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Image showing the front of the Margaret Jane Smith Archaeology Institute Building. Two sidewalks and sets of stairs lead to a entry with a peaked roof featuring a turtle medallion

Archaeology Institute

The Archaeology Institute at the University of West Florida is an educational, research and service facility concerned with the prehistoric and historic archaeological resources of the northwest Florida region.

Archaeology Institute Director along with two graduate student employees discuss archaeology at the Luna Settlement site

The Archaeology Institute at the University of West Florida is an educational, research and service facility concerned with the prehistoric and historic archaeological resources of the northwest Florida region. Archaeological investigations are conducted in both terrestrial and underwater settings. The Institute has a professional staff of nine archaeologists, a computer graphics/GIS analyst, a marine captain/dive safety officer and an office manager. Additional staff and students are regularly employed through grant and contract funds.

 

Study Archaeology at UWF

Administratively, the Archaeology Institute is part of Anthropology and Archaeology and provides educational support to the Anthropology Department’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Pensacola. Students obtain extensive training and hands-on experience in the classroom, field school, laboratory, and fieldwork settings. We also provide training and services in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.

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Department of Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology is home to the University's academic program in anthropology, where both faculty and students have opportunity to excel at research and creative activities, and to engage in the practice of anthropology at the University and within the community or in other settings around the world.

Anthropology
students working from a barge

Follow Discovery of the Luna Settlement

Learn more about the archaeological site of the Luna settlement – the first multi-year European settlement in the United States – in a developed neighborhood in Pensacola. The artifacts discovered are evidence of the Spanish settlement by Tristán de Luna y Arellano from 1559 to 1561, the earliest multi-year European colonial settlement ever archaeologically identified in the United States.

Tristan de Luna y Arellano

Florida Public Archaeology Network

The Florida Public Archaeology Network's mission is to promote and facilitate the conservation, study and public understanding of Florida's archaeological heritage through regional centers.

FPAN Website

Archaeology News

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