In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the famous archaeologist played by actor Harrison Ford finds in a cave in Utah (United States) a cross that Hernán Cortés had given to the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján. Although this gift never existed, there is a real basis. Coronado, leaving from Compostela (Nayarit, Mexico), undertook between 1540 and 1542 the search for the mythical Seven Cities of Cíbola and Quivira, all full of unparalleled riches. He crossed a good part of what is now the United States and left an archaeological trail that, now, the study Medieval Castilian currency in the American Midwest has recovered.
The new article, written by Raúl Sánchez Rincón, from the Museum of Archaeology of Álava, and Iagoba Ferreira Benito, a historical reenactor, reveals the discovery in recent years of crossbow projectiles, clothes pins and medieval coins, abandoned or lost by the expedition. Some 300 Spaniards, on horseback or infantry, and nearly a thousand allied Indians crossed the current states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The search for the cities was unsuccessful, but in exchange they discovered the Grand Canyon of Colorado, a natural formation that was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.
In recent years, various ranchers and detectorists – in Spain the use of metal detectors to break into archaeological sites is a crime – have found a series of metal objects in Blanco Canyon (Texas), including money with holes in it from Ferdinand IV (1295-1312) from the Toledo mint and another coin from a Castilian monarch from the House of Trastámara, probably from Enrique III (1390-1406), minted in Burgos. But they also unearthed copper crossbow projectile points, lead muzzle-loading bullets (to feed shotguns through the barrel), small bronze cones (also called agujetas), horseshoes and their nails, belt buckles and glass beads. “Among these materials there are several of great interest, related to offensive and defensive (military) clothing or equipment,” the study notes. These objects, according to the editors of the article, published in the specialized magazine The philatelic and numismatic echocan only correspond to Coronado’s expedition.
Experts attach particular importance to “small copper-based alloy tubes with a pin that runs diametrically through one of their ends.” Their function, as reflected in abundant pictorial representations from the 15th and 16th centuries, was to reinforce the ends of the cords that were used to join together clothing (doubles and breeches) or to secure defensive pieces of mail in the military world.
The projectile points found are similar to European crossbow points of the period, but differ in the material used (copper instead of iron) and the method of manufacture. They were worked from a flat piece of copper bent to the desired shape. Similar examples have also been found in the area of Albuquerque and Hawikuh (New Mexico), also associated with Coronado’s expedition. They were probably made in America due to the lack of supplies necessary to forge iron points on the continent. The conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote that during the siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521 the Spanish managed to make 50,000 of these shells in just eight days.
In another area near the site – called Jimmy Owens, named after the first detectorist who found it – a chainmail glove was found. Experts are considering the possibility that it could be a “medieval and Renaissance” protection that covered the unarmed left hand and prevented cuts that the soldier could suffer when deflecting the enemy’s blade or grabbing it. It only covers three fingers. At the time of Coronado’s expedition, this type of protection was no longer used in Europe, but it was in America. There is evidence that in 1622 200 chainmail coats were sent to present-day Jamestown (Virginia). However, the damage caused to the site by looters prevents it from being dated and the exact location of the find and its archaeological context from being determined. It may not be older than one hundred years and may be from a nearby cattle farm. “What surprises us,” say the researchers, “is that it is in a very good state of preservation, despite the 500 years that have passed.”
On their journey in pursuit of the Seven Cities of Gold, Coronado and his men explored the territories of northern Texas, locating new cities and lands, some as emblematic as the Grand Canyon, discovered by one of the men on the march, García López de Cárdenas. The account of the expedition was collected by the soldier Pedro Castañeda de Nájera, who offers all kinds of geographical and ethnographic data on territories and peoples that were previously unknown. They were the first Europeans to see, in addition to the Grand Canyon, bison.
On the route that led them to the city of Quivira (Kansas), Coronado’s expeditionary force crossed what is now Texas, where, according to the preserved documentation, they established two camps on two ravines. The first was located near a village of the Teya Indians and was hit by a strong hailstorm that caused significant material damage and the flight of several horses. In the second, the contingent remained for a couple of weeks hunting bison while Coronado and a small group ventured further north.
The study also recalls that “the two late medieval Castilian-Leonese coins found are those that generate the most doubts and offer the greatest unknowns.” In the absence of the archaeological context and information regarding the circumstances in which the pieces were found, two hypotheses can be established. “The most logical and probable is that they travelled in the pockets of some members of the expedition (of Coronado) in order to be used as a means of exchange with the natives or as a present.” The second hypothesis is that both numismatic pieces arrived through the commercial exchange that the Teyas Indians maintained with other nearby peoples and that these had previously had contact with the Spanish.
“As is the norm with metal detector finds, in addition to losing the contextual information associated with the pieces, they are not usually collected in a systematic and protocolized way, which causes the loss of very valuable data for future research,” the experts complain. The materials – or very possibly only part of them – have been deposited at the Floyd County History Museum (Floyddada, Texas).