18th to 20th Century Architectural Changes of Embudo’s Torreon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster will analyze the architectural changes of an 18th-century defensive tower called a Torreon, located in Dixon, New Mexico—previously known as the buffer community Embudo. Acting as community protection against Plains Indians during Hispanic settlement in Northern New Mexico, the Torreon’s initial use as a defensive structure may be identified through written documentation: a 1975 analysis by Larry S. Lopez of a will written by the Torreon’s original owner. Documentation of the Torreon after this period does not occur until the 1960s in the form of two pictures. However, excavations performed by Barnard College’s field program, led by Severin Fowles, have helped uncover archaeological evidence of spatial repurposing in the Torreon—specifically, changing adobe structures, materials, and methods of storage. Using evidence from the excavations as well as historical context of the area, this poster will provide a cohesive, relative timeline of the Torreon’s architectural changes from the period in which it was constructed to the 1960s: heretofore a 200-year gap in its history. Therefore, this poster identifies how the utilization of the Torreon adds to Embudo’s brief, irregularly recorded history, providing evidence for how buffer communities in Northern New Mexico reformed after Plains attacks ceased.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25197