LA 162, also known as Paa-ko and San Pedro,  is a large, Ancestral Pueblo village east of the Sandia Mountains, in the San Pedro Valley, New Mexico.  There was an extensive occupation at this site  in the 14th and 15th  centuries, and a small, short lived re-occupation in the  early 17th century.  Over the past 87 years, four large scale excavation projects have been conducted at this site.  Despite this impressive history of research, our understanding of this settlement, its occupational history, and its incorporation and transformation during the Colonial period have changed dramatically over the past five years.  This session explores these new understandings of Paa-ko, highlighting both the value of incorporating prviously collected data  into ongoing research projects, and the implications of new knowledge for investigating local changes in the wake of Spanish contact.
 

1. From Paa-ko to San Pedro: History and Transformation on the Margins of Colonial New Mexico.

Mission San Pedro (LA 162), was a relatively small and discontinuously settled ancestral Pueblo site that persisted at the margins of colonial New Mexico until the mid-seventeenth century.  In contrast to mission locations in the nearby Galisteo and Albuquerque-Belen Basins,  this settlement was never central to European occupation in the region.  Nevertheless, during the 17th century, LA 162 was incorporated into Spanish economic, legal, administrative, and social networks.  New technologies, domesticates, and foreign biota were introduced and at least partially incorporated into existing land use and economic systems.  Historic and archaeological data suggest multiple discontinuous occupations, contraction of residential space, resurfacing and reconfiguration of extramural space, and construction of novel facilities at the site. This poster examines these complex historical transformations from the perspective of a marginal and partially incorporated place.

Mark T. Lycett, University of Chicago
 

2. Old Data, New Questions: Nels Nelson's Paa-ko Map.

While data from previous projects are invaluable to archaeologists working in sites or regions with long histories of previous research, the questions,assumptions and techniques that inform such data are not always immediately compatible with current research questions and methods. Recent work at LA-162 with maps, field notes, and other materials generated by Nels Nelson in 1914 provides an example of one approach to integrating old data and information into current research. This poster details that process,
illuminating both the challenges and benefits of using old data to answer new questions.

Phillip O. Leckman, University of Arizona
Belinda H. Monahan, Northwestern University
 

3.  “Comparatively barren, tho several layers of ash and charcoal are to be noted:” Variability and Occupational History in 17th Century Plaza Contexts at LA 162.

Previous excavations at LA 162 have concentrated on architectural contexts rather than plaza surfaces and exterior areas.  Since 1996,  excavations by the University of Chicago have focused on examining these under-represented areas. Much of the daily activity of pueblo settlements was conducted in and structured around these open areas and sites with extensive extramural excavations often exhibit evidence of intensive domestic use of plazas in the form of abundant and well preserved feature and artifact distributions. Our excavations  indicate a complex sequence of occupation, reoccupation, and construction within the Colonial period  including  construction of multiple, successive plaza surfaces and  conversion of plaza area to colonial facilities.  This poster examines variation in these depositional sequences and their implications for the occupational history of Paa-ko in the 17th century.

Sandra L. Morrison, University of Chicago
Melissa M. Cole, Vassar College
Mark T. Lycett, University of Chicago
 

4. The Colonization of the Plaza:Transformations in Public Space at Paa-ko (LA 162).

In contact-period pueblos in northern New Spain, the plaza constituted dynamic social space.  Plazas were the locus for both ritual activities and day to day work and social interaction.  Plazas were social space, and transformations in social organization are expected to be reflected in the spatial organization of material remains and features in pre-contact and contact-era pueblo plazas.  Two seasons of investigation in the southern portion of the 17th century plaza at Paako (LA 162 or San Pedro Viejo) have revealed numerous changes in the organization of plaza space that appear to reflect transformations in pueblo society and culture during the period of the Spanish conquest and occupation of northern New Mexico.

Matthew T. Seddon, SWCA Inc., Environmental Consultants
 

5. The Lost Church of Paa-ko?

Two seasons of excavation have revealed a large, rectangular architectural foundation built directly on a 17th century  plaza surface at LA 162. The placement of this structure, over a filled kiva in open plaza space, as well as its layout and construction suggest that it was of Hispanic, rather than of  Puebloan design, and that it was likely to be public rather than domestic architecture.  This structure appears to be a small chapel associated with the visita of San Pedro, making it part of an important yet poorly understood reorganization of public space following  missionization.  This poster examines this structure in relation to mission architecture from elsewhere in Colonial New Mexico and discusses the imposition of architectural form  in relation to  the social, political, ideological, and economic transformations of the Colonial period.

Peter G. Johansen, University of Chicago
 

6. Metal Production at Paa-ko, New Mexico: 17th Century Spanish Colonial Metallurgy from the Perspective of the Frontier.

Excavations of the Early Colonial component of the pueblo of Paa-ko (LA 162), Bernalillo County, New Mexico, have exposed an industrial terrace containing evidence for the intensive production of metals.  This presentation offers a comparison of our understanding of the technology utilized at Paako with metal extractive technologies present in other areas of the Spanish Empire.  Preliminary analysis of slags, ores, and metals recovered from Paako that indicate technological processes will be compared to Spanish, pre-colonial Tarascan, and Colonial Mexican metallurgical traditions.  A key aspect of this comparison is to highlight the nature of metallurgy at the edges of the Spanish Colonial system as an incorporation of a diversity of technological traditions.

Noah H. Thomas, University of Arizona
 

7. The Paa-ko Archaeofauna: Evidence for Creolization in Animal Use. (pdf)

The Paa-ko fauna reflects continuity with pre?colonial subsistence plus proactive adoption of domestic livestock, with associated space reallocation and new tools. Lagomorphs are common, more rarely, wild birds, chelonians, and deer, all used before Spanish occupation.  Bones of domestic goats are more numerous than deer, with rarer cattle and large horse remains. Introduction of  domestic ungulates implies shifts in property relations within  and among indigenous communities. Presence of goats but not sheep suggests that pre?Pueblo Revolt Paa-ko, while spatially peripheral to the mission and encomienda systems, was nevertheless constrained in its potential range of
economic activities by wider political forces.

Jun  Sunseri, University of California, Santa Cruz
Diane Gifford Gonzalez, University of California, Santa Cruz
 

8. Vegetation History of the San Pedro Valley: Pollen Evidence for Anthropogenic Change.

Analysis of a pollen profile near the large prehistoric and colonial-period site, LA 162 or Paa-ko along the San Pedro drainage in northern New Mexico, indicates a long history of both natural and anthropogenic environmental change.  In order to trace changing agricultural practice, especially following colonial incorporation and the introduction of novel plant taxa to the southwest, we present relative and absolute pollen diagrams, size statistics on grass (Poaceae) pollen, and the results of an extended search for pollen of cultigens (ISM).
 

Kathleen D. Morrison,  University of Chicago
Nicole Arendt,  University of Arizona
Nicole Barger, University of Chicago