Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Ph.D.

Committee Member

John W. Arthur, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Diane Wallman, Ph.D.

Keywords

Alafia, Gibsonton, Mocoso, Tampa, Tocobaga, Ucita

Abstract

This study examines the participation of the Mill Point archaeological complex (8HI16-20) and the adjacent Mosaic Park archaeological site (8HI6747) in the changing cultural, economic, and geopolitical relationships that took place among the Indigenous polities present in the Tampa Bay region of southwest Florida during the pre-Columbian and early Spanish colonial periods. Political economy theory provides a framework for understanding the interactions that occurred among them.

Historical accounts, ground reconnaissance, surface survey, repeat aerial photography, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to gain a better understanding of the archaeological significance of the sites. The results show that important archaeological features are still present at Mill Point and that the Mosaic Park site has retained much of its archaeological integrity.

Seven radiocarbon dates provide the first absolute dates for artifacts from Mosaic Park. Robert Austin led the excavation that retrieved the artifacts in 1999. The radiocarbon results show that Indigenous people occupied the site, though not continuously, for a calibrated radiocarbon date range of from 1862 cal BCE to cal CE 1634 (95.5%). The accurate dating of the occupation periods for the site provides a timeline for the cultural and economic changes that took place among the people who lived at the sites. The dates also allow an understanding of which regional Indigenous polities were contemporaries of the people at Mosaic Park and Mill Point and with whom they could have had interactions. The radiocarbon date of cal CE 1634 (95.5%) provided by a charred hickory nutshell is consistent with the timing of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1539 CE. This corroborates the inference that the adjacent Mill Point archaeological complex might be part of the town of Chief Mocoso (also spelled Mocozo, Moscoso, Mocoço, and Mogoso), which was visited by de Soto.

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