Spanish Conquistador Human Skull with Broad Ax Trauma BC-199
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SPANISH SOLDIER'S SKULL SHOWING IN-PLACE WEAPON THAT STRUCK FATAL BLOW.

Human Skull, Adult Male identified by physical anthropological traits to be European.

Archaeological Context: Found exposed by road equipment on ranch in Chama, New Mexico. Skeleton was destroyed, but skull and artifact remained in place and intact. Ax head consistent with material culture of 16th-17th Century Spain. Association indicates that this burial site was not an intentional Christian burial, but rather a chance preservation in a remote area, and may likely be tied to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

In 1598, Spaniards came north from Mexico to plant a permanent colony in what is today New Mexico in the heart of the American Southwest. Eight decades later, Pueblo Indians destroyed the colony and drove Spaniards out of their lands. In 1680, in a swift and bloody revolt, Pueblo Indians overthrew the Spaniards who had occupied their lands for more than eighty years.

THE ARTIFACT

In the crown of the skull, as found, is a deeply planted Spanish "boarding ax," which presumably was the weapon that ended the life of this European. The skull was obviously struck with considerable force as it opened a huge wound through the victim's head. A boarding axe was a standard long-handle axe. It was used primarily in cutting lines and knocking down cabin doors on ships, but was carried off-ship by some of the soldiers once they disembarked on to land. Once on land, the axe was sometimes used as a weapon but an axe was not nearly as effective as a cutlass. Boarding axes were sized somewhere between a hatchet or tomahawk and a double bladed axe. Typically, they had a handle around two to three feet (60 -90 cm) long and a two pound (1 Kilo) iron (and, later, steel) head, sharpened on one side and flattened for smashing on the other. Contrary to the movies, they were not designed to be thrown.

From a private collection.