Eighteenth-Century Mission Farmstead Found in St Augustine

ST AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA—Native American and European pottery have been found at an eighteenth-century farmstead that was part of the Spanish Pocotalaca mission. The Franciscan mission housed members of the Yamassee group from South Carolina between 1717 and 1752 in some 20 huts made of poles and palm fronds. There was also a small church and a fortress. In a rare discovery of a hut site, archaeologist Carl Halbirt found a post hole and a black smudge where corn cobs had been burned in order to keep away the mosquitoes. Deer bones and teeth, pipe stems, and clam shells have also been uncovered.