Latest news with #Molino
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
UWF archaeology uncover secrets of Molino and Luna settlement site
They dug Luna. Now, University of West Florida archaeology students are digging, very carefully, and investigating the nearly 300-year-old remnants of San Joseph de Escambe, a mission constructed in 1741 in present-day Molino near the Escambia River. The mission was built by the members of the Apalachee − indigenous people who inhabited parts of Northwest Florida and the Southeast. Ten years after its construction, Spanish cavalry soldiers and infantry, along with Spanish friars, joined the Apalachee at the mission and remained until spring1761 when it was burned during a raid by Creek Indians. UWF archaeology students, both undergraduate and graduate students, have spent nearly three-weeks excavating the heavily wooded site located on private land − UWF has the landowner's permission − not far from the Escambia River. The excavations and research are part of the UWF Archaeology summer field school, where students first spent three weeks excavating the De Luna settlement discovered in and around present-day East Pensacola Heights, just off shore of the two Emmanuel Point shipwrecks discovered in 1992 and 2006 that are linked to the settlement − the first European settlement in North America, predating both the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine and the European settlement at Jamestown. Pensacola's storied history, much longer than that of most North American cities, makes it a great location for archaeology and archaeology students, and is why UWF's archaeology programs, both maritime and terrestrial, have received numerous awards and distinctions through the years. "Pensacola is uniquely endowed with not just a rich record of prehistoric Native American occupation sites that tell us a lot about their lifestyles and how they changed over time and how they utilized the bay and the estuary, but also because we have some of the earliest European settlements,'' said John Worth, a UWF anthropology professor specializing in archaeology and ethnohistory. "We had this competition between the Spanish, French and the British and we have presidio sites and ports and so on, and they were interacting with Native Americans. It's one of the richest areas for archaeology in the whole southeast. It's an amazing area." Amazing, but not without its challenges. You've seen the Indiana Jones movies. There are always challenges. Even danger sometimes. Or at least a little pain. Worth was watching over as students delicately scraped thin slices of dirt and sand from a site in Molino where he and others thought a post or two might be located. (Thin slices for sure. Think of a cook removing an omelet from the skillet.) Suddenly, UWF archaeology student John Merts, one of the students with shovels, gasped and did a little dance step with the shovel as he shimmied in pain. A horsefly the size (and width) of a thumb had bitten through his tie-dye shirt into his skin. "That's a big horsefly,'' Worth said. There are other critters too. Students had made two fire pits to shoo the many mosquitoes away from the site of the mission, which is located in a field of sweet gum and water oak trees. He said the Apalachee probably did the same. "We've found these smudge pits where they would dig a hole in the ground, and they are stuffed with corn cobs,'' he said. "It was just the cobs, and they would let them smolder. Part of that was probably for mosquito control, but another reason is that they were buying deer skins, or you know, trading deer skins with the Creeks and they would dress them and tanning them would involve smoking them." Throughout the site, about a hectare, Worth said − that's 100 by 100 meters − students have dug up post sites, and small pits of pottery. Students with wheelbarrows would take the excavated dirt and sand to a water screen station near the dirt road that leads the mission, which Worth said at its height probably had about 30 occupants. While looking over one wheelbarrow's remains as it went through water, UWF student Jack Jacobson spotted something interesting. A little speck of a piece of, well, something. "I think it might be a piece of pottery,'' Jacobson said to Worth. "I think you're right,'' Worth said. The fragment was bagged, tagged and will make its way back to UWF's archaeology laboratory. "It's exciting to see something and you think you know what it might be and find out you are right,'' Jacobson said, before going back to search for more pieces. UWF instructors and students have been excavating and researching at the San Joseph de Escambe mission since 2009. Students and UWF archaeologists have also been working at the de Luna settlement near downtown Pensacola during the summers since its discovery in 2015. On the recent three-week research stint at the Pensacola site, students found a few interesting pieces. But what they didn't find was interesting as well, Worth said. "We found a few bits of Spanish material, but most of what we found was native pottery,'' he said. "But we were digging close to the bluff so it could be from the Luna period because the Spaniards brought back materials from food gathering expeditions, because the Native Americans also camped right in the same area just along the bluff. We found a piece of brigandine armor, a small blue glass bead and a couple of pieces of Spanish table wear. But we did not find a single Spanish nail, and they are usually all over, so they probably weren't building anything that close to the bluff." Student Max Stevens took a break from slicing thin layers of soil away from an excavation site and said "he has always been interested in history and I've always wanted to learn more about it." That's what prompted the Panama City native from entering UWF's archaeology program. "I wanted to see it with my own eyes,'' he said. "Not just read about it." For more information on UWF anthropology and archaeology, go to For more information on the research at both the Molino and Pensacola research sites, go to the Pensacola Colonial Frontiers Facebook page This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF archaeology uncover secrets of Molino and Luna settlement site
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NCIS: Origins Stars Pitch a Ghosts Crossover for Dead (?) Lala — WATCH
The following contains spoilers from the Season 1 finale, now streaming on Paramount+. Whatever the fate of Special Agent Lala Dominguez, NCIS: Origins star Mariel Molino is determined to stay in the CBS family. More from TVLine Burning Fire Country Finale Question, Answered: Where Were All the Masks? Elsbeth's Carrie Preston, EP Talk Finale's 'Crazy,' Star-Studded Musical Number and Filling the Kaya Void Ghosts EPs Talk Finale's 'Perilous' Jay Cliffhanger, Pete and Alberta's Big Moment - Plus, Grade It! As NCIS: Origins' freshman run drew to a close on April 28, Lala was on her way to find 'probie' Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) at the family home he is readying to finally sell — to deliver the news that she convince MP investigator to not arrest him for the murder of cartel boss Pedro Hernandez — when a small girl darted out into the road. Lala steered to miss the child, and flipped her Jeep in the process. Lala was last seen dangling upside down in the driver's seat, bleeding profusely. It's easy to assume that Lala died on the spot (and I've said a lot on why that'd be the very best version of the powerful and heartbreaking finale), but Origins showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal are not confirming the character's fate, yet. Now that Lala's mortality has been called into question, TVLine checked in with Molino again, at Wednesday night's CBS Fest '25 event celebrating the network's recently revealed 2025-26 schedule. 'Oh, man…. I hope she comes back. I hope that she's alive,' Molino said, standing with co-stars Stowell and Kyle Schmid. 'But who knows. '[The] NCIS [franchise] has taken big swings before with characters and their futures, so it's tough to say, the actress added. 'Turn on those candles and pray, please!' Schmid noted that Molino has another gig lined up — she'll appear in Season 2 of Max's Vgly, due out this fall — while Stowell said that, worst case for Lala, 'the back-up plan is to move her over to Ghosts,' which of course also airs on CBS. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be a ghost on Ghosts. I can always be on Ghosts,' Molino nodded. That, or, 'Lala's ghost gets a spinoff,' she quipped. Want scoop on , or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to , and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line! Best of TVLine Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa' Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
So, About That Steamy NCIS: Origins Swimming Pool Scene: ‘We Were Freezing Our T–s Off!' Star Shares
NIS Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Lala Dominguez may have (ahem) warmed up to each other in a whole new way in CBS' NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale, but for actors Austin Stowell and Mariel Molino, the temperature there on-set was anything but steamy. When filming the swimming pool scene in which Gibbs and Lala nearly shared a first kiss, 'We were freezing our t–s off!' Molino shared with TVLine. More from TVLine Exclusive Tracker Finale Trailer Reveals Major Returning Character The Best Version of That Powerful NCIS: Origins Finale Is the One Where Lala Is Dead - Here's Why Queen Latifah Pays Tribute to The Equalizer After CBS Cancellation: 'Everything I Hoped It Would Be' The swimming pool scenes (including Lala's initial, solitary pool hop) were filmed on Feb. 27 at a home near the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood, Calif., and very late at night — when even temperate Los Angeles can deliver a big chill. 'That was a night shoot at 1 am going into 2 am, so it was really cold,' Molino, a TVLine Performer of the Week honorable mention for the season finale, recalled. To stay warm, the actress in between takes would quickly exit the pool, 'where our special effects was blasting a massive heater. I would warm up and then go into the pool again.' The native of the San Diego area admitted with a laugh that 'everyone would make fun of me, of course, because I'm just such a weakling for any type of cold temperature.' Even so, she very much enjoyed her first dip into the pool, where Lala simply (and stealthily!) decompressed by quietly floating around on her back. 'Getting to swim around for fun was just a delight,' Molino effused. As an actor, she noted, 'I can't say I've done that before!' TVLine readers gave the NCIS: Originals finale, as well as all of Season 1, an average grade of 'A.' Want scoop on , or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to InsideLine@ and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line! Best of TVLine Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa' Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)
