Page 12 - Archaeology - October 2017

FROM THE TRENCHES

ing this so-called solar chariot have been weren’t maintained, the White Horse
unearthed in Scandinavia, and Celtic would be overgrown and disappear in
coins often show horses associated with 20 years,” says Andrew Foley, a ranger
the sun. “The White Horse is depicted with the National Trust, which oversees
as a horse in motion, and the people the site. Historical records indicate the
who created it must have thought that local community has long held regular
it was responsible for the sun’s move- festivals devoted to maintaining the site.
ment across the sky,” says Pollard. He In 1854, some 30,000 people attended.
posits that the geoglyph was not a static Now, each summer, a few hundred local
symbol, but an animated creature on the Sun chariot, Trundholm, Denmark volunteers weed the White Horse and
landscape, one that connected ancient then crush fresh chalk on top of it so
Britons with the sun. “I’ve always won- this explanation—that it is tied to the that it keeps the same brilliant white
dered why it seems the White Horse sun—makes sense.” appearance it has had for 3,000 years.
was meant to be seen from the sky,” says Over time, though its original pur- The site, as it must have throughout
Alistair Barclay of Wessex Archaeology, pose was lost, local people maintained a millennia, continues to be meaningful
who was a member of the team that connection with the White Horse that to the people around it.
worked at the site in the 1990s. “I think ensured its continued existence. “If it —Eric A. PowEll

OFF THE GRID LOS ADAES, LOUISIANA
Any visitor today to the site of Los Adaes, in northwest Louisiana, will take in a landscape that was the easternmost point of Spanish
expansion in the southwest. It was the location of a Spanish mission and presidio, constructed in 1721 and occupied until 1773, in a high,
defensible position. A previous Los Adaes mission had been built in 1717, a short distance away, but was abandoned because of initially
poor relations with the Caddo Indians. According to archaeologist George Avery of Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, the Los
Adaes mission, and others like it, was regarded as a less expensive alternative to military occupation. The Spaniards’ intention was to
halt French incursions into the region and to prevent the French from using the Mississippi River as a means to trade with Mexico. They
also were supposed to convert the Caddo to Catholicism. The Los Adaes mission, however, situated on the frontier and far from both
Spain and Mexico, took on a unique character. According to archaeologist Pete Gregory of Northwestern State University, Los Adaes
became a place of intense cultural exchange among the Spanish, the French, and the Caddo. “It’s what we call ‘creolization’ here in
Louisiana,” he says. The archaeological record, with its robust mixture of ceramics from all three cultures, bears this out. Ultimately,
these people weren’t supposed to get along, “but,” says Gregory, “they did.”

THE SITE While only a small percentage of Los Adaes
Los Adaes remained largely undisturbed Urrutia map has been excavated, a 1767 map by cartog-
from the time it was abandoned in 1773 un- rapher Joseph de Urrutia, once thought to
til Gregory conducted archaeological inves- have been created for planning purposes,
tigations at the presidio in 1962. His initial has been discovered by archeologists to be
aim was to confirm that the site was indeed a reliable rendering of the settlement.
Los Adaes. He uncovered a large quantity
of French and Spanish ceramics, with the WHILE YOU’RE THERE
latter having been made in Pueblo, Mexico. The visitor center is open on Wednesday
through Saturday, noon to four, and is a
favorite field trip for Texas schoolchildren,
Asian porcelain, which had arrived by way since Los Adaes was the colonial capital of
of Acapulco, was also discovered and re- Texas. Replicas of many of the excavated
flected the robust trade route that reached artifacts of colonial frontier life are on dis-
from Mexico all the way to Los Adaes. More play, including French, Spanish, and Caddo
than 70 percent of all ceramics found across ceramics, along with a detailed timeline of
the site are Caddo in origin. The mission Los Adaes history. In addition, tour guides
itself sits partially on private land and has are available and walking trails with mark-
not been excavated. In 2014, geophysical ers wind throughout the site.
Los Adaes, Louisiana
survey of the mission site was conducted. –Malin GrunberG-banyasz

10 ARCHAEOL
10
ARCHAEOLOGY • September/October 2017OGY • September/October 2017