OT: joint UM archaeological team unearths oldest colonial fort in U.S.
Slow summer board, so ran across this and thought I'd share.
An archaeological team from Michigan, Tulane, and Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC), discovered the remnants of an old Spanish fort in North Carolina. The unearthed garrison is from the 16th century and predates the earliest English settlments (like Roanoke). The site is believed to be Fort San Juan, which is one of six such military outposts scattered across the Appalachian range. Long story short, these forts lasted a mere 18 months before relations with the native Mississippian tribe went South, and all forts were burnt to the ground. The Spanish didn't rebuild.
http://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-discover-oldest-colonial-for…
Not every day one can link to history.com. Enjoy.
Note, on the website the picture of the fort is credited to the University of Michigan.
Just another reminder that I don't have my moat yet. Good God do I need a moat.
I was redoing our paver retaining wall in my front yard this summer, and had dug a 9 inch deep by 2 foot wide trench. My 3 year old son was devestated that I didn't turn it into a moat. I mean devestated...
Can you blame him?
sharks with frickin' lazer beams attached to their heads.
No kidding; all but one man died in the attack. I bet that one guy though was stoked to have that moat.
edit: originally I said 119 out of 120 died. Not sure where I got that number, according to other sources there were only 30 men stationed there.
Something tells me he was sent back to the Spanish with a message. And that something is all the movies I've watched.
Because I see dirt/wood with some squares cut out, and then someone went in Paint and drew some lines over the dirt. I guess I'm no Indiana Jones.
Any idea at what size we're looking at here? Pretty cool find none the less.
Where are the catapults? Oh and where would the knights that say "Ni" be stationed at in this fort?
Well, it's clear that they must have been taking some defensive lessons from Great-great-great-great-great-Gerg cause having Jonas Moat-on responsible for that much coverage is asking for a break down.
Then that means the moat would be filled with beavers, right?
you don't fill things with beavers, you fill beavers with things.
A post on this board about something older than me!
Indians' side--that is, if we're getting up a game of Espanoles (note to self: add tilde) and Indians.
Wow I had no idea anyone had settled that far in-land so early. Pretty sweet
Every year they open the site to the public (they've been digging there for 20+ years). The evidence seems convincing to me (I'm not an archaeologist), but a historian friend of mine says he won't accept it as conclusive until Kathleen Deagan (http://www.flagler.edu/hsari/research-assoc/description-kathleenDeagan.html), the foremost expert on Spanish colonial archaeology, steps forward and recognizes it publicly. So one day we wrote her an email asking her opinion on the matter, and she did not respond. But I'm buying it - my historian friend is kind of bizarre.
for my studies in Grad school, I wouldn't trust an archologist with anything that wasn't a pot fragment.
These archaeologists have all kinds of physical evidence, including nails, shards, spear points, lead balls (bullets), etc.
Archeologist are just a bunch of dam diggers.