Panhandle Archaeological Society at Tallahassee - PAST

09/27/2026

Thank you, Bob Holladay!

Tallahassee historian urges inventive genius with future of Wahnish Cigar building.

09/25/2026

Research News 🔬 Archaeologists uncover centuries-old mystery of Tampa Bay’s secret community of migrant potters

Around 1000 A.D., a new culture took root in the Mississippi River Valley and radiated outward, eventually covering much of what is now the Midwest and eastern United States. In the heartland, Indigenous communities settled into regional hierarchies, with large chiefdoms amassing political power over surrounding villages. They planted large swaths of land with maize and quarried soil to build large mounds topped with temples and chief residences.

But Safety Harbor, the term used for the regional culture that existed in and around Tampa Bay during this period, sat on the outskirts, hundreds of miles south of tribes associated with the Mississippian culture. Like these Mississippian tribes, Safety Harbor communities aggregated in small chiefdoms and built flat-topped mounds. The largest village of Safety Harbor was home to the Tocobaga, with smaller Mocoso, Pohoy and Uzita chiefdoms dotting the surrounding region. But no single group gathered as much political power as the central hubs of the north. Furthermore, the coastal communities never adopted the hallmark maize agriculture, sustaining themselves with fishing and marine resources instead.

Archaeologists have long debated how pottery from the Mississippian culture wound up far beyond the boundaries of that culture in Tampa Bay.

Now researchers say they have the answer: a secretive guild of migrant artisans made the pottery hundreds of years ago and may have used their specialized knowledge to secure a place for themselves in their new community.

Read about how our researchers analyzed the structure and content of this ancient pottery, and the stories discovered under the microscopes:

Story: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/archaeologists-uncover-centuries-old-mystery-of-tampa-bays-secret-community-of-migrant-potters/

“The group of potters making the decorated vessels likely had some kind of special status that they maintained through this secretive practice, even if it wasn’t a secret in the sense that no one knew about it,” said Neill Wallis, curator of Florida archaeology, bioarchaeology and the Ceramic Technology Laboratory here at the Florida Museum. “In fact, for secrets like this, you do have to broadcast some of the details so that people know there is a secret.”

09/25/2026

07/10/2026

We are happy to share that everything is secure at the R.A. Gray Building after yesterday’s fire.

Staff assessed the building, and while there is minor damage to the facility, our core collections in the State Archives of Florida, Museum of Florida History, and State Library are safe.

Thank you to the Tallahassee Fire Department, City of Tallahassee, FL - Government, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, and Capitol Police for working quickly to save Florida’s most precious documents and artifacts.

We look forward to getting everything back to normal operations next week.

07/06/2026

We're proud of the partnership we share with Goodwood Museum & Gardens and look forward to continuing to help them understand their past through archaeological and historical research!

06/27/2026

The centuries-old artifacts emerged from the riverbed between 2021 and 2022. Experts spent several years carefully restoring 17 of them, which will make their public debut in a new exhibition

06/27/2026

Researchers announced this week that they had achieved a complete reading of a Herculaneum scroll charred in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Did you know that the non-invasive techniques used to unlock the mysteries of the scrolls were developed by a team at the University of Kentucky with support from NEH grants?

Read more: https://shorturl.at/FDUYW

06/23/2026

Tallahassee and Leon County should hire a city/county staff archaeologist.

06/22/2026

After road construction uncovered previously unrecorded burial sites at Munree Cemetery, historians began working to document the graves and restore the family connections linked to the cemetery. Read more below.

05/28/2026

Three of these were found at the Martin House/de Soto site in Tallahassee during excavations in the 1980s 🙂