Santa Cruz de Gaybanipitea

The short life of the village of Santa Cruz de Gaybanipitea is captured in the historic documents of the Kino period. Established sometime in
the 1690s (probably by the residents of nearby Santa Cruz del Pitaitutgam), it was abandoned following a battle between its occupants and a
consortium of mobile groups who attacked on March day. This village is especially critical to period research because it provides a relatively
straight-forward archaeological record. The layout of the village was planned and accommodated household space for all existing social
groups. Because it was abandoned so quickly afterward the layout was not clutered by new construction and did not need to work around
abandoned buildings. Thus, it provides a snap-shot into an unaltered village plan for the Sobaipuri of the seventeenth century. This is a
reflection of layouts seen earlier in time, but there difference is that most of this site plan is visible from the surface as erosive conditions are
just right to have exposed evidence of numerous house outlines across the site. The pattern fills in nicely; in fact this was the first site at which
I noticed the paired structures positioned in two parallel rows, but this became apparently only after the map was drafted. Ths short use life
and the rather quick (though not immediate) abandonment has meant that this is the closest we will ever get to a Sobaipuri Pompeii. When I
first walked onto this site in the mid 1980s, whole metates were lined up along the ridge, arrow points were scattered across the site, as were
tools and pieces of lost jewlery. Through the years vandals have collected the site, removing most of these items so that surface densities are
relatively low.