Historical Botany of the Romero Cabin: A Family Homestead on the Pajarito Plateau

摘要

An early 20th century log cabin on the Pajarito Plateau of northern New Mexico was moved, and foundations of the cabin and other related structures were exca-vated. Botanical remains from the excavations and a survey of modern vegetation patterns provided some evidence of the purpose and plant-related subsistence patterns of the site. Direct evidence of this kind is compared with information from historical records and ethnographic interviews with descendants of the homestead originators and persons who lived on the Pajarito Plateau in the early 20th century. Although the historical and ethnographic information are generally consistent with the botanical evidence from the excavations, reconstruction of purpose and subsistence patterns from the direct evidence alone is shown to miss the most important, plant-related activity. The historical record repeatedly indicates that the homesteaders grew beans as a major crop, even threshing them in the packed dirt of the cabin yard; yet no remains of beans or bean pollen were found in the archaeological assemblage. An attempt to resolve this and other conflicting or confusing points has been made in the light of ethnobotanical interpretations of the botanical remains, historical information, and contemporary patterns of natural and cultivated vegetation.