Recovery of Legacy Collection Data from a Southern New Mexico Historical Campsite

Abstract

Paraje San Diego, a historical campsite on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, was an important stopping place for travelers on the Camino Real, a 2,000-mile trail from central Mexico to northern New Mexico. Paraje San Diego was the final stopping place to gather water before traveling north on the 90-mile stretch of trail known as the Jornada del Muerto; it was also the first stopping place after the Jornada del Muerto for people traveling south. Little is known of the activities at the campsite. Paraje San Diego has been surveyed and excavated in the early 1990s, but there was never a final artifact catalog created and much of the spatial data is outdated. In order to answer questions about behaviors and activities at San Diego, revitalization of the legacy collection from 1994 had to be undertaken. Glass and metal artifacts had to be re-analyzed and the spatial data had to be updated in ArcGIS software. From there, an exploratory spatial analysis of the three major artifact types found on the surface in 1994 (glass, metal and ceramic materials) could be attempted. The spatial data used in this study is low-resolution, but is important nevertheless. Using behavioral archaeology and examining site formation processes, several activity locations and trends were observed. With this data, and data collected after this 1994 excavation, the picture of activities and behaviors at Paraje San Diego will only become clearer. This thesis serves as a case study that legacy collection data can be revitalized and used to identify general spatial trends for the use of future researches at Paraje San Diego.