Dedie, et al.
It was indeed me who told Dedie about the reconstructed adobe floors at the Severino Martinez "hacienda" and the penitente morada in Taos. My father, Jack Boyer, tried to find recipes for blood floors, to no avail, even from Bain Bunting who was an active consultant on both restoration projects. Being a backyard, go-with-the-materials-you've-got chemist trying to come up with substances that would produce "authentic" appearances, he concocted a mixture of linseed oil and Elmer's Glue to put in the adobe as it was being prepped to pour the floors. The oil gave it a reddish color that turned dark brown with use, and the glue made it hard as a friggin' rock when it dried. I once dropped an axe on the floor in the morada (my office was there and it was heated soley by fireplace, so there was a lot of wood-chopping to be done), blade down. Try that on a normal mud floor and you'd have a blade-shaped hole in the floor. At the morada, the axe bounced off the floor, leaving no mark whatsoever but nearly whacking my foot.
I agree with Dedie. I think they didn't exist except in the fertile imaginations of WPA folks and some associated historical celebrities whose names I won't mention in this public forum. It might be an interesting academic exercise to go through the voluminous WPA documents to look for evidence of the origin(s) of what I think must be a 20th-century myth.
Jeff
 
Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Project Director
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico
mail: P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico  87504
physical: 407 Galisteo Street, Suite B-100, Santa Fe, New Mexico  87501
tel: 505.827.6387          fax: 505.827.3904
e-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
Da_n the books! Let's go get some data!
 

________________________________

From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of Dedie Snow
Sent: Sun 6/29/2008 12:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: cow's blood in floors



Cathy and all,
    At the risk of beating a dead cow...  Like so many others I was taught
that blood floors were the norm in New Mexico and elsewhere, especially in
Spanish colonies; however, in all my decades of working in the state, I have
yet to see an archaeological example of a blood floor.  Truly curious about
the matter, I started to search in earnest for blood floors about 15 years
ago and still haven't found any such floors identified in the archaeological
literature, and that includes both Spanish mission and domestic sites that
date from the mid- to late-16th and early-17th centuries through the early
20th century!  That is not to say, I haven't seen modern/recent examples of
blood floors from the mid- to late-20th century, I have.  I've also seen mud
floors treated with linseed oil and coloring agents to resemble blood
floors, and mud floors treated with Elmer's Glue (I believe it was Jeff
Boyer who told me the secret behind the floors at the Padre Martinez House
in Taos--Jeff, if I'm misquoting you I apologize!).  The fact of the matter
remains, if blood floors were so common you'd think we would have found some
archaeological examples by now.  So where are they?

Dedie



----- Original Message -----
From: "Cathy Spude" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: cow's blood in floors


> Dedie:
>
> I just consulted with husband Bob, and he remembers like I do that the
> folks up at the Kit Carson Museum south of Cimarron (not the one in Taos)
> interpret the oxblood floors in the house that Carson built during the
> 1840s for the Santa Fe Trail trade. They specifically state that oxblood
> was mixed with clay to produce a hardened clay surface for the floor,
> which they reproduced when they reconstructed the house. This house is
> part of the Philmont Scout Ranch, and, as far as Bob and I could tell when
> we visited the museum, we thought they had done a pretty good job with the
> reconstructions.
>
> But, as you say, this may be an example of the Scouts believing the WPA,
> and going with it when they did their reconstructions.....They are now
> continuing to spread the myth. You are not aware of excavations done at
> the Carson House in Rayado, I take it.
>
> Cathy
>
>
> Catherine Holder Spude, PhD
> 7 Avenida Vista Grande #145
> Santa Fe, NM 87508
> 505-466-1476 home
> 505-913-1326 cell
>
> "Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you are standing outside the
> fire," Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Dedie Snow" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:08 PM
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: cow's blood in floors
>
>>    I'm glad you asked, Susan. Contrary to conventional wisdom, tradition,
>> oral histories, what have you, Cathy, I have never found an oxblood floor
>> in an archaeological excavation in Santa Fe or anywhere else for that
>> matter, and believe me I've looked for them!  Truth to tell, I've come to
>> believe ox blood floors are another example of mythology perpetrated by
>> the WPA and other fact-finding missions.  To begin, ox blood or the blood
>> of any large or small animal is too valuable a protein to waste
>> slathering it on floors. Secondly, spreading the blood of oxen or any
>> other animal on a dirt floor only adds to the generally unsanitary
>> conditions of an age, increases the number of flies and disease vectors
>> round about, not to mention, produces worse odors than those usually
>> present with privys, etc. If anyone has any information to the contrary
>> and can show me an actual ox blood floor, I will be glad to consider
>> changing my story.
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Dedie Snow
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Cathy Spude" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:36 AM
>> Subject: Re: cow's blood in floors
>>
>>
>>> OK, so I don't have documentation, but it does seem to be common
>>> knowledge here in Santa Fe that ox blood was mixed with clay to make the
>>> characteristic black-colored dirt floors of the adobe buildings from the
>>> 17th and 18th centuries. I'll check with my sources and find out whether
>>> its fact or fiction.
>>>
>>> Cathy
>>>
>>>
>>> Catherine Holder Spude, PhD
>>> 7 Avenida Vista Grande #145
>>> Santa Fe, NM 87508
>>> 505-466-1476 home
>>> 505-913-1326 cell
>>>
>>> "Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you are standing outside
>>> the fire," Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks.
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Susan Walter" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:38 AM
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: cow's blood in floors
>>>
>>>> June 28, 2008
>>>>
>>>> Hello All,
>>>> Working in San Diego Old Town, we are bedeviled by trying to tease out
>>>> fact from oral traditions...
>>>>
>>>> A current one we are dealing with regards the claim that cow's blood
>>>> was a component of packed earthen floors.
>>>>
>>>> Long time residents of Baja that we know deny this as a fact.  Their
>>>> packed earthen floors are solidified simply with water.  Other
>>>> historians we have questioned have not found this blood addition was
>>>> done.
>>>>
>>>> So,
>>>> 1.  Has anyone in the Histarch community heard of this?
>>>> 2.  Is there documentation of it?
>>>> 3.  Where and who documented it?
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks,
>>>> S. Walter
>>>>
>>>> PS:  Then, when you are finished with bloody floors, there is the story
>>>> that roof tiles were shaped over maidens thighs...  And we can follow
>>>> up with documenting the number of girl's petticoats that were torn up
>>>> to make American flags...  And, oh Lord save us from Ramona.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>> Release Date: 6/28/2008 7:00 AM
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.4.2/1523 - Release
> Date: 6/28/2008 7:00 AM
>
>

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