Evidence That The Mayans Traveled to Florida

Why this is good news for my plot of Calusa Gold.

In my current work-in-progress Calusa Gold, Sinapa, a Calusa Prince, along with seven warriors, sails and rows across the Gulf of Mexico to get to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), to try to convince King Montezuma to join with the Calusa tribe to fight off the Spanish Conquistadors.

While this never happened, I hoped it was possible, and I found some evidence to support my idea. Last week I visited the Crystal River Archeological State Park to check out the mounds and other remains of the ancient civilization that lived there. I also saw a brief mention of possible Mayan relics at the site.

This got me wondering how the Mayans actually made it to Crystal River Happily, I found what I was looking for!

On the webpage Mayan Glyphs at Crystal River Site in Florida Gary C. Daniels writes, “From the site design featuring rectangular, flat-topped pyramids with associated plazas, (the first of their kind in the Southeastern U.S.,) to carved stone stelae like those of the Maya, researchers have long noted its similarity to sites in Mexico of the same time period.”

This was good to read, as it established the possibility of Mayan influence in Florida. Daniels gave me more good news by quoting from a paper by Archaeologist Edward V. McMichael titled, Veracruz, Crystal River Complex, Hopewellian Climax, in which he said,

“About A.D. 1 or shortly before, the Mexican State of Veracruz contributes a complex of cultural traits to the northwest coast of Florida which inspires the Crystal River Complex….As to the mode of transmission, a seagoing mechanism seems most likely since there is no evidence for Crystal River Complex traits intervening between northern Veracruz and the northwest coast of Florida….”

Bingo! This is what I was looking for: a clear probability of sea travel between Mexico and Florida. I realize this refers to the Mayans, not the Aztecs. There is no evidence of the Aztecs traveling to Florida by boat; however, it does make my plot plausible. Plus, the Calusans lived along the coast and were accustomed to travel by boat, so it is not impossible to think they could have crossed the Gulf of Mexico.

Another good result is that in Calusa Gold, my Calusa prince and his companions land near Veracruz, as that seems like a logical destination on the Mexican coast in order to travel to Tenochtitlan. The also happens to be where Cortes landed with his army. This all fits well with my plot.

I found a map of a possible Mayan route to Florida on a page on Daniels’ Lost Worlds website, Could the Maya Reach Florida?

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