[ A typical Timucua Indians Village ].

Aquatint depicting a typical Timucua Indians Village engraved by Fumagalli, after Jacques LeMoyne.

The Timucua of northeast Florida (the Saturiwa and Agua Dulce tribes) at the time of first contact with Europeans, lived in villages that typically contained about 30 houses, and 200 to 300 people. The houses were small, made of upright poles and circular in shape. Palm leaf thatching covered the pole frame, with a hole at the top for ventilation and smoke escape.

The houses were 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 m) across and were used primarily for sleeping. A village would also have a council house which would usually hold all of the villagers. Europeans described some council houses as being large enough to hold 3,000 people. If a village grew too large, some of the families would start a new village nearby, so clusters of related villages formed. Each village or small cluster of related villages had its own chief.
Temporary alliances between villages for warfare were also formed. Ceremonial mounds might be in or associated with a village, but the mounds belonged to clans rather than villages.

From Giulio Ferrario's work Le Costume Ancien et Moderne ou Histoire du gouvernement, de la milice, de la religion, des arts, sciences et usages de tous les peuples anciens et modernes d'après les monuments de l'antiquité et accompagné de dessins analogues au sujet par le Docteur Jules Ferrario.".
Published in Milan by the author between 1816 and 1827.

The Timucua were American Indian people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida.
"Timucua" (from "Thimogna") was originally the term used by the Saturiwa (of the area near present-day Jacksonville) to refer to the related people living north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns River and the Suwannee River. The Timucua Province of the Spanish mission system originally was this area. This was also the area of the Timucua proper dialect of the Timucuan language. During the 17th century, the Spanish mission Province of Timucua was extended to include the Suwannee River and the Aucilla River. The population of the Timucuan people at the time of European contact was around 50,000 people by one estimate and around 200,000 by another. The Timucua were organized into at least 35 chiefdoms at the time.

In 1539, Hernando de Soto led an army of more than 500 men through the western parts of Timucua territory, stopping in a series of villages of the Ocale, Potano, Northern Utino, Uzachile and Yustaga branches of the Timucua on his way to the Apalachee domain. His army seized the food stored in the villages, took women for consorts and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with the Timucua, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties.

De Soto was in a hurry to reach the Apalachee domain, where he expected to find gold and sufficient food to support his army through the winter, and did not linger in Timucua territory.]

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