Politics hindering Mauvilla find?
By Jim Cox Editor & Publisher
 | | Andrew Holmes, right, shows Clarke County Historical Society members photos of the site he believes is Mauvilla. Above, items from site are similar in makeup to 16th century Spanish iron. Photos by Jim Cox |
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A Baldwin County archeologist takes a different view of the legendary Mauvilla and his research and preliminary investigation of the site places it in south Clarke County, near the Alabama River. But, he says politics and landowners fearful of intrusion hamper efforts for a more expansive investigation that could prove the site as the Indian town where Indians fought the Spaniard Hernando DeSoto and his soldiers in a fierce 1540 battle.
Andrew Holmes, an archeological field technician from Stockton, spoke to the Clarke County Historical Society in Grove Hill Sunday.
Holmes believes that the Indian chief Tuscaloosa had previous knowledge of the Spanish and of DeSoto's trek across the southeast from Florida. Holmes described Tuscaloosa as a powerful "warlord" who prepared for DeSoto's arrival, in effect laying a trap for him at Mauvilla.
That is one reason the Indian town has been so hard to locate. It was not a long established village but rather was constructed, or at least stronger fortified, to be a fortress to battle the Spanish. That is why there is not an extensive layer of midden, or archeological material indicating a longtime village that would have drawn archeologists, Holmes explains.
He also believes that the battle would have been a major event for the Indians. Fierce though it was, they would have scoured the area and recovered almost every piece of Spanish weaponry and ironware as prizes of war. This would explain the lack of artifacts at the site.
Holmes' theories rely on the work of his father, Nicholas Holmes who
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