A paper cut-out in the form of a butterfly.
Paper
A fragment of a letter with a date of 1612.
A fragment of musical score written in gold ink.
An example of writing practice.
Two folded pieces of scrap paper (one unfolded) with sticks through them.
The discovery of paper fragments was one of the most astonishing discoveries we made in a site filled with surprises. They include two major categories: hand-written and printed documents. The hand-written materials include fragments of what appear to be letters, lists and other records. The printed pages mostly appear to be from prayer books and official publications mostly associated with church affairs. Examples of both printed and hand-written musical scores, most apparently for chanting in religious services, also were found. The styles of hand-writing and printing include some examples which appear to be mid-to-late sixteenth century and more from the seventeenth century. The miscellaneous paper and paper-related items include small folded “envelopes” with slivers of wood stuck through them, playing cards, sealing wax (attached to paper), and curious paper “cut-outs.”
Paper was first found in the 2004 excavation on the northwest corner of
the West Atrium of the Church Complex in what appeared to be a trash deposit.
Subsequent research has found paper in almost every area of the site,
including in the trash midden of Unit 19 and in layers immediately above
floors in the Colonial Town.
The assumptions that we carried with us in our initial work were that
written documents were precious materials. To find them torn in pieces
and distributed around the site is therefore puzzling to us. Some large
sheets contained evidence that it they had been used as toilet paper.
Other samples had bird guano on them suggesting that they had been exposed
on the ground surface for some time. Our current interpretation of these
findings is that the church collapsed suddenly, perhaps in an earthquake,
trapping the documents inside. Perhaps the religious community abandoned
the site and residents of the town looted materials including paper which
they used for various purposes and scattered around the site.
The paper cut-outs are hard to interpret. Are they associated only with
the hypothetical post-abandonment phase of the site or were these objects
made when the religious community was present? Were these cut-outs made
as amusements or were they associated with some religious activity in
which one of the main means and symbols of European domination were appropriated
and subverted by native peoples?
Other curious discoveries are two examples of writing practice. In one
example, someone practiced writing capital “Bs” and “Ps.”
In another, a writer copied a phrase (hard to read) repeatedly on a page.
Who was learning to write? Was it young clerics or did the Dominican friars
teach indigenous people to write in Spanish? We hope that further research
will help clarify this important issue.
A cut-out of printed paper in the shape of a spear blade.
A large printed page of a prayer book.
A paper fragment with writing practice of "Bs" and "Ps."