Impressive Terraces and Ephemeral Houses: Domestic and Defensive Architecture at Cerro de Trincheras

Summary

Around 1200 AD, Trinchereños (members of the Trincheras Tradition of the Sonoran Desert) covered the hillside of Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico in over 900 terraces. After such extensive investment in shaping and laying out space within the site, they then proceeded to live in relatively ephemeral domestic structures on the hillside. This paper addresses the apparent contradiction of impermanent houses on robust platforms by examining how Trinchereños built, maintained and managed space within the site. To do so, I present excavation data from Cerro de Trincheras, and surrounding sites. The construction of this site occurred during a period of population movement and upheaval, with largescale migration, and site establishment in the middle Magdalena Valley. Placing domestic architecture at the centre of my analysis provides a perspective for how the interrelated components of domestic, ritual and community architecture impacted the economic, social and religious behaviour at the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Architectural Studies in the U.S. Southwest: Theory, Methods, and Data

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15921