Document Type

Research Report

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

LA 20,000 is a 17th -century site associated with Spanish colonizers. It is the largest, most complex of the few 17th -century Spanish ranches in New Mexico that have thus far been excavated. Located 12 miles southwest of Santa Fe (Figure 1.1), the site is owned by the nonprofit living history museum El Rancho de las Golondrinas although structures associated with the ranch are also located on adjacent property to the north and to the south of the core of the site. Dendrochronology and material culture suggest the ranch was established by 1629 and destroyed in 1680 during the Pueblo Revolt.

In Chapter 2, Anya Gruber provides a palynological investigation of LA 20,000 focusing on animal husbandry and the environment around the site. Most of Gruber’s samples come from the structures and deposits on the site, so they are able provide a synchronic description of the activities while the farm was occupied. Gruber also uses a stratigraphic sequence of samples from a text excavation at the edge of the site in an area that was likely a marsh in the 17th century. This work provides a complement to Edwards’ (Edwards 2015; Edwards and Trigg 2016) palynological analysis of a core from the Leonora Curtin Wetlands which provides a diachronic picture of a larger area. Gruber’s analysis uses samples taken during the 2015-2017 field seasons. In Chapter 3, Ana Opishinski present an analysis of the faunal remains collected from all excavation field seasons. As is typical with legacy collections, the bones that were available from the earlier field seasons appears to be a subset of those collected. Although there is a species list from an earlier analysis of fauna from the 1980-1995 excavations in manuscript form, Opishinski reports on the specimens she was able to examine. She combines this data with an analysis of the materials from 2015-2017.

In Chapter 4, Clint Lindsay gives an exhaustive analysis of the chipped stone materials from the site. Lindsay examined all material excavated from 1980 onwards. He conducted a morphometric analysis of the formal tools, the informal tools, and the lithic debitage, and a use wear analysis. He has also undertaken a sourcing analysis of the obsidian using pXRF. In this analysis, Lindsay compares the chemical signatures of the obsidian from LA 20,000 to the known signatures from sources in the Jemez mountains. A paper reporting this work was published in Kiva (Lindsay 2021). In Chapter 5, Katherine Albert presents her analysis of the building materials, drawing together a variety of analyses on disparate sources of data, including adobe bricks, daub impressions, and photos and drawings of architectural elements from all years of field work. She offers a reconstruction of the structures’ outlines and estimates the amount of materials needed for the construction of the perimeter walls and roofs. She also explores the sources of the raw materials, suggesting locations where critical materials could have been obtained. In her MA thesis (Albert 2021), she explores more fully the amount of labor needed to collect materials and construct the structures, and the implications this had for Indigenous people who likely did much of the work.

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