The Spanish Colonial Architecture of Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico: Archaeological Excavations and Architectural History of the Spanish Colonial Churches and Related Buildings at Pecos National Historical Park, 1617-1995
Ivey JE. 2005. The Spanish Colonial Architecture of Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico: Archaeological Excavations and Architectural History of the Spanish Colonial Churches and Related Buildings at Pecos National Historical Park, 1617-1995. Intermountain Cultural Resource Management Professional Papers. 59. National Park Service - History Program, Division of Cultural Resources Management, Intermountain Region. Intermountain Region
The historiography and historical archaeology of Pecos, carried out by investigators from Adolph Bandelier to Genevieve Head, sought an understanding of the story of Pecos and the complex sequence of structural change in this nearly four-hundred-year-old group of buildings. Ultimately, a century after Bandelier first speculated on the age and plan of the church, convento, and other Spanish buildings at Pecos, we have finally begun to achieve this understanding. This report will summarize those years of work, and the conclusions to be reached from them. The ruins of the Pecos pueblo and mission are perhaps the most significant single prehistoric and historical site in the southwest, because of its long prehistorical and historical record, and because it was the focus of breakthrough archeological investigations by Alfred Kidder in 1915-1929. And yet, in spite of, or perhaps because of this great significance, Pecos is without a doubt the most mistreated surviving archeological site in the southwest. To a very real extent, most of the investigators who worked there thought Pecos was someone else's uncle; that because Pecos was so significant, someone else had done all the important excavations or research, and they were just cleaning up the place for public viewing. The story of the Pecos excavations occupies a large portion of this study. I have no wish to blacken the reputations of sincere, respectable researchers who ran aground on the unexpected reef of Pecos; but in order to inform readers, both within the Park Service and outside it, of what we know about Pecos, I must look rather closely at the errors of those who worked there. I have tried to be sympathetic, I have tried to define clearly the circumstances that led the thinking of these people astray, and I have tried to attain the same compassionate inspection of the record that I am sure each of us would hope for, when we think of our own shortcomings and incomplete work still sitting on a back shelf
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Ivey, James
- Date of Issue
- 2005-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service - History Program, Division of Cultural Resources Management, Intermountain Region
- Units
- HIST , PECO
- Keywords
- Administrative History, Cultural Resources, ehistory, History, Structural History of the Pecos Spanish Colonial Buildings, The Archaeology of Spanish Colonial Pecos, The Church and Convento, The Pueblo Area