Archaeologists Unearth Rare Reminder of Britain’s Brief Reign Over the ‘Nation’s Oldest City’
The find offers archaeological evidence of the 20-year interlude when the British ruled St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded by the Spanish in 1565
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When a house is slated to be built in the historic districts of St. Augustine, Florida, the city requires that archaeologists conduct a survey—and, if need be, an excavation—of the site prior to construction.
The aim of this rule, unusual in a state undergoing a population and development boom, is to salvage and document whatever remnants of the past might lie beneath the topsoil of the city that bills itself as “the nation’s oldest.”
Last month, city archaeologists were called in to examine the proposed site of a single-family home in Lincolnville, a neighborhood that was once home to a Native American village, an orange grove plantation and a prominent historically Black community.
As part of initial testing, the archaeologists dug 1-foot-by-1-foot holes across the vacant lot. Immediately, the site showed signs of intrigue.
“The soil just looked odd,” recalls city archaeologist Andrea White on the “Break Room,” a podcast run by the city. “It was mottled … kind of like rye bread. It had different colors mixed in all together. So that tells us someone has dug this soil up before.”
Using ground-penetrating radar from the Florida Public Archaeology Network and a backhoe from the city’s Department of Public Works, the researchers stripped back the soil from the site and discovered a long, 15-foot-wide ditch that extended across the property line.
What they had unearthed was the first archaeological evidence of British fortifications built during the 20-year interlude when Britain controlled Florida in the mid-18th century.
Britain took over St. Augustine in 1763, after the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War and two centuries of Spanish rule over Florida. Founded by Spanish conquistadors under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565, St. Augustine served as the capital of British East Florida until the Spanish regained control of the peninsula after the American Revolution in 1783.
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During that 20-year period, the British inherited Spanish forts and added a network of seven redoubts—long, earthen mounds—to beef up defenses.
“That’s what’s interesting about these British redoubts, they’re the only defenses that the British built themselves,” White tells the Associated Press’ David Fischer.
This specific redoubt was built in 1781 as part of a secondary ring of defenses to protect the city from attacks from the west and the San Sebastian River, White says on the “Break Room.”
Speaking with First Coast News’ Jessica Clark, White compares the redoubt to “a gun platform or someplace [that] people could have used to shoot at their enemy.”
Unlike a garrison station or a full-fledged fort, the redoubt didn’t house soldiers, “so there was no refuse to discover,” White tells the St. Augustine Record’s Lucia Viti. “At best, maybe one or two soldiers were stationed at that location.”
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For this reason, artifacts discovered at the site have been sparse. But seeds found at the bottom of the ditch, including tobacco, okra and muscadine, could be evidence of historical agriculture or plants grown to reinforce the earthworks with their roots, according to the “Break Room.”
When the British left St. Augustine two years after the redoubt was built, it’s likely that they razed the earthworks into ditches or let the once-“grandiose” defenses naturally deteriorate, White tells the Record.
Despite the crucial role that the redoubts played in St. Augustine’s history, archaeologists have long struggled to pinpoint the exact location of the defenses.
Part of the confusion arose from discrepancies between historical maps of British St. Augustine. Although several maps depict the redoubts, “they all have slightly different sizes and dimensions,” White tells the “Break Room.”
Comparing historical maps bearing little resemblance to modern-day St. Augustine with “very small house lots” where archaeologists are allowed to dig is “a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack,” the city’s archaeology program explains in a Facebook post. “A general location plus or minus one [or] two city blocks leaves an awful lot of ground to cover.”
This time, the archaeologists got lucky. They hope that this first redoubt site can serve as an anchor to reference against the historical maps and locate the other six locations of the British defense network.
“It’s a testament that even though we’ve been doing archaeology for over 30 years in St. Augustine, there’s still more to find,” Katherine Sims, an archaeologist for the city, tells First Coast News. “You never really know until you put a shovel in the ground.”
