Beneath an Ancient Neighborhood: Archaeology and History in the Barrio de Analco, Santa Fe – Stephen Post

 

For more than 900 years, humans have left their mark on the neighborhood on the south side of the Santa Fe River known as Barrio de Analco. Within the Barrio de Analco, conclusive physical evidence of its past residents often has been difficult to uncover. The vague traces left by Ancestral Puebloan, Hispano, Mestizo, Indio, Genízaro, and Anglo peoples offer fleeting glimpses of the past. The physical context of these traces can be compared to mixing a layer cake in a blender and then spreading the result across the land. While well intended, studies of this jumbled landscape, most of them mandated by City ordinances, have been insufficient in scope to yield substantive new information. This talk will highlight a few exceptional studies, including recent research at the Boyle House located at 327 E. De Vargas St. These studies shed light on the customs, relationships, and identities of those who once lived in the ancient location known to modern Pueblo people as O’gha Po’oghe and Santa Fe’s non-Indigenous residents as El Barrio de Analco.

Biography

Stephen Post’s career in New Mexico archaeology began in 1976. Working for the Department of Cultural Affairs-Office of Archaeological Studies until 2011, his experiences encompassed 12,000 years of New Mexico’s rich past. He directed excavations for the New Mexico History Museum and the Santa Fe Community Convention Center finding remnants of residential, ritual, military, and governmental buildings and facilities left by 1500 years of Ancestral Puebloan, Spanish, Mexican, and American peoples. Authoring almost 200 archaeological reports on the Santa Fe area, he has a broad understanding of traces left by 7,000 years of Santa Fe’s permanent and part-time residents. The buried past of Barrio de Analco is one of many intriguing stories that fuels his fascination with Santa Fe’s cultural heritage.