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Studying Ancient America in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Boundary End Archaeology Research Center is a perfect escape for writers, artists and other creative souls wishing to experience the peace and tranquility of Appalachia.

 

Free Virtual Lecture –
Trade, Recruitment, and Rebellion: Native Mediation of the Pardo Expedition into the Carolina’s and East Tennessee -1566-1568.

David Moore assists Warren Wilson College students in archaeology lab.

David Moore assists Warren Wilson College students in archaeology lab.

For those who were not able to join the live lecture on January 13, we have posted a recording. You can also see the other lecture recordings as well at our YouTube Channel here.

How did Native peoples receive and interact with Spanish colonizers in the mid-16th century? Contrary to popular narratives, Native peoples were not passive victims of Spanish colonization. Instead, Native leaders mediated encounters with the Spanish towards their own goals; from soliciting trade, recruiting the Spanish for military expeditions, and even exterminating them when they posed a threat.
 
In this presentation, David Moore briefly reviews the discovery of Fort San Juan (the earliest European settlement in the interior of the United States), built by command of Captain Juan Pardo at the Native American town of Joara in 1567. Using Fort San Juan and Joara to situate the mid-16th cultural landscape of the Carolina Piedmont, he will then explore examples of interactions that took place between Pardo’s Spanish army and the Cherokee, Sara, Wateree, Catawba, and other Native peoples of the Southeast. He will highlight encounters from east Tennessee to western North Carolina and the western North Carolina Piedmont region.
 
Joara and Fort San Juan are located at the Berry site, located just outside of modern-day Morganton in Burke county, North Carolina. Dr. Moore began archaeological investigations at the Berry site in 1886 and since 2000 has directed a major public archaeology program at the site with colleagues Dr. Chris Rodning (Tulane University), Dr. Rob Beck (University of Michigan), and Dr. Rachel Briggs (UNC-Chapel Hill).

Latest News

Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside

Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho is the New George Stuart Residential Scholar

The Boundary End Archaeology Research Center is delighted to announce that our 2021 George Stuart Residential Scholar, Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho, will be arriving at our residential library in January. Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, where she also obtained her MA. Nelda is from Mexico, where she earned her BA from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Nelda’s dissertation focuses on the bioarchaeology of Chichén Itzá and its surrounding

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Registration is now open! The 2021 Mesoamerica Meetings

The 2021 Mesoamerica Meetings are indeed happening, and they are all online so you can attend from the comfort of your home, anywhere in the world! And since this year has been particularly challenging for everyone, we wish to focus on our community, and welcome everyone at whatever registration fee level you decide, including free! For more details on program, schedule, and how to register, see https://utmesoamerica.org/registration-information