Spanish Use of Plants and Animals in Early Colonial New Mexico

During the seventeenth century, Spanish colonists began settling in New Mexico. As an agrarian society, the successful establishment of the colony rested on the colonists’ ability to create relationships with plants and animals in the colony’s novel environmental conditions. Using zooarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical evidence from the capital of Santa Fe and several seventeenth-century ranches, this paper explores the connections colonists had with plants and animals in this new region. The faunal remains among the sites are remarkably consistent: a mix of domesticated mammals, birds, and fish, with few endemic mammals. Plant foods included local and introduced crops and gathered plants, generally available around the ranches. For building materials and fuel, colonists engaged common land farther afield. The data indicate that a broad spectrum of activities were centered on the farm, but common areas provided critical resources.