- Feb 2, 2013
- 1,428
- 1,999
- Detector(s) used
- Many
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Florida - Excavation of 'Most Sacred Arce'
UF leads excavation of 'Most Sacred Acre'
Collection manager for historical archaeology at the Florida museum of Natural History, Gifford Waters, PhD, shows where they discovered a coquina wall/foundation structure from the 1600's/early 1700's from an excavation site at the Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine on Tuesday.
ST AUGUSTINE — "America's Most Sacred Acre" — the name given to the tranquil, shaded waterfront cemetery and grounds of the Nombre De Dios Mission and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche — has been the center of activity and attention for six weeks.
A lot of digging and scraping with shovels and pickaxes. A lot of chopping through sidewalk pavement and tree roots.
All to uncover the foundation and inner walls of what experts say is the first shrine ever built in the New World to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ.
"It's exhausting work, physically and mentally sometimes," said Alysia Leon, a recent graduate of Flagler College, whose name bears the faint echo of long-ago explorer Ponce De Leon, who in his search for the Fountain of Youth supposedly made landfall while searching just a short distance to the north of the mission dig site.
There is a Fountain of Youth to the north of here, but it's a tourist attraction with its own archaeological artifacts once hidden 20 inches beneath the surface.
The shrine at Nombre De Dios is one of the most significant archaeological finds in years, said Gifford Waters, the lead archaeologist here, and collections manager for historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
"I'm ecstatic," said Eric Johnson, who's been manager of the mission for the past 20 years. He's seen other digs, but nothing like this. "I always felt this place held a major secret to history. To see that borne out is very satisfying. I had no idea it would be anything that huge."
*******
It's a huge, relatively intact architectural structure generating lots of excitement from historians, archaeologists and other scholars from all over.
UF leads excavation of 'Most Sacred Acre' | Ocala.com
UF leads excavation of 'Most Sacred Acre'
Collection manager for historical archaeology at the Florida museum of Natural History, Gifford Waters, PhD, shows where they discovered a coquina wall/foundation structure from the 1600's/early 1700's from an excavation site at the Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine on Tuesday.
ST AUGUSTINE — "America's Most Sacred Acre" — the name given to the tranquil, shaded waterfront cemetery and grounds of the Nombre De Dios Mission and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche — has been the center of activity and attention for six weeks.
A lot of digging and scraping with shovels and pickaxes. A lot of chopping through sidewalk pavement and tree roots.
All to uncover the foundation and inner walls of what experts say is the first shrine ever built in the New World to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ.
"It's exhausting work, physically and mentally sometimes," said Alysia Leon, a recent graduate of Flagler College, whose name bears the faint echo of long-ago explorer Ponce De Leon, who in his search for the Fountain of Youth supposedly made landfall while searching just a short distance to the north of the mission dig site.
There is a Fountain of Youth to the north of here, but it's a tourist attraction with its own archaeological artifacts once hidden 20 inches beneath the surface.
The shrine at Nombre De Dios is one of the most significant archaeological finds in years, said Gifford Waters, the lead archaeologist here, and collections manager for historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
"I'm ecstatic," said Eric Johnson, who's been manager of the mission for the past 20 years. He's seen other digs, but nothing like this. "I always felt this place held a major secret to history. To see that borne out is very satisfying. I had no idea it would be anything that huge."
*******
It's a huge, relatively intact architectural structure generating lots of excitement from historians, archaeologists and other scholars from all over.
UF leads excavation of 'Most Sacred Acre' | Ocala.com
