Archaeology Lecture with Coronado Ranger Ethan Ortega “Could Hewett Have Been Wrong?”

The history of the ancient village of Kuaua has been interpreted at Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo, New Mexico for over 75 years. Could it be possible that the original anthropological interpretations of the site were politically and socially influenced during its formation as New Mexico’s first state monument?  With the help of a few dozen volunteers we have inventoried and collected information on approximately 50,000 objects and 2,000 pages of field notes from the 1930s excavations. Utilizing GIS, Ortega has georeferenced much of this data, and virtually reconstructed what archaeologists found. New insights have been revealed involving day-to-day life, cultural identity, interactions with local colonists, dates of occupation, as well as a new ceramic type. This research continues to change the way we interpret Kuaua fundamentally.