Glass Beads and Spanish Shipwrecks: A New Look at Sixteenth-Century European Contact on the Florida Gulf Coast

Despite the considerable amount of research devoted to the study of 16th-century contact between Native Americans and Spaniards in Florida, little attention has been given to the impact of Spanish shipwrecks on the lives and material culture of the Florida Indians. Spanish land-based expeditions are traditionally presented as the principal means of European contact with Native Americans in Florida and as the primary source for European objects, such as glass beads. This has created a misleading picture of what was really happening in Florida during the 16th century. Examination of Spanish sailing routes, the types of artifacts recovered archaeologically from the wreck sites of homebound Spanish ships, and salvage activities of the Florida Indians reveals that Spanish shipwrecks were probably responsible for most of the historical artifacts found on Florida archaeological sites with 16th-century European components. This suggests that the interactions between Spaniards and Florida Indians had a far greater intensity and complexity than has generally been supposed.