Archaeologist finds artifacts from Coronado expedition

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A Tucson archaeologist has unveiled a discovery in Santa Cruz County that she thinks could rewrite the history of the Coronado Expedition.

Deni Seymour said she has unearthed hundreds of artifacts linked to the 16th century Spanish expedition, including pieces of iron and copper crossbow bolts, distinctive caret-headed nails, a medieval horseshoe and spur, a sword point and bits of chain mail armor.

The "trophy artifact" is a bronze wall gun — more than 3 feet long and weighing roughly 40 pounds — found sitting on the floor of a structure that she said could be proof of the oldest European settlement in the continental United States.

"This is a history-changing site," said Seymour, who touts herself as the Sherlock Holmes of history. "It's unquestionably Coronado."

The independent researcher revealed her find on Jan. 29 in a sold-out lecture to more than 100 people at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park.

Seymour is not disclosing the exact location of the archaeological site, but her general description in the Santa Cruz Valley places it at least 40 miles west of Coronado National Memorial, which overlooks the San Pedro River and the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista.

In 1540, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led an armed expedition of more than 2,500 Europeans and Mexican-Indian allies through what is now Mexico and the American Southwest in search of riches.

The two-year journey took them as far north and east as present-day Kansas and brought them into contact — and often conflict — with centuries-old Indigenous culture along the way.

Though professional archeologists and amateur sleuths have puzzled over it for close to 150 years, Coronado's exact route through Arizona to the elaborate Zuni pueblos of northern New Mexico remains a mystery.

The consensus among scholars is that the expedition most likely followed the Rio Sonora through northern Mexico and the San Pedro River into what is now Arizona.

Seymour believes her discovery proves once and for all that Coronado and company actually entered Arizona along the Santa Cruz River before eventually heading east.

That puts her at odds with most researchers.

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