When the Spanish conquerors arrived in New Mexico in the early 1600s, the local Puebloans, like most New World people, had no knowledge of metallurgy. But to Europeans wealth was largely measured in metal, so they quickly enlisted the local people in the search for, and development of, a metals industry.
This fascinating book tells of the research into metal production in the 1600s at Paa-ko, a large Puebloan ruin near Albuquerque. Paa-ko was ideally situated near mineral ores, abundant wood, and water, and it became a center for metal production in the early Spanish colony. Archaeologist Noah Thomas describes and summarizes ten years of research at the large village site. The excavation of Paa-ko’s metallurgical facility revealed furnaces and ventilating features for smelting copper and lead ores. Metals, slag, refractory material, and ores were also recovered and analyzed.
This is the most extensive research into the establishment of an early metals industry in the Spanish Southwest, and it tells an interesting story of the early interaction of Spaniards and Puebloans. It will also help lead archaeologists to other metallurgy locales in the Southwest and elsewhere. — Mark Michel
