The Florida Archaeological Council (FAC) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida invites you to the 77th Annual Meeting of the Florida Anthropological Society in Gainesville, May 9-11, 2025, at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Center just across from the University of Florida.

This event marks 23 years since FAC published the “Thinking about Significance” volume. This publication was monumental at the time and has been a reference to many in the years since. But our understanding of what archaeological significance is has shifted dramatically during the last two decades as our understanding of the archaeological record has grown and as the dialogue surrounding archaeology has expanded to include a larger, more diverse stakeholder group. Papers on all topics are welcomed, but it is hoped there will be a focus on “significance”, including the interpretation of site and artifact significance in relation to historic preservation, significance in interpretation and presentation, how different “groups” view significance, and how our understanding and evaluation of significance has changed as the perspectives of indigenous and other underrepresented stakeholders are integrated into archaeological discussions.

Cost is $65 for members and $75 for non-members. The student rate is $30.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Charles Cobb, a James E. Lockwood, Jr., Professor of Historical Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Sixteenth-Century Entradas in La Florida

Although archaeologists have long been keenly interested in the routes of the first Spanish explorers in greater La Florida, by the close of the 20th century this kind of research had somewhat languished. The slowdown was due in part to the fact that most Indigenous sites related to the expeditions had been discovered through the discovery of European objects in mortuary contexts, and archaeologists now attempt to avoid disturbing Indigenous ancestral remains. In the past decade there has been a renaissance of activity on potential entrada sites, spurred in large part by the introduction of systematic metal detecting of the habitation areas of 16th century Indigenous settlements. This presentation will summarize how the Colonial Encounters Research Consortium (CERCa), a group of archaeologists working across multiple states, is implementing these methods and shedding new light on interactions between Native American and European peoples.