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Conquistadors, Excavators, or Rodents: What Damaged the King Site Skeletons?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

George R. Milner ,
Clark Spencer Larsen ,
Dale L. Hutchinson ,
Matthew A. Williamson  and
Dorothy A. Humpf
George R. Milner
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Clark Spencer Larsen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Dale L. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858
Matthew A. Williamson
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Kinesiology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460
Dorothy A. Humpf
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70644, Johnson City.TN 37614
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Abstract

It has been claimed that many Native American skeletons from the King site in Georgia show evidence of wounds from sharp-edged metal weapons that were wielded by members of the sixteenth-century de Soto expedition (Blakely and Mathews 1990). The supposed massacre of these villagers has caught the attention of the public and scholars alike. But we failed to find any evidence of damage caused by sixteenth-century Spanish weapons in our examination of the King site skeletons. Our finding-there is no evidence for a massacre-eliminates a major discrepancy between historical and archaeological information used in reconstructions of the de Soto route.

Resumen

Resumen

Se ha propuesto que muchos restos óseos de nativos americanos provenientes del sitio King, localizado en Georgia, muestran evidencia de heridas provocadas por armas metálicas punzo-cortantes, propias de las que usaban los miembros de la expedición Española comandada por Soto en el siglo XVI (Blakely and Mathews 1990). La supuesta masacre de estos aldeanos ha atraido la atencion del público y de academicos. Sin embargo, durante nuestro examen de las osamentas del sitio King, nosotros no pudimos encontrar evidencia de heridas ocasionadas por el tipo de armas usadas por los ejércitos españoles durante el siglo XVI. Nuestros resultados, en el sentido de que no hay evidencia de una masacre, eliminan una fuerte discrepancia entre la información historica y los datos arqueólogicos que se han usado en la reconstrucción de la ruta seguida por Soto.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 2000 , pp. 355 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2000

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