Intact pottery found at Gainesville Spanish mission site
Among 7,000 artifacts, the Florida Museum found one small bowl-shaped vessel, but experts do not know its purpose or why it was buried
Archaeology students uncovered a fully intact Native American pottery vessel at a former Spanish mission site in northwest Gainesville, Florida, according to a Florida Museum of Natural History statement reported by Archaeology Magazine. The small, bowl-shaped pot fits in the palm of a hand and is the only vessel of its kind among 7,000 artifacts recovered during the museum's previous excavations at the site, the museum said.
“Typically, we find things that were broken and discarded,” Gifford Waters, collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, was quoted as saying. Experts are still unsure of the vessel's purpose or why it was buried inside a Spanish-made structure.
The mission village was abandoned in 1706 after housing several hundred Potano people and, at times, a small contingent of Spanish soldiers.
- 1.Rare Native American Vessel Unearthed at Former Spanish Mission. Archaeology Magazine, .
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