Virtual Preservation and Outreach for Nake'muu Pueblo: Using Technology to Make Inaccessible Sites Accessible

Summary

Nake’muu Pueblo is situated at the tip of a mesa above the confluence of Water Canyon and Cañon de Valle at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This area of LANL is not accessible to the public. Nake'muu is an ancestral site to the Pueblo de San Ildefonso. The site is important as a Coalition period (A.D. 1200-1325) site and because it was reoccupied during the Pueblo Revolt (A.D. 1680-1682). Nake’muu is also the only pueblo at LANL that retains standing walls. For 15 years, the site has been studied, monitored, mapped, and photographed. Given the unique nature of the site, the public and members of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso frequently request tours, but site location and security requirements make access difficult. For this reason, cultural resources staff worked with members of LANL’s Virtualization Team to create an interactive three-dimensional model of the site using an iPad. The application is part of an exhibit at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. The methodology and technology used to create the application is presented in this poster along with information about how it is used for outreach and for documenting changes at the site over time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage