'Pueblos without names': A case study of Piro settlement in early colonial New Mexico

Spanish colonization of New Mexico severely impacted the various Puebloan groups occupying the region at the time of contact. Contemporary sources provide a general picture of population losses and settlement shifts in the decades before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. But the fragmentary nature of the sources leaves unanswered many questions about timing, scale, and variability, and it falls to archaeology to try to throw some light on these issues through analysis of relevant material remains. In this research, I examine post-contact settlement trends in the Piro area of south-central New Mexico. The focus is on Site LA 31744, Plaza Montoya Pueblo, a large plaza-type pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley south of Socorro. Extensive excavation data provide the basis for identifying abandonment contexts at Plaza Montoya and for addressing the question of how pressures emanating from the colonial system may have driven the abandonment process.;Historical records and archaeological surface data from other Piro sites form the basic frame of reference for this study. The establishment of the first Piro missions in the mid- to late 1620s, the near-simultaneous appearance of Spanish settlers, the potential first incidence of foreign infectious disease in the mid- to late 1630s, and the prospective persistence of Piro settlements during those years are some of the key aspects of context that are discussed. Following from all this is the assumption that Plaza Montoya was occupied into the early mission period, but was not maintained, as were the Piro mission pueblos, up to the Pueblo Revolt. As Plaza Montoya's own surface record suggests that its late occupation was far larger than that of neighboring sites, a likely abandonment scenario centers on resettlement under the Spanish reduccion (or congregacion ) policy. Historical references suggest that this policy of consolidating native settlements often targeted declining populations. With the mission pueblo of Pilabo/Socorro just 10 km away, a "guided" move of Plaza Montoya's residents to Socorro, perhaps in the late 1630s, is the chief hypothesis to be evaluated with the Plaza Montoya data.;Using basic anthropological concepts of abandonment behavior, the analysis of structural/stratigraphic patterns, artifact types, and refuse deposition points to planned abandonment within a relatively short time frame. A lack of intact artifacts in particular indicates that the pueblo's residents were able to save/curate most material of use/value, including objects difficult to transport over longer distances. The overall patterning does not preclude other factors contributing to the actual movement of people, yet it is most consistent with comprehensive, short-distance relocation suggestive of a reduccion. With this, the Plaza Montoya study offers a key glimpse, otherwise unobtainable, of the complexity of native population and settlement trends in early colonial New Mexico.