San Miguel de Guevavi: The Archeology of an Eighteenth Century Jesuit Mission on the Rim of Christendom

I n the eighteenth century, Jesuits pioneered Spain's attempts to colonize and missionize the northern Pimeria Alta. Guevavi, first established by Father Eusebio Kino at a populous Piman village in 1691, was to be the first and principal mission of Spain's northern frontier in what is now Arizona. Beginning in 1701 tenacious Jesuit and later Franciscan missionaries attempted to establish permanent residency at the village. But the cumulative effects of Apache raids, food shortages, Piman revolts, and epidemics eventually forced the complete abandonment of Guevavi in 1773. Remnants of the final mission church (San Miguel de Guevavi), built in 1751, still stand in spite of two centuries of both benign neglect and extensive vandalism. The site is in the process of being acquired by the National Park Service as a part of Tumacacori National Historical
Park. Prior to stabilization of the church walls, limited excavations were conducted during May and June of 1991 by archeologists from the Western Archeological and Conservation Center. These excavations exposed details of the massive adobe architecture and measured the extent of disturbance at the church. Analysis of the material remains
recovered provide a glimpse of life on the frontier of New Spain.