San Gabriel del Yunque: As Seen through a Museum Assemblage

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1598, the first Spanish colonists in the southwestern United States established a capitol at Yunque Owingeh, later known as San Gabriel del Yunque, New Mexico. They concentrated in a series of converted Puebloan roomblocks until the capitol was moved to Santa Fe in 1610. For over 300 years, the location of this first capitol was the stuff of legends and oral traditions. In 1944, Marjorie Tichy Lambert conducted salvage archaeological tests at one possible location, which was further examined in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Florence Hawley Ellis and University of New Mexico field schools. Based on these excavations, Ellis argued that the Spanish Area of Yunque was modified into 13 apartments, a kitchen, a blacksmith area, and a possible convent. This poster presents a reanalysis of the artifacts excavated by Ellis from the Spanish Area and evaluates the assemblage composition and spatial distribution to reexamine Ellis’s initial interpretations. Initial results show variations in the distribution of artifacts within the reused roomblocks, but that specific use areas within the structure are not always supported. Instead, new interpretations are proposed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24961