Anhaica

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Anhaica (also known as Iviahica, Yniahico, and pueblo of Apalache) was an Apalachee Indian town and capital of Apalachee Province located near Myers Park in the present-day city of Tallahassee, Florida. Anhaica's population was approximately 30,000. The province had an estimated population of around 60,000. Anhaica had 250 buildings when Hernando de Soto set up camp there in October of 1539 forcing the Apalachee to abandon the village. Hernando de Soto left in March of 1540.

About 1633 the Franciscan Order's Mission La Purificacion de Tama established a mission at the former site of Anhaica. The fact that no platform or pyramidal mounds are found at Anhaica may indicate a political change. Either Anhiaca was not occupied long or mounds were no longer being built. Also, disease could have been introduced from the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition through Apalachee in 1528 reducing population, changing village location and or mound-building activities. Anhaica was rediscovered in 1988 by Florida state archaeologist B. Calvin Jones.

[edit] Other sites and personages encountered by the De Soto Expedition

• Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park
• Cofitachequi
• Chief Tuskaloosa
• Coosa
• Joara
• Pacaha
• Casqui
• Hernando de Soto (explorer)
• Mississippian culture
• platform mound
• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

[edit] References

• Obsolete De Soto Trail Theory - De Soto's winter encampment in Tallahassee
• Hann, John H. and McEwan, Bonnie G., The Apalachee Indians and Mission San Luis, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 1998.
• Tallahassee Trust
• Anhaica Net