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Conference paper
The Luna expedition: An overview from the documents
50th Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Symposium on The Tristan de Luna Shipwrecks and Settlement (1559-1561) in Pensacola, Florida (Fort Worth, Texas, 01/2017)
2017
Abstract
The 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de Luna was the largest and most well-financed Spanish attempt to colonize southeastern North America up to that time. Had it succeeded, New Spain would have expanded to include a settled terrestrial route from the northern Gulf of Mexico to the lower Atlantic coast. While a hurricane left most of the fleet and the colony’s food stores on the bottom of Pensacola Bay just five weeks after arrival, the colonists nonetheless struggled to survive over the next two years, supported by multiple maritime relief expeditions as well as a temporary relocation into central Alabama and the dispatch of a military detachment as far north as the Appalachian foothills. Though Luna’s Pensacola Bay settlement was ultimately abandoned, the documentary record of the expedition details both its maritime and terrestrial dimensions, and provides an important window into the mid-16th-century Spanish colonial world.
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Researcher Activities
UWF Archaeologists Find More Evidence of Daily Life at 1559 Luna Settlement
WUWF 88.1 (Sandra Averhart)Details
- Title
- The Luna expedition: An overview from the documents
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
- Conference
- 50th Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Symposium on The Tristan de Luna Shipwrecks and Settlement (1559-1561) in Pensacola, Florida (Fort Worth, Texas, 01/2017)
- Copyright
- Permission granted to the University of West Florida Libraries to digitize and/or display this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires the permission of the copyright holder.
- Identifiers
- 99380090872906600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English