deep gashes and cuts across two extremities–inflicted by steel weapons. Although enemies of the Coosa possessed some European weapons, the demographic profile of the fatalities–young women and middle-aged males and females–implicates the Spaniards. Comparison with European battle casualties supports the notion that the Spaniards were responsible for the injuries. The chronicles reveal de Soto’s army to have been the likely perpetrator. The victims probably either resisted enslavement or attempted to free others from enslavement. The site offers the first archaeological evidence of Spanish violence in the interior Southeast.

Résumé

Résumé

Coincidiendo con la cercana celebración del aniversario de la llegada de Hernando de Soto al estado de Georgia, hace cuatrocientos cincuenta años, nosotros reflexionamos acerca de otros personajes envueltos en ese encuentro. El sitio King, un pueblo indígena de la jefatura de Coosa, que data del sigh dieciséis, ha revelado un índice de mortalidad extraordinariamente alto, de un 36 por 1.000. Nosotros atribuímos la causa de esta elevada mortalidad al encuentro violento de los españoles con la población indigena. Veinte por ciento de los esqueletos del sitio King exhiben lesiones–cuchilladas profundas y cortes a través de las dos extremidades–infligidas con proyectiles de acero. Aunque los enemigos de Coosa poseían armas europeas, el perfil demográfico de los muertos–mujeres jóvenes y hombres y mujeres de edad madura–implican a los españoles. Comparaciones con víctimas de batallas europeas apoyan la notión de que los españoles fueron responsables de todos los maltratos. Las crónicas dan a conocer que el ejército de Hernando de Soto probablemente fue el perpetrador de estas muertes. Las víctimas probablemente resistieron esclavitud o intentaron librar a otros de la esclavitud. El sitio nos ofrece la primera evidencia arqueológica de la violencia de los españoles en el interior del sudeste de los Estados Unidos.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 718 - 744
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990

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