Tatham Mound

In 1983, Brent Weisman and some members of the Withlacoochee River Archaeology Council (WRAC) discovered the Tatham Mound (8CI203) in a remote, swampy area of what was then the McGregor Smith Scout Reservation near Inverness in Citrus County. Even though it began raining soon after they found it, Brent was able to do an impromptu shovel test that demonstrated that the mound was indeed a human-built earthwork that contained Safety Harbor pottery. That incident set in motion a series of events leading to some significant archaeological discoveries at what may be the last undisturbed burial mound that will ever be completely excavated in Florida.

Excavations at two archaeological sites in
the Southeast have yielded "snapshots" of
the material remains of the Hernando de
Soto expedition and the entrada's effects
on local populations. In Florida, the Tatham
Mound is an aboriginal burial mound that
contained evidence of both violent and
nonviolent contact as they passed through
in 1539 and two smaller contacts in 1540. In
Arkansas, Parkin is a Mississippian village
that was contacted in 1541, after they had
been traveling for two years. The two sites
are good examples of assemblages that can
be expected along different parts of the
expedition route.

A paper summarizing the first two seasons of excavations at the Tatham Mound (8CI203) in Citrus County, Florida. The burial mound contained human skeletal remains and artifacts that revealed contact with early (pre-1550) Spanish explorers, most likely the expedition of Hernando de Soto, which passed through this area in 1539 and 1540.