Timucua (Peoples of America) [Hardcover]

Jerald T. Milanich (Author)

Book Description

Series: Peoples of America | Publication Date: August 14, 1996

Based on the latest research findings, this is the moving story of the demise of one of the oldest of the American Indian peoples.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This excellent anthrohistorical work should be in the library of everyone interested in Native Americans." Choice

From the Back Cover

This is the story of the Timucua, an American Indian people who thrived for centuries in the southeast portion of what is now the United States of America.

Timucua groups lived in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia, a region occupied by native people for thirteen millennia. They were among the first of the American Indians to come in contact with Europeans, when the Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the Florida coast in 1513. Thousands of archaeological sites, village middens and sand and shell mounds still dot the landscape, offering mute testimony to the former presence of the Timucua and their ancestors.

Two hundred and fifty years after Ponce de Leon's voyage the Timucua had disappeared, extinguished by the ravages of colonialism. Who were the Timucua? Where did they come from? How did they live? What caused their extinction? These are questions this book attempts to answer, using information gathered from archaeological excavations and from the interpretation of historical documents left behind by the European powers, mainly Spain and France, who sought to colonize Florida and to place the Timucua under their sway.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557864888
• ISBN-13: 978-1557864888
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Study of a Vanished People, December 8, 2007

By 

Willet A. Boyer III "Archaeologist" (Gainesville, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Timucua (Peoples of America) (Paperback)

This book, written by Dr. Jerald Milanich of the Florida Museum of Natural History, is the one of the best syntheses available for the general reader of a Native American culture which was destroyed nearly two and half centuries ago.

The Timucuan Indians, who occupied the territory that today is the northern third of peninsular Florida and southern Georgia, were one of the largest cultural groups in the Southeast at the time of European contact in 1513. Their culture was one of the oldest in the region as well; archaeological study of sites within Timucuan territory suggests that there was great continuity between historic Timucuan lifeways and ancestral cultures going back to the Archaic period, more than 4,000 years previously.

The Timucua were one of the first Native American groups encountered by European explorers, with the arrival of Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, and the expeditions of Narvaez and De Soto. Not coincidentally, their culture was also one of the first to completely disappear, with all known Timucuan Indians gone by the late 1700's, victims of disease and the stresses of colonization.

This book is a wonderfully readable synthesis of all that is known historically and archaeologically of a remarkable, vanished people. I recommend it heartily to anyone with an interest in history, archaeology, or anthropology, whether general reader or specialist.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very accurate information. A must read archaeology students., January 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Timucua (Peoples of America) (Hardcover)

A very good read with a summary that covers many years of studies in Florida. Many long awaited answers can be found in this volume. This volume is a great synthesis of all the information found at many different sites in Florida and Southern Georgia. Thanks to all of the archaeologists who have worked to answer all these questions.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Glance at a Vanished People, May 16, 2010

By 

Kevin M. Derby (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Timucua (Peoples of America) (Paperback)

Jerald Milanich had no easy task in assembling a readable survey of the Timucua people. A tribe of Native Americans based in north Florida and south Georgia, the Timucua were at ground zero of European colonialism and, by 1767, were no more. It was a demographic nightmare. Milanich relies on French and Spanish sources as well as archeology to create as thorough a portrait we will ever get of the Timucua. He offers an interesting look on their religion, political system, trade and livelihoods but most of the book focuses on the years of Spanish rule. The book is very readable and, while Milanich is clearly sympathetic to the plight of the Timucuans, he is able to praise Europeans when he feels it is merited--for example, Francisco Pareja, a Franciscan who was able to compile a dictionary of the Timucuan language. The book is very readable and offers as good a picture as we will ever get of this long vanished people.