Fulbright Hays Foundation, June-July 2004: Contemporary Mongolia member of 12-person delegation to Mongolia to facilitate educational programs on Mongolia in the US. Grant was awarded to the University of Pittsburgh Honors College. 2005 Musee del’Homme Mongolian Film Festival in Paris featured short film: Mongolia, Remote Realm of the Nomads, directed and produced by S.
![]() Before the Signatures: A New Vázquez de Coronado Site at the El Morro NM
Over the last four centuries, the site of Inscription Rock – also known as El Morro National Monument – has become a signature historical monument in both a literal and figurative sense. Lying close to the Continental Divide and located along the well-traveled prehistoric route between Zuni and Ácoma Pueblos in west-central New Mexico, Inscription Rock has attracted a wide range of prehistoric and historic period occupations(1). The large concentration of rock art and engraved signatures on this imposing sandstone promontory bear witness to the frequency of these visits and activities(2), and inspired one of the site’s more popular names.
While two Ancestral Pueblo sites on the mesa top are believed to have been occupied from c. 1275 to 1350 AD(3), and Native American petroglyphs along the base of Inscription Rock range from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD(4), the earliest known European inscription at the site dates to 1605(5). Don Juan de Oñate, the first Spanish Governor of New Mexico, visited the El Morro area in that year and engraved a dated memorial following the return of his expedition from the “South Sea” (i.e., the Gulf of California)(6).
During the last five hundred years, a number of important factors have made El Morro an attractive location for travelers: the excellent grazing resources in the El Morro Valley, the large pool of water or tinaja located at Inscription Rock, the shallow playa lakes that appear periodically in the immediate vicinity, the shelter afforded from bitterly cold west winds, and the site’s proximity to the well-traveled Zuni-Ácoma Trail.
The 1605 Oñate inscription at El Morro NM.
Until November 2007, the earliest physical trace of a European presence at the site was the 1605 Oñate inscription. Although historical documents hint at visits by earlier sixteenth-century Spanish entradas(7) – particularly the 1583 expedition led by Antonio de Espejo(8) – no material evidence of these expeditions had ever been identified at the El Morro National Monument.
Following work directed by Charles Haecker in late 2007, and funded by the National Park Service (NPS) Heritage Partnerships Program, dramatic new evidence emerged linking El Morro with the earliest major Spanish entrada in the desert Southwest – i.e., the 1540-1542 expedition of Capitan General Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. A range of metal artifacts recovered during this two-day investigation point to the presence of the Vázquez de Coronado expedition. These artifacts include: three caret-headed nails (horse shoe nails), a lead (or copper alloy) coin or scale weight, a wrought iron needle, and a wrought iron chain which may be a bridle chain. Although a number of other Spanish Colonial objects were found in the course of this preliminary survey, such as a rose-head nail (a hand forged nail), a cast iron escutcheon plate, and two wrought iron nail shafts, none of these artifacts can be dated more precisely at this time.
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A caret-headed nail—evidence of European visitors predating Oñate's inscription.
Caret-headed nails are considered some of the most diagnostic artifacts associated with the expedition of Vázquez de Coronado, since they are found on a variety of other sites linked with this entrada in both New Mexico and Texas(9). Furthermore, caret-headed nails were found at the Governor Martin site, near Tallahassee, Florida – a location widely believed to be Hernando de Soto’s 1539-1540(10) winter camp. In addition, Mathers and Haecker(11) have demonstrated recently that caret-headed nails are not only known in a variety of contexts in Central-South America and Europe during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, but that these nail forms appear to be largely, if not altogether, absent in later sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century contexts in many parts of North America. While further research remains to be done, these patterns appear to be widespread and may be applicable not only to the American Southwest and Southeast, but to areas further afield as well.
The scale weight or coin weight found at El Morro during our survey bears a striking resemblance to an object recovered by Kathleen Deagan at the site of Concepción de la Vega (c. 1496-1502) in the Dominican Republic. The close correspondence in appearance between these two artifacts, and their similar function, was confirmed Deagan after examining photographs of the El Morro weight (pers. comm., March 2009)(12). In addition, a small wrought iron chain with three closed links and one terminal link left open to form a hook matches some of the morphological and metrical characteristics of sixteenth-century chains found elsewhere in the Southwest and in the United Kingdom(13). Significantly, the closest parallel to the El Morro chain – with respect to manufacturing technique, size, and shape – comes from an chain recovered from the Jimmy Owens site in the Texas Panhandle, a confirmed Vázquez de Coronado campsite. The form and rather diminutive size of the chains from El Morro and Jimmy Owens strongly suggest their use as horse gear and possibly as bridle chains(14). These parallels for the scale/coin weight and wrought iron chain point to a date in the first half of the sixteenth century.
Together with the presence of caret-headed nails, these objects imply a Spanish/European presence at El Morro in the first half of the sixteenth century and strongly suggest an association with the 1540-1542 entrada of Vázquez de Coronado. Contemporary historical documents indicate that, after spending four months at the Zuni Pueblos between July and November 1540, the approximately 2800 members of the expedition moved in a number of separate parties from the Zuni area to the Tiguex (Southern Tiwa Pueblo) region, near present day Albuquerque(15). Guided by natives, and no doubt using existing trails where possible, it is widely believed that the components of the Vázquez de Coronado expedition traveling from Zuni to Tiguex followed a route that took them through the El Morro area. The next Spanish expedition to enter New Mexico and the desert Southwest, between 1581 and 1582, was a far smaller party of some 31 individuals lead by Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado and Fray Augustín Rodríguez(16). It is our belief that during the four decades or more that separate the Vázquez de Coronado entrada from later sixteenth century expeditions in the American Southwest (including Sánchez Chamuscado-Rodríguez amongst others), there were a number of detectable changes in material culture. Consequently, it is our hope that early Contact Period assemblages in the American Southwest will be examined more systematically, and that they will be compared with both contemporary and later assemblages elsewhere. Regional and inter-regional comparative work of this kind has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of the Early Contact Period generally.
Further investigations at the El Morro National Monument are planned to identify and evaluate encampment areas associated with the various components of the Vázquez de Coronado entrada – large and small - that may have visited the area between the summer of 1540 when they entered New Mexico, and the spring of 1542 when the expedition returned to México. In the meantime, El Morro National Monument now has additional historical significance as a site linked with one of the most dramatic and transformational moments in the history of the desert Southwest: the 1540-1542 entrada of Vázquez de Coronado.
Finally, these discoveries provide an especially compelling case for the value of historic preservation. On 8th June, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law “An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities”(17) and on 8th December, 1906, El Morro was proclaimed as the nation’s second national monument(18). More than a hundred years later, the importance of that decision has been amplified by the discovery of archeological materials indicating that El Morro was visited by the first major European entrada into the American Southwest. Thanks to the passage of the 1906 Antiquities Act and the legislative foresight of President Roosevelt, the U.S. Congress and other dedicated professionals, the historic significance of the El Morro National Monument has been both preserved and enhanced. The unforeseen consequences of that Act, and the efforts made to preserve and expand the El Morro National Monument through time, emphasize the value of both historic preservation and a long-term perspective in protecting our collective cultural patrimony.
By Clay Mathers, Executive Director, The Coronado Institute, Albuquerque, NM
and Charles Haecker, Archeologist, NPS – Heritage Partnerships Program, Santa Fe, NM
A version of this report was originally published in CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Vol. 7 (1), Winter 2010.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to extend their thanks to the staff and to Kayci Cook Collins, Superintendent, El Morro and El Malpais NM, who granted permission for our survey on short notice; Christopher Adams, Gila National Forest who lent his extraordinary expertise, good humor and analytical skills; Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint, Research Fellows, Center for Desert Archaeology; Douglas Scott, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Jim Bradford, Archeology Program Director, NPS-Intermountain Region, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Our particular thanks go to the following, who helped enormously with identifications of early European colonial artifacts: Kathleen Deagan, Florida Museum of Natural History; Steve Wernke and William Fowler, Vanderbilt University; John Connaway, Mississippi Department of Archives and History; Jeffrey Mitchem, Arkansas Archeological Survey; Jeb Card, Southern Illinois University; Nancy Marble, Floyd County, Texas, Historical Museum; William Botts and Wade Stablein, Padre Island NS; Jonathan Damp, Humboldt State University; Robin Gavin, Spanish Colonial Art Museum; Cordelia Snow, Archaeological Records Management Section; Julia Clifton, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Frances Levine, Museum of the Palace of the Governors; David Snow, Cross-Cultural Research Systems; and Bruce Huckell, David Phillips and Ann Ramenofsky at the University of New Mexico; Robin Boast, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge; Andrew Myers, University of Manchester; John Clark and Geoff Egan, Museum of London; and Glenn Foard, English Heritage-Battlefields Trust.
Notes
Abstract
Sacred sites are important in the ceremonial life of the Zuni Indians of the American Southwest. To protect these sites, both on and off the Zuni Indian Reservation, the Zuni Tribe has used two research and management strategies: (1) historic preservation, and (2) legislation and litigation. In this article, the Zuni Tribe's use of historic preservation to manage sacred sites is analyzed using the report series of the Zuni Archaeology Program. While sacred sites were only a small fraction of the total number of sites recorded, the treatment of these sites as cultural resources resulted in their protection. The Zuni Tribe has also successfully managed sacred sites through special Federal legislation and litigation of land claims. In two instances, sacred places have been added to the Zuni Reservation. Although the strategies employed by the Zuni Tribe have generally been successful, our analysis identifies two as yet unresolved issues: (1) the limited ability of archaeologists to recognize sacred sites, and (2) the unknown impact that may result from the reduction of a dynamic oral tradition to the literate scholarly and legal forms of the dominant society.
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