The urban center logic gate to St. Augustine , built in 1808 , centuries after the metropolis was first patch up by Spanish colonists . Image Credit : Yakin669 viaWikimedia Commons//CC BY - SA 3.0
When Hurricane Matthew roar through St. Augustine , Florida , in October 2016 , many of the township ’s historic buildings were damaged . But it was n’t until a building owner decided to tear up a flooded floor to mitigate pee impairment that an historic find was made — what may be the skeleton of the earliest European colonists in the United States .
The city ofSt . Augustinewas found by admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés , who had voyage from Spain and spotted demesne in what is now Florida on August 28 , 1565 . Menéndez became the first regulator of Florida , and St. Augustine was its capital for two C . Although Pensacola , Florida , is the old multiyear European settlement , founded by Tristán de Luna in 1559 , St. Augustine , located in the northeasterly part of the DoS , come through the title for being the oldest ceaselessly occupied European colonisation in the contiguous U.S.
give the years of the urban center , St. Augustine ’s archeologic teamhas worked for X to shed light on various phase of military control . In 1572 , the township was relocate from a roadblock island onto the mainland , follow difficulties hold it from the Timucua Indians . Shortly after this move , the first parish churches were prove : Nuestra Señora de la Soledadand , slightly sooner , Nuestra Señora de los Remedios , the parish church service of St. Augustine .
The situation of both churches , which were in use between the sixteenth and 18th 100 , have seen archaeological excavations over the years , admit the discovery of numerous burials . La Soledad produced grounds of European , African , and Native American individuals swallow up in Spanish and British styles , while Los Remedios has European and aboriginal American interment in Christian manner .
New tomb light upon during flood extenuation in January are being excavated this workweek by metropolis archeologist Carl Halbirt due to a planned expansion of a piss main through St. Augustine ’s Charlotte Street . Halbirt and his squad bump burials both under the cobblestone street and within what is now the Fiesta Mall , a little edifice in downtown .
Based on the majolica pottery inclusions , the inhumation date to 1572–1586 and were therefore almost certainly among the former made in St. Augustine . The way of burial is Christian , with the skulls orientate to the east and the arms interbreed over the front of the body . The find of these tomb also imply that archaeologists have further physical grounds from Los Remedios , cementing its label as the oldest recognise parish church service in the United States .
John Worth , an archaeologist at the University of West Florida who was not involved in the sketch , recount mental_floss that this discovery is immensely significant . “ Not only do they contribute to an understanding of the church service itself , the burials may provide an opportunity to learn more about Florida ’s early European permanent occupier , including perhaps where they originally came from , ” Worth pronounce . If the people unearthed were indeed founders of St. Augustine , Worth notes , their skeleton may bring out “ the struggles of biography during the first two decades of the metropolis ’s earliest story . ”
psychoanalysis of the remains themselves is only just beginning , but preliminary work by University of Florida anthropologist John Krigbaum suggests the mass who were just found seem to be European adults . If the province countenance destructive testing , further research will be done on samples from the skeletons to potentially investigate their geographic origins , diets , and any disease they had . The burial themselves , though , may stay put under the floor or may be reburied at the historic CatholicTolomato Cemetery .
For a look inside the mining , match out the segment below from First Coast News .
