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Sunday, November 22, 2009
Witness To History
By Kathaleen Roberts
Journal Northern Bureau
"Santa Fe Found" links pottery fragments, chain maille and brass tacks in a mosaic of time tracing the story of Santa Fe.
The exhibit explores the archaeological evidence and historic documentation leading from the first colony to the city's first 100 years as the New Mexico capital.
Witness to more than 400 years of history, the Palace of the Governors revealed some 300 years of the past in shovels of dirt dug in its shadow.
Culled from excavations beneath what are now the New Mexico History Museum, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center and La Cienega's Sanchez Site (an early Spanish settlement), the show tracks the roots of cultural encounters and colonial life. Its 160 artifacts range from the domestic to the political to the economic and religious. The exhibit also features items found at San Gabriel del Yungue at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, where the first Spanish colonists briefly settled.
"We're looking at their households; we're looking at how their households were organized," co-curator Steve Post of the Office of Archaeological Studies said. "We're looking at the food they consumed based on the butchered animal bones they left behind. We have lentil seeds, we have wheat. We have watermelon seeds. We have corn, beans, squash and piñon."
Archeologists unearthed more than 90,000 17th-century artifacts from the History Museum site, at 113 Lincoln Ave., during a two-year dig. The oldest object in the exhibit is a 7,000-year-old basalt dart point discovered off N.M. 599.
Scientists also found flaked or chipped stones used as 17th-century matches.
Many items came from the kitchens. A copper pot sherd, complete with rivets, patched a cooking pot leak. A shallow soup dish shows pueblo potters copied European forms in local clay to sell back to the colonists. The Native artists also duplicated a silver lidded goblet called a ciborium used to hold the Communion host. Bowing to the new market, the potter decorated both the bowl and the base with crosses.
Many pieces replicate replicas, providing evidence of mammoth trade expeditions from across the globe, coupled with an appetite for luxury. Fine goods wound their way up the Camino Real on a 1,600-mile, six-month journey offering only hazy promises of water and shelter. Yet pottery surfaced bearing an uncanny resemblance to fragile Chinese ceramics. Potters copied the blue-and-white motifs, complete with pagodas, from the originals in Mexico. Sailors had loaded delicate Ming vases into Spanish galleons at Chinese ports for the ocean journey.
"If you look at Chinese Ming Dynasty ware, you find almost identical designs," said co-curator Josef Diaz of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors.
Isolated though they may have been, the colonists were not without self-adornment.
Archaeologists unearthed gold earrings, Venetian glass beads, charms and votive items. Decorative brass tacks often comprised the sole remaining physical evidence of trunks, furniture, bridles and saddles. Both decorative and functional, their occurrence in the Palace deposits reflects a practical reupholstering or refurbishing.
An earring recovered from a 17th-century deposit below the Palace Print Shop is one of the few gold colonial artifacts recovered in Santa Fe. Evoking images of a fashionable 17th-century lady, it speaks to the elite status of the governor and his family.
A full chain maille body suit from the 17th century will illustrate this colonial version of the bulletproof vest. Archaeologists uncovered original links of steel chain maille at the Palace during a 1974-75 dig. Chain maille replaced suits of armor for protection against slashing blows in battle.
Some objects reflect less glamorous, if downright crude, purposes. Colonists used a finely carved double-sided ivory comb made in China or the Philippines to remove lice.
A jicara or small cup used for drinking chocolate provides a reminder of the stature of Don Diego de Vargas.
"He negotiated with the pueblo leaders over a cup of chocolate," Diaz said.
Used for social and/or special occasions, chocolate was another luxury good that snaked its way up the Camino Real. Settlers sometimes added metal locks to reproduction Ming ginger jars to protect their stash.
"It was a luxury prized by all and enjoyed by a few," Post said.
At the History Museum site, scientists found three higas or protective amulets shaped like a clenched fist with the thumb extending between the middle and forefinger. Carved from jet, with a third piece made of silver, the objects adorned bridles and bits. Sailors used them to ward off evil spirits. Despite its resemblance to a certain profane gesture, it symbolized good luck at the time. Archaeologists found the amulets in pits where settlers dumped household refuse.
"It's the evil eye," Post said. "It's meant to protect the wearer."
If you go
WHAT: "Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time," the archaeological roots of America's oldest capital city
WHEN: Through Nov. 20, 2010. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays
WHERE: The Palace of the Governors, north side of Plaza, Santa Fe
HOW MUCH: $9 out-of-state; $6 New Mexico residents. Free on Sundays to New Mexico residents. Free on Wednesdays to New Mexico seniors 60-plus. Free to museum members and children under 17. Free 5-8 p.m. Fridays
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