by Juan Riera
Today the Florida State University (FSU) Anthropology field school, in conjunction with the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research (BAR), sponsored a public archaeology day, featuring the Martin/de Soto site. It was attended by close to 400 members of the community. I spoke with a couple from Virginia, who learned so much and enjoyed themselves so immensely that they asked for directions to Lake Jackson Mounds and Mission San Luis, other Tallahassee archaeological sites, which, like the Martin/de Soto site, are stewarded by the state.
Eight activity areas and displays were planned, designed, and carried to fruition by the field school students, which focused on the Martin/de Soto site dig. These included survey, excavation, and artifact screening and processing demonstrations; a children’s activity station; atlatl spear throwing; an exhibit on zooarchaeology (the study of non-human animal remains in archaeological contexts); and two displays respectively highlighting the scientific method in the discovery of the Martin/de Soto site and Apalachee pottery and society.
We were joined by architectural historian, Dave Ferro, who gave well-attended tours of the Governor Martin House (the air conditioned building was a welcomed relief to the 100 degree weather outside). Local artist Doriann Martin (no relation to the Governor) brought her Apalachee ceramic replicas, showing a video on how she employs traditional firing techniques in their fabrication. Louis Tesar and Kevin Porter of BAR drew a lot of attention for their knowledge of and ability to flint knap (i.e., make stone projectile points). Adjacent to them we had Jamie Levy with his Cracker horse, Aceituna (Olive), appropriately named for the horse ridden by de Soto and a descendant of this early breed. There was also a 300 pound, taxidermied, wild pig, since
Overall, a good time was had by Juan (and I mean one) and all.
