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Reviews From a Watery Grave: The Discovery and Excavation of La Salle’s Shipwreck, La Belle By James E. Bruseth and Toni S. Turner (Texas A & M University Press, 2005; 176 pgs., illus., $40 cloth; www.tamu.edu/upress)
In June 1995, scientists from the Texas Historical Commission discovered the wreck of La Belle in Matagora Bay near Port O’Connor. It had been the flagship of La Salle’s expedition to the New World and had sunk on a cold, stormy February day in 1686. Over the next two years, archaeologists excavated La Belle and recovered more than a million artifacts, including bronze cannon, muskets, trade beads, axes, rings, bells, dishes, medicines, and everything else needed to start a new colony. From a Watery Grave is the story of this remarkable discovery and excavation as told by the principal investigator, archaeologist Jim Bruseth and his wife, writer Toni Turner. The water of Matagora Bay is extremely murky, offering nearly zero visibility. Removing the fragile wreck from the bay risked losing a significant part of the ship, so it was decided to build a cofferdam around it and do a “dry” excavation. Funds were raised, the cofferdam built, and when the water was pumped out, the wreck was exposed for the first time in more than 300 years. The archaeological team recovered and preserved a fantastic variety of materials, including much of the wooden hull. Burseth and Turner share all the excitement of discovery after discovery as the wreck yielded its many secrets. From a Watery Grave is richly illustrated and written for the general public. It reads like a good detective story with a happy ending. 52
The Peopling of Bandelier: New Insights from the Archaeology of the Pajarito Plateau Edited by Robert P. Powers (School of American Research Press, 2005; 142 pgs., illus., $20 paper, $60 cloth; www.sarweb.org)
Next to Mesa Verde, Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico is the most visited archaeological park in America. Yet precious little is known about the ancestral Puebloan people who lived there from about A.D. 1150 to 1600 in a setting that’s as spectacular as it is unforgiving. While a few of the earliest Americans made Bandelier home, its population ballooned dramatically after A.D. 1300, roughly the same time Mesa Verde and the entire Four Corners region was being abandoned. Many of those refugees made their way to the safety of what we now call Bandelier, where they flourished until moving to modern pueblos in the nearby Rio Grande Valley. National Park Service archaeologist Bob Powers has assembled 17 noted archaeologists, historians, ecologists, and Puebloan scholars to tell the story of this isolated plateau in the Jemez Mountains that is also home to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the atomic bomb. This richly illustrated volume is written for lay people, and it informs the public of much of the new research resulting from three recent projects. The Bandelier Archaeological Survey was directed by Powers and recorded nearly 2,000 archaeological sites in the 33,000-acre monument. The eight-year Pajarito Archaeological Research Project was directed by James N. Hill of UCLA, and six sites were tested by Timothy A. Kohler’s Bandelier Archaeological Excavation Project. This wealth of new data shows that Bandelier and the surrounding plateau saw a number of dramatic changes in which Pueblo people moved in and out as conditions allowed. It is an area still used and held sacred by nearby Pueblo people. Every visitor to the dramatic sites of Bandelier National Monument will want this book, as will every student of the American Southwest. summer • 2005
