NOTES FROM THE FIELD, 2025

EXCAVATING in DIXON, NEW MEXICO

Julia Kiaer

Julia excavating in a pit feature on the historic Embudo Plaza in Dixon, New Mexico.

Julia Kiaer spent the fall working in the Columbia Center for Archaeology’s lab where she analyzed material she helped excavate last summer in Dixon, New Mexico, under the direction of Barnard College Professor Severin Fowles. Excavations were conducted on the historic plaza as part of a community acknowledgement of the tercentenary of the San Antonio del Embudo land grant which established the Indo-Hispano town in 1725. The town was intended to serve as a buffer for the Spanish empire against Comanche raiding throughout the 18th century. Lab analysis of ceramics and faunal remains revealed an interconnected history of Spanish colonial and Indigenous occupation at the site. Artifacts like sherds worked into game pieces, awls made of goat horn, and Cracker Jack toys elucidated the multipurpose, multigenerational, and adaptive life ways of the plaza space. She and a team of Barnard archaeologists presented a full report of the site to community members in December. This was Julia’s second time excavating in northern New Mexico and after graduating in May she plans to return for another season!