UMass Boston Historical Archaeology Graduate Program

This week's is from Tara Noel: My thesis research explores the history of a local Hispanic rancho by the name of El Rancho de las Golondrinas, located just southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Currently situated as a living history museum in the contemporary moment, the rancho’s historical occupation ranges from the mid-18th to 19th century, during which its residents witnessed the Spanish colonial period, Mexican independence, and American territorialization. In order to under-stand this fluid social, political, and economic landscape, I am utilizing the archaeological evidence of ceramics to explore how Golondrinas’ residents were using this specific mate-riality to adapt to conditions within a frontier setting, express their identities, and negotiate relationships with other communities residing in the region. A core part of understanding these questions is tracing the high quantity of locally produced ceramics made by Indige-nous potters to specific traditions of ceramic production in New Mexico. This tells us who was interacting with Golondrinas’ residents and what goods the rancho’s residents de-sired or needed for daily tasks. Preliminary results show Golondrinas’ residents were pre-dominantly acquiring ceramics from the Tewa Pueblos for decorated and utilitarian wares, as well as forming more distant connections with Pecos Pueblo, Apachean tribes, and Middle Rio Grande communities within the Puname tradition. In addition to this, refined earthenware and majolica show up less frequently at the site, but add a comparative lens on the role of broader imperial markets that weaved their way through New Mexico by way of trade routes like the El Camino Real and Santa Fe Trail. The overall material pattern emerg-ing is a heavy reliance on local goods from regional Indigenous communities, with a more subtle acquisition process of refined ceramics from places much farther away.

Post by Tara Noel

Welcome to the series -- highlighting graduate student research! This week's post is from MA student Ella Virkler.

For , an update from MA student Ella Virkler about her research:
My thesis focuses on new methods for identifying draft cattle (oxen) from three bones in the lower limbs. By combining measurements, 3D images, CT scans, stable isotopes, and geometric morphometrics, I hope to combine old methods with emerging methods to figure out the make up the cattle herd at Sylvester Manor, a 17th century provisioning plantation on Long Island, New York. This information will then help in parsing out the everyday lives of those that lived and labored on Sylvester Manor. By focusing on only three bones, the astragalus, metatarsal, and metacarpal, I can conduct in depth research on the individual bones, and find minute changes that set apart draft cattle, meat cattle, and dairy cattle. Documentary research shows that all three groups of cattle were present on the plantation, making it an ideal location for testing new methods on the cattle bones present.
By Ella Virkler
With Sylvester Manor

Congratulations to Kristen Delatour and Samantha Side who defended their MA theses this week! Both of them worked on material from Sylvester Manor.( but a day late!)