The Timucuan Home

The Timucuan Home. Anoti: An Enclosed Family Home. , This Timucuan hut would have been a comfortable shelter for two to three generations of family, providing protection at night from animals and cover from inclement weather. , Timucuan Homes were mostly for shelter. Daily activities such as toolmaking, food processing and socializing went on in the open village, and so the home only needed to be large enough to accommodate sleeping space and room for a hearth to cook by. The circular shape of the building helped to make the structure very resistant to wind , up to a category 2 hurricane! , There were typically three types of buildings in a Timucuan Village: the open and Public Paha, the closed family anoti, and the large council house which could be up to 60 feet in diameter with room for 30-100 people depending on the size of the village. , Archaeologists recognized Native American structures by the stains left in the ground from the wooden posts. As the wood decays it leaves a dark black organic stain in the soil which is typically a golden-orange color. Archaeologists also find remnants of the central hearth from scorched earth and animal bones left over from cooking meals. , [photo caption] , . In 2013, we completed construction of an historically-correct anoti, a large Timucuan family house, and a nihi paha, a special meeting house. Although the Timucua are gone, they are not forgotten.