Mission Cemeteries, Mission Peoples: Historical and Evolutionary Dimensions of Intracemetary Bioarchaeolgy in Spanish Florida

5. The Santa María Mission and the Santa Catalina Ossuary on Amelia Island

5 The Santa María Mission and the Santa Catalina Ossuary on Amelia Island Amelia Island (called Santa María by the Spanish) preserves both considerable history in its soils and one of the more perplexing series of skeletal assemblages from Spanish Florida. The island is located fairly close to St. Augustine along a coastline that was heavily raided by the Spanish for slaves beginning in the early sixteenth century (see Davis 1991, 42; Bourne 1904, 34; Hakluyt 1810, 360; Jones 1980, 217; Priestley 1928, 20; Saunders 1992, 140; Sturtevant 1962, 46; True 1945, 56, 61) before The Spanish and French colonized the Atlantic coast of Florida in the 1560s (Barcia 1951; Bennett 1968, 1975, 2001; Geiger 1937; Hudson 1990; McAlister 1984; Milanich 1990). Amelia Island is also located near a modern political boundary . During the sixteenth century, diverse Timucua chiefdoms lived in the area, which was quite close to the southern border of the Guale chiefdom . The island’s population also changed significantly throughout the seventeenth century due to high rates of both in-migration and mortality among indigenous peoples (Worth 1995, 2009). Thus, it should come as no surprise that the archaeological history of the island is quite complex. Amelia Island is located within the traditional territory of the Mocamospeaking eastern Timucua chiefdoms of the protohistoric period. Deagan (1978) identified two chiefdoms (Tacatacuru and Saturiwa), Worth (1997) identified three chiefdoms (adding the Guadalquini), and Milanich (2004) identified nine chiefdoms (adding the Alimacani, Caravay, Casti, Malica, Napa, and Omoloa) among those who spoke the Mocamo dialect. Amelia Island itself was part of the Saturiwa chiefdom, which extended from the St. Marys River to just south of St. Augustine (Deagan 1978; Hann 1996). The Saturiwa are fairly well known historically because of their interaction with the French and Pedro Menendez but quickly disappeared from the 166 · Mission Cemeteries, Mission Peoples historical record, as did many of the smaller eastern Timucua chiefdoms soon after contact (Deagan 1978; Milanich 2004). The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are poorly known and the eastern Timucua must have experienced early and rapid demographic collapse. Missionary activity began in the Mocama district in the 1580s and, according to Bushnell (1986), Amelia Island was home to two Christian visitas administered from the doctrina at San Pedro de Mocama on Cumberland Island: Santo Domingo (with 180 inhabitants) and Santa María de la Sena (with 112 inhabitants). It was initially believed that both missions disappeared from the historical record very quickly, the former by 1606 (Hann 1990, 452) and the latter possibly around the same time or as late as the 1630s (see Bushnell 1986, 2; Hann 1990, 453). Worth (1995, 1997, 2009), however, believes that Santa María was in existence as an independent entity until 1665, when its population was combined with that of San Juan del Puerto. A decade earlier, the congregation of San Pedro de Mocama relocated to Amelia Island (Worth 1997). The Santa María name reappears in the historical record several years later, when it was associated with an influx of pagan Yamassee who founded or reoccupied as many as four villages on Amelia Island (Worth 1995, 197, 2009, 193). It is this association of Santa María with the Yamassee that influences most bioarchaeological interpretations of the skeletal data from the Santa María cemetery (see Larsen 1993, 2001). However, more recent research suggests that the Yamassee never built a church on Amelia Island (Worth 2004b, 251, 2009, 198) and that the group abandoned Spanish Florida en masse in 1683, after which the island was vacant for two years. By 1686, Amelia Island was home to remnant Guale who had moved south to escape the escalating violence that affected much of the Georgia coast and interior beginning in the 1660s (Bowne 2000, 2005, 2006; Worth 1995). These communities combined to establish Santa Catalina de Guale de Santa María (the subject of the previous chapter), which was in existence until 1702. Thus, during the course of the seventeenth century alone, three distinct ethnic groups (Mocama, Yamassee, Guale) resided on Amelia Island in settlements that were likely in relatively close proximity. This makes parsing the archaeological record in terms of ethnic and mission identity exceedingly difficult. Archaeological research at the Harrison Homestead site (8Na41) uncovered two distinct churches with respective cemeteries located within 40 meters of each other (see Figure 4.14 in the previous chapter), one of The...