The Ideal Site (LA 8671): A Mexican Territorial Residential Site Near Placitas, New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Historical Archaeologies of the American Southwest, 1800 to Today" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mexican Territorial period (1821-1846) is perhaps the least-studied historical period within New Mexico. However, one site that is almost always mentioned in culture history overviews is the Ideal Site, LA 8671, excavated by the UNM field school and Dr. J. J. Brody in 1963-1964. However, there was only one publication reporting on this small residential site: a 1966 El Palacio article that summarized the pottery and imported materials found at the site and described a small three room house with an outdoor kitchen and an animal pen. Recently, this collection was revisited with detailed technological analysis of the imported materials and New Mexican ceramics at the site, including petrographic analysis. Results indicate that this small, relatively isolated settlement actually possessed ceramics from a fairly wide variety of sources from both local and Tewa Pueblos. Residents also consumed a surprisingly high proportion of imported materials. Contrary to expectations, it appears that residents at the Ideal Site adapted to their lack of close neighbors by cultivating a wider regional network to help meet their material needs. These results suggest that some of our ideas about trade and social relationships on the Mexican frontier need to be revisited as well.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeologies of the American Southwest, 1800 to Today   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24502