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Archaeology & Cultural Properties
History on the Pajarito PlateauThe 111 square kilometers of the Pajarito Plateau contain more than 2000 archaeological sites, representing history spanning 7,000 years. The oldest sites at LANL are Archaic (5500 BC to AD 600); these are artifact scatters that represent the remains of temporary campsites. The majority of sites at LANL date to the Ancestral Pueblo Period (AD 600 to AD 1600). Ancestral Period sites are manifested on the landscape in a wide variety of site types including artifact scatters, one- to three-room structures, agricultural features, cavates, pueblo roomblocks, and plaza pueblos. By AD 1600 Pueblo people had largely abandoned the Pajarito Plateau as a residential area, and as a result, there are almost no known archaeological sites until the beginning of the Homestead Era in AD 1890. The Effects of Explosives Testing on the Architecture at Nake'muu
Nake'muu Ruin is situated high above the confluence of two deeply entrenched canyons at the end of a narrow finger of the mesa at an elevation of 2200 m (7220 ft). The name Nake'muu means "village on the edge" or "village at the point" in Tewa, the language spoken by six of the northern Rio Grande Pueblos. Nake'muu Ruin is one of the best-preserved ruins on the Pajarito Plateau. The primary objective of this project is to identify and evaluate the long-term effects of the ambient environment and the DARHT Facility operations on the architecture at Nake'muu.
Why the walls at Nake'muu have survived to the present is not known, however, the roofs may have been periodically repaired during site revisits (e.g., during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680). If so, the roofs would have continued to protect the walls from the weather. The site may have been protected by the isolated location, or the roofing materials may have been present until the turn of the century, when homesteaders moved into the area.
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Ecology specialists at LANL are conducting a long-term monitoring program at the ancestral pueblo of Nake'muu, the only ancestral pueblo at LANL that still retains its original standing walls. The program was implemented as part of the Mitigation Action Plan for the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility Environmental Impact Statement.
The preliminary results of this three-year monitoring program indicate that there have been some minor changes in the standing walled masonry at Nake'muu. Additional data will better quantify the rate and significance of site degradation and ultimately help determine the impacts of DARHT Facility operations at the site.