Ceramic Stratigraphy and Tribal History at Taos Pueblo

Abstract

AbstractUntil land claims made the usefulness of data on their history important, excavations at modern New Mexican pueblos were prohibited by their people, whose conservatism varies only in degree from tribe to tribe. In 1961, the Taos Council agreed to permit brief trenching of their oldest refuse mound and of their ancestral ruin 200 yards to the east of the present site. Comparisons of sherd complexes indicated that the lowest levels of the Taos refuse mound picked up the types of the upper levels of the older site, which dated between A.D. 1325 or 1350 and 1450. Surface survey in the valley, checked against Taos legend, provided a history that covers an earlier period.Complex I (Taos Black-on-white and associated types: A.D. 900-1300) saw Taos ancestors, not all of the same language, moving into the valley from the north and west in small religious society or kiva groups. Some settled north of the present Taos pueblo and others concentrated in the Ranchos de Taos-Pot Creek area. Later, they all moved together to the present area of Taos, settling on the site just east of the modern pueblo. Here they were joined by a group which came up from the Santa Fe area, introducing a variant of the Mesa Verde-derived pottery being made there. This produced Complex II, which dates after A.D. 1300. By 1450 the amalgamated tribe abandoned the site after a legendary battle and fire, sometimes erroneously attributed to Spanish incursions. They moved a few hundred feet westward to the present location of Taos Pueblo. In the succession of pottery types here, heavy-designed Tewa Polychrome is found in varying amounts from bottom to top of the refuse mound. Black-on-white ware disappeared and Taos Micaceous ware, developed between A.D. 1550 and 1600 (earlier than hitherto thought), became the dominant type. Polished Black ware, closely resembling that from the Santa Fe-Tewa area, but probably made locally, appears in Taos about 1400 and was at least as common as Taos Micaceous there during the 17th century. Taos Micaceous is the only type made today.