Virginia Flores Sasso (Author)
Esteban Prieto Vicioso (Author)
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, masons inscribed symbols on dressed stonework and ashlars to identify the work of the individual or team that quarried or dressed the stone or of the workshop of origin. Other marks on stonework can provide instructions, such as the way to place the ashlar. Many of these marks still survive on the fabric of cathedrals, churches, palaces, important houses, castles, and other structures throughout Europe and beyond. This tradition journeyed from Europe to the New World with the stonemasons, although in the Americas very few have been reported. One of the buildings with masons’ marks is the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (1521–1541) in the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola Island. In this study, 28 masons’ marks were identified in 18 places inside and outside the cathedral: these included crosses, letters, geometric forms, and other symmetrical figures. All the marks are in discrete places, and most of them are difficult to find. So far, no scholars have reported stonemasons’ marks on any building in the Caribbean. In the 16th century, the knowledge of construction techniques was a secret and transmitted from builder to builder through the guild or workshop. Therefore, these patterns serve as a tool to identify builders, their place of origin, construction methods, construction phases, and construction dates, among other things. For this reason, the aim of this research is to draw attention to masons’ marks in the New World context as an aid to architectural history and archaeology, creating a database that will help to identify the masons who worked in the Americas in the 16th century, the dates of the construction phases, and the construction techniques they used.
...More
Article
Julie K. Wesp;
(2020)
Working in the City: An Historical Bioarchaeology of Activity in Urban New Spain
(/p/isis/citation/CBB207371917/)
Article
Victor D. Thompson;
Amanda D. Roberts Thompson;
William H. Marquardt;
Karen J. Walker;
Lee A. Newsom;
(2020)
Discovering San Antón de Carlos: The Sixteenth-Century Spanish Buildings and Fortifications of Mound Key, Capital of the Calusa
(/p/isis/citation/CBB660664667/)
Chapter
Cynthia L. Otis Charlton;
William J. Parry;
Patricia Fournier García;
Alejandro Pastrana Cruz;
(2019)
Obsidian Production and Use in Central Mexico after the Spanish Invasion
(/p/isis/citation/CBB724527001/)
Chapter
Joyce, Rosemary A.;
Sheptak, Russell N.;
(2019)
Hybrid Cultures: the Visibility of the European Invasion of Caribbean Honduras in the Sixteenth Century
(/p/isis/citation/CBB976376984/)
Book
Heather Law Pezzarossi;
Sheptak, Russell N.;
(2019)
Indigenous persistence in the colonized Americas: material and documentary perspectives on entanglement
(/p/isis/citation/CBB197302697/)
Chapter
Keehnen, Floris W.M.;
(2019)
Treating ‘Trifles’: the Indigenous Adoption of European Material Goods in Early Colonial Hispaniola (1492–1550)
(/p/isis/citation/CBB395620428/)
Chapter
Alberto Sarcina;
(2019)
Santa María de la Antigua del Darién: the Aftermath of Colonial Settlement
(/p/isis/citation/CBB960739614/)
Article
M. Florencia Arias;
Mariana Mondini;
M. Alejandra Korstanje;
(2023)
An Early Hispanic-Indigenous Contact Event at the Los Viscos Archaeological Site in the South-Central Andes: A Zooarchaeological Perspective
(/p/isis/citation/CBB153257824/)
Article
Marta Amelia Timmons;
Kelly J. Dixon;
(2011)
Coloma Mining District: Gold Mining and Community in Western Montana's Garnet Range
(/p/isis/citation/CBB580183452/)
Book
Krysta Ryzewski;
(2022)
Detroit remains : Archaeology and community histories of six legendary places
(/p/isis/citation/CBB218937119/)
Chapter
Nassaney, Michael S.;
Erika K. Hartley;
(2019)
Architectural Remains at Fort St. Joseph
(/p/isis/citation/CBB213030847/)
Article
Isabella Shaw;
Martin J. Jones;
James L. Flexner;
Stuart Bedford;
(2022)
Prefabrication, Patrilineality, and Intergenerational Reuse: The Ruined Third Church of Aniwa, Southern Vanuatu, and its Integration into Domestic Architecture
(/p/isis/citation/CBB574453505/)
Article
Alicia B. Valentino;
(2009)
Using Maps to Aid Our Understanding of a Site's History
(/p/isis/citation/CBB881913691/)
Article
Alyssa Rose Scott;
(2023)
Archaeology, Disability, Healthcare, and the Weimar Joint Sanatorium for Tuberculosis
(/p/isis/citation/CBB615254501/)
Chapter
Maxine Oland;
(2019)
Epilogue Situating Colonial Interaction and Materials: Scale, Context, Theory
(/p/isis/citation/CBB800655004/)
Chapter
Alexander, Rani T.;
(2019)
Technology and Tradition after the Spanish Invasion: An Introduction
(/p/isis/citation/CBB963677814/)
Chapter
Krista L. Eschbach;
(2019)
Ceramic Technology in Afromestizo Neighborhoods of the Colonial Port of Veracruz, Mexico
(/p/isis/citation/CBB403455949/)
Chapter
Elizabeth Konwest;
Stacie M. King;
(2019)
New Materials--New Technologies? Postclassic and Early Colonial Technological Transitions in the Nejapa Region of Oaxaca, Mexico
(/p/isis/citation/CBB274368818/)
Chapter
Clay Mathers;
(2019)
War and Peace in the Sixteenth-Century Southwest: Objected-Oriented Approaches to Native-European Encounters and Trajectories
(/p/isis/citation/CBB189941588/)
Article
Judith A. Bense;
(2023)
Ceramic Figurines in Spanish West Florida
(/p/isis/citation/CBB112143369/)
Be the first to comment!