Ancient Civilization Uncovered!

In 1934, laborers at the Fountain of Youth began cultivating a citrus grove on the property and quickly uncovered a cluster of human bones, leading to the discovery that the graves were not recent. Local archaeologists contacted the Smithsonian Institution, which sent specialists to St. Augustine from Washington, D.C., and what began as preliminary analyses and digs became a full-scale archaeological investigation that continued for the next five years. By the end of the work, 94 Christian burials of indigenous people had been uncovered, studied, and documented. These graves belonged to Indians who had converted through Catholic mission efforts in St. Augustine and were buried in ways that reflected their new faith, including crossed arms and placement flat on their backs. Further investigation showed that two ancient burial grounds were involved, and M.W. Sterling of the Smithsonian judged it quite probable that the historic Indian village at the site stood on the same ground as an earlier prehistoric one. The pre-Columbian burials also showed evidence of healthier teeth, and Vernon Lamme wrote on October 25, 1935, that the earlier burials must have been made several centuries before Ponce de Leon's landing in 1513, with the possibility that such earlier burials extended under the entire property.

St. Augustine, Florida · United States