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

 At any given point in the 17th century, the indigenous landscape of the Middle Rio Grande may have been made up of fully incorporated mission sites subject to resident Spaniards, less populous and less central visitas, formerly missionized places, and displaced refugee communities. To the extent that these differences structure the possibilities for accommodating, adopting, challenging, negotiating, or appropriating colonial power relations, they are crucial to understanding variation in the historical experience of colonialism in the northern Southwest.

 LA 162 (Paa-ko or the visita of  San Pedro), was a relatively small and discontinuously settled ancestral Pueblo settlement that persisted at the margins of colonial New Mexico until the mid 17th century.  In contrast to mission locations in the nearby Galisteo Basin and Rio Grande Valley, however, this settlement was never geographically , economically, or politically central to the Spanish colony.  Located at the head of the San Pedro Valley, one of three major drainage systems on the eastern slope of the Sandia Mountains, this site lay outside of any of the major settlement clusters or "provinces" identified by Spanish colonists. It was a small scale, intermittently occupied, and partially incorporated place.  While part of the mission system, it never had a resident friar, a monumental church, or a convento complex. It was  a place where some kinds of Spanish technologies and productive systems became important while others did not.  It was a place whose inhabitants were differentially involved in colonial social and economic networks, and involved in different ways than those living at some of the larger, more fully and continuously incorporated mission sites with resident priests.

 Demographic and social disruption associated with the 17th century colonization led to shifts in settlement and land use both locally and regionally.By the mid-seventeenth century, fewer and less populous indigenous settlements occupied a smaller overall area.  Instability in the number, location, and composition of settlements appears to have been common during this period, as Pueblo villages broke up, reformed, and coalesced into new combinations of community and place.  While these shifts might have played out in a number of ways, this spatial restructuring was organized around a particular colonial institution: the mission.  Missions established in existing Pueblo villlages, but Spanish and Colonial places nonetheless. By mid- century, missionized places had become the focus of settlement, incorporating a declining indigenous population into new systems of production centered on European crops and domestic animals, new technologies, and emerging exchange networks.  More than sites of conversion, missions were the single most important location of colonial and indigenous contact and the context in which colonialism as an historical process of disruption, incorporation, and transformation was situated.

 LA 162, with its relatively small population, discontinuous occupational history, and geographically marginal position within colonial networks, offers a unique opportunity to consider the effects of partial incorporation on a 17th century Pueblo community.

 Occupation of the eastern slope of the Sandia Mountains was limited until the late 13th century, when both the number of recorded sites and the size of sites with residential occupations increased.  Three relatively large, aggregated villages, including LA 162,  were first occupied between A.D. 1300 and 1425. There is very little evidence of permanent, residential occupation anywhere in the east mountains between the mid-1400s and the mid-1500s.  Sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century, small groups of people move back to Paa-ko. While the east mountains probably remain in use throughout the Rio Grande Classic period, the extent of residential occupation and intensity of land use peak between AD 1300 and 1425, and decline thereafter.

 Permanent Hispanic settlement on the eastern slope of the Sandias begins relatively late in the colonial period, with the creation of "buffer communities" on the frontier between colonial populations and indigenous plains groups in the 18th and 19th centuries.  In addition to permanent settlement, however, the east mountains had long been used as a grazing area and transportation route.

  LA 162, or Paa-ko, is the largest prehispanic community in East mountains.  It consists of a large  adobe and masonry pueblo on the eastern  slope of the Sandia mt. range, along the western floodplain of the arroyo San Pedro.   It includes some 26 roomblocks arranged in eight plaza groups, divided into two major spatial divisions.  This place is associated with two historic place names, Paaco, and San Pedro.  The former is a Spanish transcription of an indigenous place name appearing in Oñate's lists of Obedience and Vassalage, while the latter refers to a visita occupied during the 17th century.  One document suggests that this visita was abandoned, then re-settled during the mid 17th century.  There is no documentary evidence of indigenous residential occupation later than 1660.

 Both surface documentation and excavation suggest that the occupational history and construction sequence of LA 162 is complex.  There are  two major spatial divisions of architecture within the site.  The South Division, or San Pedro Viejo 1, includes at least ten adobe or masonry and adobe roomblocks arranged in four agglutinated plaza groups.  These roomblock are separated from the North Division (San Pedro Viejo 2) by a low lying drainage.  Both divisions show evidence of a widespread and intensive occupation between the late 13th and early 15th centuries. There is no evidence of mid to late 15th century residential occupation at this site.

 The colonial period occupation of the settlement was confined to a single plaza group in  the southwest quarter of the North Division.  The late occupation at LA 162 occurs as a spatially restricted re-occupation of a much larger pre-contact settlement.  Four single story masonry roomblocks were superimposed over previously occupied masonry and adobe structures in a single plaza group. Surface documentation suggests that colonial period deposition is restricted to this plaza group and its immediate surroundings.  Features associated with this colonial period occupation include, soil and water control facilities, corral enclosures, and a copper smelting facility.

Previous Research: Legacy and Opportunity

Over the past 87 years, there have been several large scale research projects at the site, including the work of Nels Nelson in 1914, the Museum of New Mexico in the 1930s, and University of New Mexico in the late 1940s and 1950s. Overall, more than 400 rooms been excavated.

Between 1912 and 1917, Nels Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History excavated more than 1700 rooms in 27 large ancestral Pueblo village sites in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.  The goals of this research were to delineate a chronological framework for the Puebloan Southwest as a whole and trace the historical roots of modern Pueblo villages.  In 1914, Nelson expanded his research base from the Galisteo Basin, excavating more than 174 rooms at LA 162 or San Pedro Viejo, in his terminology.  Only at LA 80 (San Cristobal) and LA 240 (Tonque), were his excavations more extensive.

 Nelson excavated transverse setions perpendicular to the long axis of each roomblock at the site.  Multiple, parallel trenches were excavated in longer roomblocks.  Architectural walls parallel to the long axis of the roomblock were left in place as units of horizontal control.  Excavations were conducted and recorded by rooms, as defined by walls perpendicular to the trench.  Catalogued artifacts were recorded to depth below surface, usually in 12 inch increments, suggesting concern for standardized vertical control.  In some cases, however, artifacts are provenienced only to upper or lower portion of the room, or to room.  Floor assemblages were recorded separately.  Room summaries record the dimensions and depth of each room, the presence, type and number of room features, and the presence and condition of wall plaster, roofing, and flooring.  The presence, type, and raw material of non-catalogued artifacts, a general description of ceramic and fauna present, and the dry volume or count of fauna and ceramics was also recorded. Nelson began but never completed a scale map of the site.  Leckman and Monahan (this session) address some of the complexity of incorporating Nelson's data in onging Research.
 
 

Between November 1935 and March 1937, the School of American Research, Museum of New Mexico, and University of New Mexico conducted a joint field project at LA 162 sponsored by the Works Progress Administration.   More than 206 rooms, two kivas, and four stratigraphic test blocks were excavated, resulting in a monograph published by Marjorie Lambert in 1954.

 These excavations were conducted in conjunction with E.L. Hewett's interest in expanding the Museum of New Mexico's State Monument program to include a Pueblo site on the east side of the Sandia Mountains.  LA 162 was chosen for its accessibility by State Highway and its  proximity to Coronado State Monument.  The initial goals of this work were to determine the location of structures associated with San Pedro mission, to expose contiguous areas of architectural space for public viewing, and to create a center for training students in archaeological fieldwork.  During the last seven months of the project and under Lambert's direction, these goals broadened to include determination of the site's occupational history and stratigraphic sequence, and its taxonomic relationship to contemporaneous sites.  A field program of "concentrated digging," or the excavation of contiguous rooms within single roomblocks, was implemented in order to expose the maximum area possible.   Individual rooms were used as units of horizontal control.  Vertical control was initially maintained by level, but due to personnel constraints, most recovered materials were provenienced to room fill, floor, or subfloor context.  Published descriptions of room fill from these excavations indicate sensitivity to depositional context and construction sequence.

 The legacy of previous research at Paa-ko presents us with both serious challenges and enormous opportunities.  While these research programs generated a large corpus of information, the vast majority of these data remain unpublished in  notes, field catalogs, and manuscripts.  In addition, both the level of detail and methods of data collection varied from project to project and  no complete map or system of spatial control had ever been established on the site.   Despite these limitations, the  notes and collections provide access to a spatial scale well beyond the scope of most modern research projects. These data make it possible to address important questions, while limiting the scale of new excavations.  Strategies for incorporating these data are an important component of ongoing work at the site.

 From our work with collections from these excavations and our own surface documentation, we know that colonial period occupation is restricted to a small part of a much larger site.  Even within this small area, the number of occupied structures continued to decline throughout the 17thcentury, as maintained architectural space contracted to the south eastern quarter of the Historic Plaza group

Investigations at LA 162, 1996-2001

  Since 1996, our research at LA 162 has addressed the relationship between Spanish colonization and the historical transformation of indigenous societies in the northern Southwest.  Although, we view colonial transformations as a multidimensional process, our research has focused on the interrelationship between occupational history, spatial organization, and the articulation of  indigenous social and economic practices with colonial political and economic networks.  We are particularly interested in understanding how variation in the duration and intensity of incorporation into colonial networks influences the permanence and stability of seventeenth century  Pueblo villages and structures changes in the organization of local production.

  One of the most important axes of variation is the physical presence of the Franciscan mission and what might be termed the "mission industrial complex:" the church, convento, kitchens, workrooms, and corrals.  These are places where labor and resources were mobilized in the production of monumental structures,  where indoctrination in social, political, and religious practices was routinized, and where new forms of production and produce were amassed and distributed.  Residence in these places has implications for access to resources and for potential for subjugation, but also for the daily routines and rhythms of life.  LA 162, with its relatively small population, discontinuous occupation, and marginal position within the mission system, allows us to focus on variation in the process and outcome of incorporation.

 In order to investigate these issues, we have implemented a multi-stage research program incorporating study of previous collections, intensive surface documentation, and extramural excavations.  Because of the complex sequence of prior research at LA 162,  documentation of the contemporary site surface is vital to the integration of previously collected and newly recovered data.   This documentation included a stratified systematic unaligned collection of 1.01 percent of the site surface.  Our mapping program, which includes our own observations as well as the correlation of prior proveniencing systems, is discussed by Leckman and Monahan, this session.
 

 Prior to 1996, excavations at LA 162 concentrated on architectural contexts. Much of the daily activity of such settlements, however, was conducted in and structured around open areas, plazas, and  previously occupied roomblocks. Between 1996 and 1999, a random stratified sample of 0.015 per cent of the site surface was chosen for excavation on the basis of location within the site, situation relative to architectural space, and surface artifact density.  This sampling strategy  is designed to provide a understanding of  depositional patterning across the site as a whole.  These extramural tests allow us to characterize the extent, depth, and character of archaeological deposits across a range of contexts.  These units have also been an important source of paleoecological data from field systems and processing areas (see Morrison, Arendt, and Barger, this session).
 
 
 
 

In addition to the extramural features located within plazas and adjacent to roomblocks,  several isolated soil and water control features have been recorded on the site.  Some of these were constructed during the 1930s, either by the Civilian Conservation Corps or the archaeological crews working at the site, however, several are pre-Hispanic or colonial period constructions.

 For example, parallel to the western fence line is a north-south oriented earthen mound with irregular masonry facing on its western side.  This retention feature prevents colluviation of the central drainage.  On the northern edge of this feature is a semicircular earthen and rubble embankment forming a roughly circular retention basin.

 Samples were recovered from these features in order to clarify their chronology and construction sequence and to obtain stratigraphic samples for pollen and sediment analysis (cf. Morrison, Arendt, and Barger, this session).   The morphology, construction sequence, and content of these features suggest seventeenth century construction.
 

Excavations within a large masonry terrace adjacent to the Historic Plaza have exposed a series of well defined features used in or ancillary to copper smelting and other metal working activities.   These features are contemporaneous with the 17th century residential occupation.  The terrace, defining an area of over 200 square meters, was repeatedly used for metal production with superimposed and interdigitated features created by periodic episodes of use, maintenance, and reconstruction. The specific functions of these facilities may have included copper smelting, copper ore roasting, charcoal preparation, and iron forging. Preliminary analysis of ores, slags, and finished copper from these excavations suggests the high temperature reduction of locally available malachite ores to produce copper and copper-iron metals  (see Thomas, this session).
 
 

Much of our understanding of 17th century productive practices at the site come from five seasons of excavation on seventeenth century plaza surfaces.  These excavations indicate a complex sequence of occupation, reoccupation, and construction in extramural spaces including multiple, successive plaza surfaces, followed by conversion of some areas to animal penning at or near the end of the residential occupation.  These sequences are discussed n more detail by Seddon; and Morrison, Cole, and Lycett, this session.

 Recent excavations have partially exposed the foundation walls of a large adobe structure superimposed over a filled kiva in the southwest quarter of this plaza.  It is possible that this structure is a small chapel associated with the visita of San Pedro (see Johansen this session).  The corral and enclosure systems that dominate the southern third of the plaza may have been built in  association with this structure.
 
 

Production and articulation

  During the 17th century, both colonizer and colonized became enmeshed in the emergence of novel and  integral systems of production.  At LA 162, this historical transformation took diverse and surprising forms.

Seventeenth century metallurgy is very poorly documented in New Mexico, with  evidence of metal production limited to a handful of contexts.  The facilities documented at LA 162 are decidedly rare and perhaps unique in their construction, technology, and situation within an indigenous setting.   Local knowledge, local materials, and local labor were clearly integral to the implementation of this novel, colonial technology. At least some of Paa-ko's inhabitants were involved in the production of highly valued items, and, perhaps, in their distribution through  regional economic networks.

While a relatively rare and valued technology was practiced at this site, more mundane forms of colonial production are less in evidence. Introduced plant taxa fall into three broad categories: staple grains, garden and orchard cultivars, and weeds.  In each of these categories, both European species and species from other parts of the Americas were introduced into New Mexico during the colonial period. Macrobotanical and pollen remains from seventeenth century contexts indicate continued use of a wide array of indigenous cultivated and wild plants. Recovery of a  single  kernel of wheat  suggests periodic but relatively limited access to this grain.  No other European domestic plants occur in either macrobotanical or pollen assemblages from San Pedro. In contrast, introduced field weeds, including bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), sweet clover (Melilotus sp.), and goat head (Tribulus terestris), are relatively common in pollen assemblages from plaza surfaces.  Although produce was being drawn off for colonial use, agricultural and gathering practices remained predominately local and indigenous.  At the same time, however, local environments were already transformed by European introductions (see Morrison, Arendt, and Barger, this session).
 
 

 European domestic animals first appear at LA 162 in the seventeenth century, becoming more frequent in later contexts, and common only after the construction of corrals.   In sharp contrast to contemporary mission assemblages, preliminary analyses suggest that introduced faunal  assemblages at Paa-ko are dominated by goat, rather than by the more valued and more common sheep (see Sunseri and Gifford-Gonzalez this session).  This assemblage suggests neither  a complete inclusion or complete exclusion from colonial livestock production, but rather, a complex and attenuated access to these resources.
 

Spatial orgnization and occupational history

 The colonial period occupation fo LA 162 is significantly smaller and more restricted than its pre-Hipanic counterpart.  During the 17th century, this occupation continued to contract, shifting to the southeastern quarter of the Historic Plaza.  These residentail shifts are contemporaneous with changes in the organization of publc space through the construction of new facilities and new forms of public architecture (see Seddon; Johansen, this session)

 The conversion of plaza space to a complex of corral enclosures removed nearly one fourth of the available plaza surface from human use and prevented occupation of the  adjacent roomblocks.  The original wooden corral was succeded by  the construction of  masonry enclosures very late in the occupational sequence.  The use of this corral system may have continued well after the residental occupation of the site.

 Residential abandonment, however, does not necessarily mean a loss of place, but rather a reconfiguration of its role and historical associations. The regular reuse of formerly occupied settlements during the colonial period may have been a common and  important means by which displaced indigenous populations maintained access to and social claims over place.

    During the 17th century, Paa-ko Pueblo incorporated and was incoporated by the visita of San Pedro.  This transformation of community and place was complex, contingent, and local in character.  Colonial institutions and forms of production are not simply present or absent.  Instead, they are represented in partial and differentiated ways that cannot be attributed soley to this settlement's place within a larger system. Colonial incorporation creates structured systems of inequality at the same time that local situations, local agents, and local understandings create possibilities.  Ongoing work at LA 162 is focused on understanding the unfolding of these possiblities within the circumstances and structures that constrained them.