What Lies Beneath - The Interment of a Culture
WHAT LIES BENEATH: The Interment of a Culture
Photographic Installation at the Santa Fe Convention Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico
11' x 14' - Commissioned by the City of Santa Fe Art in Public Places -
© 2006, 2008 Joan Zalenski All Rights Reserved
The concept for this project was based on the discovery of superimposed cultural layers (stratigraphy) at the site known as El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA 1051), where archaeologists from Museum of New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies recovered materials and excavated architectural remains from numerous successive archaeological periods. These include prehistoric components such as the Developmental Period (AD 600 to 1175), the Coalition Period (AD 1175 to 1325), the Early Classic Period (AD 1325 to 1450), and historic materials and features from the Colonial period (17th & 18th centuries), the Mexican Period (1821-1846), the Territorial Period (1846 -1912), the Fort Marcy period (1853-1895), and finally the early and middle twentieth century. These cultural increments represent a virtual timeline of Santa Fe history. Thus, the three main Southwest cultures are represented: Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo. Known as an ancestral Tewa pueblo, LA 1051 is one of the few multi-component sites in downtown Santa Fe with such time depth.1 Ogapoge, the Tewa name for Santa Fe translates as “down at the olivella shell-bead water”.2
During the excavations in 2006, I was commissioned to photograph the site and many of the objects found there. The original intent was to produce images from each period and arrange them in “layers” representing the various periods. Due to the cultural sensitivity of this site, only enlarged or abstracted details of selected images from three specific periods are depicted. These images are arranged in a similar order to the way they were uncovered. The top 3 rows are primarily Territorial through the Fort Marcy period, the 4th row - Colonial period, bottom 2 rows - Late Coalition and Early Classic periods. Images of Coalition and Classic native pottery sherds are scattered throughout.
The forty-two images are laced together with a hand-made yucca rope*, indigenous to the native cultures. The concept of “sewing” the images together (as a large quilt) is a way to weave the fabric of culture and history together, much as the various layers or periods “covered” the one before it. Each square represents a remnant of a past civilization; a culture buried by its successor in the cyclical domination of one culture over another and is a poignant reminder of what lies beneath this new building. Most of Santa Fe, this ancient city, is built over ancestral ruins. Awareness of this pattern of history will help us to better value the contributions of each culture, to accept and welcome diversity, to be able to live as a global community and to eschew the idea of conquest and division.
*The yucca rope was skillfully crafted specifically for this project by Mary Weahkee (Santa Clara/Comanche). The process is an ancient lost art, and is labor intensive. The lower leaves of the yucca plant are stripped, boiled and soaked in water. Each leaf is scraped of its pulp with a stone scraper separating the fibers which are then placed in water. Pulling individual strands of fibers, they are then twisted and rolled together while wet, forming lengths of rope that are strong and durable. The rope retains its shape and strength when it dries.
1: Lentz, Stephen C., El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA1015): Archaeological Testing of the Proposed Santa Fe Civic Center
2: Bandelier 1882:90; Harrington 1916:460
During the excavations in 2006, I was commissioned to photograph the site and many of the objects found there. The original intent was to produce images from each period and arrange them in “layers” representing the various periods. Due to the cultural sensitivity of this site, only enlarged or abstracted details of selected images from three specific periods are depicted. These images are arranged in a similar order to the way they were uncovered. The top 3 rows are primarily Territorial through the Fort Marcy period, the 4th row - Colonial period, bottom 2 rows - Late Coalition and Early Classic periods. Images of Coalition and Classic native pottery sherds are scattered throughout.
The forty-two images are laced together with a hand-made yucca rope*, indigenous to the native cultures. The concept of “sewing” the images together (as a large quilt) is a way to weave the fabric of culture and history together, much as the various layers or periods “covered” the one before it. Each square represents a remnant of a past civilization; a culture buried by its successor in the cyclical domination of one culture over another and is a poignant reminder of what lies beneath this new building. Most of Santa Fe, this ancient city, is built over ancestral ruins. Awareness of this pattern of history will help us to better value the contributions of each culture, to accept and welcome diversity, to be able to live as a global community and to eschew the idea of conquest and division.
*The yucca rope was skillfully crafted specifically for this project by Mary Weahkee (Santa Clara/Comanche). The process is an ancient lost art, and is labor intensive. The lower leaves of the yucca plant are stripped, boiled and soaked in water. Each leaf is scraped of its pulp with a stone scraper separating the fibers which are then placed in water. Pulling individual strands of fibers, they are then twisted and rolled together while wet, forming lengths of rope that are strong and durable. The rope retains its shape and strength when it dries.
1: Lentz, Stephen C., El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA1015): Archaeological Testing of the Proposed Santa Fe Civic Center
2: Bandelier 1882:90; Harrington 1916:460