Mayaca was the name used by the Spanish starting in 1565, referring to a group of Native People in central Florida named after the chief. Archaeological evidence from the late 1800s to the late 1900s shows that the Mayaca occupied several villages along the St. Johns River from south of Lake George (near the location where Highway 40 crosses the river at Volusia/Astor) to the north side of Lake Monroe (near the Volusia County and Seminole County boundary). [1]
According to Spanish records (primarily letters written by Friars), the Mayaca language was closely related to that of the Jororo, who lived south of the Mayaca. The Mayaca were hunter-gatherers and were not known to practice agriculture, except for small family plots of beans and native squash. Their neighbors to the north, the Utina, or Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua, grew corn extensively. Agriculture was not adopted by people living south of Lake George because the soil conditions did not support it. Yamasee people who moved into the Mayaca region from what is now Georgia in the 1670s to escape the British, had been corn growers but found it necessary to become hunter-gatherers. The Mayaca shared ceramics and burial traditions (the St. Johns Culture) with the Freshwater Timucua to the north, the Acuera (Timucua) to the west, the Surruque to the east (along the coast), the Ais (overlap with the Indian River Culture) to the southeast, and the Jororo.[2]