If Walls Could Whisper: Tales from a Talus Room

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Despite its remoteness and the restricted access, there are very few standing structures on the Pajarito Plateau where Los Alamos National Laboratory now resides. One notable exception is Nake’muu Pueblo which was first built during the Coalition Period (A.D. 1225-1300). Pueblo de San Ildefonso oral history describes that Nake’muu was reoccupied following the events around the Pueblo Revolt and the Reconquest in the 1680s-1690s. Very little is known about Tewa descendants reoccupying other ancestral places during this early historic period. In this poster I examine LA 136699, an Ancestral Pueblo period cavate with standing talus room masonry architecture that was presumably rebuilt sometime post 1600. Photos show walls at least 1.5 meters tall with intact roof timbers. Who rebuilt and occupied the structure? Examination of associated diagnostic artifacts should elucidate when the ancestral site was reoccupied and by whom. If the outcome of this investigation suggests Tewa descendants reoccupied the site, it would add considerably to our understanding of the use of the Pajarito Plateau post 1600; when Ancestral Pueblo peoples relocated their year-round villages closer to the Rio Grande but never abandoned the Plateau.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40196.0