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.
>