Little is known about the ancient Taoseños who occupied the area where we now live.
To be sure, much is known about the greater Taos area:
The Indigenous People have occupied the Taos Pueblo for more than 1,000 years (the oldest continuously occupied spot in the US). Notable individuals:
Popé, who successfully led the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in 1680
The image of Elk-Foot is well known
Early Anglo settlers include
Kit Carson (killer of Indians)
John Dunne (cheater of Indians)
Governor Bent (killed by Indians)
Gusdorf (owner of the town’s first bank and art patron) and his son-in-law Wiemer (real estate mogul and art patron) and we know they had, in some manner, acquired large tracts of land, including the area of interest
It is possible that a widow named Maestas lived in or near this land
100 years ago the mountains to the east of the land were clear-cut forested
35 years ago formal (albeit nominal) roads were created in the area and named after Gusdorf, Weimer and Maestas.
Developers began building houses here 30 years ago.
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Our Terra Incognita
circa 1935 |
To learn more about the early residents of the area, we must turn to archaeology. Luckily, we have a wealth of information in the form of middens left by these people. Today, I will give you an exclusive look at one set of middens and see what we can learn. Middens, as you know, are old trash heaps. Today’s trash heaps (most often identified by a “No Dumping” sign) will eventually be forgotten and later, when re-discovered, become middens.
When the mountains were forested, small trails were created up the sides of the mountains to allow mules to drag new fallen trees down the hills to be processed. Later, these trails were used by the ancients to bring trash back up the hill (probably by mule) and left for me to find. There are lots of trails, lots of middens.
I don’t have a permit to dig, so we need to be satisfied with what is visible on the surface. And what is visible is mostly tin cans. Lots of tin cans.
I'll start with an orientation. Here is a view of the path we'll be following
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You can see the contemporary metropolis of Taos in the distance.
Fun fact: you can see our house in the middle of the picture.
Can you see it?
Well, I can see it. |
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| A view uphill |
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Here erosion, caused by rain or elk
.... or maybe boots or horses ...
has washed some of the cans into the path.
You can see the near can is a beer can that has been opened with a "church key".
Beer in cans was *not* popular until the 1950's and the pull tab
replaced the church key in the late 1960's
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Is this a rolled edge can? or soldered?
It looks soldered but that would make it
pre-1920, which seems unlikely. |
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A bit of writing on this can, but I can only make out
"Mountaintop" and "..umpac"
I assume the last is "vacuumpac"
and this is a coffee tin
Click on the photo and examine the full sized image
Can you make out the writing?
The can has been exposed to the sunlight only for a
short time, as the sun fades things like fast |
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Beer was popular. Surprise, eh?
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Schlitz beer from the 1970s.
Schlitz was still popular then.
It was modestly priced but by no means the cheapest available
(the cheapest was undrinkable unless you were already drunk)
The detachable tab went extinct before or around 1980
thanks to Jimmy Buffet
so we know this was deposited between 1975 and 1980 |
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Side of a "sardine can"
These double rolled cans were only made for a
short time, again around 1970 to 1980 |
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Lots of sardine cans
But none have the "roll key" opener, which
again points to the 1970's |
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This can, and others, seemed to have been
opened with a P-38 (GI Can Opener) |
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A single opening indicates the drinker
was in a hurry.
Note the seam on the can's side.
This provides no useful information. |
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A sawed off can
with a bullet hole |
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A can with a lot number
and a used collared coffee can key opener
These coffee can openers were invented in 1917
and seemed to have gone extinct in the 1980s
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| Another coffee can opener |
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Two sardine can edges
a paper clip
and a hinged top can
The hinged top can was likely for tobacco
and these were invented in 1910
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Here we have a peanut oil can
Some time in the late 1970s a handy dandy
extensible plastic pour spot came built into the cans,
eliminating the need for the small punched
holes and the associated mess.
Plastic largely replaced tin for peanut oil later in the 1980's. |
While most of the artifacts are tin cans,
there is a smattering of other items
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A glass bottle with a metal screw cap.
This type of screw cap was patented by
Harold Williams in 1956 and generally was
replaced by plastic by 1990. |
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| A Heinz Ketchup bottle bottom. |
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Plate glass.
Now we know for sure these artifacts are
post-1840 |
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Paint can
The earliest paint cans date from 1906 |
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Bottle Cap.
It has no plastic lining, so it dates from
before 1980 but after 1890.
The dome of the cap is rounded
which I identify with root beer or cream soda |
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Broken brown glass
Beer bottle |
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| An inner sole from a woman's shoe |
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5Last
A contemporary shoe designed in
San Francisco brags of inner soles
named <n>Last.
Related?
This was the only piece of plastic like material I found
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Findings:
Someone dumped a bunch of shit here in the 1970s, taking advantage of the pre-existing logging trails and lack of interest in the area by anyone else
Next Time:
I'll show you how to examine scat and droppings, allowing you to determine the animal that left the items, the number and ages of the animals and how long ago the droppings were made
And if that's not enough to get you exited, I'll leave you with a tease: five month old horse shit with a maturing mushroom
Hurry back!
