Location: Kit Carson Electric - 118 Cruz Alta Rd, Taos
Date: May 8, 2018 (Tuesday) @ 7:00 PM
Speaker: Paul Reed
Subject: Ireland’s Stone Towers – A Medieval Wonder
Visitors to Ireland are captivated by many amazing archaeological and historic sites. Among the more enigmatic are the large, round stone towers usually associated with ecclesiastical complexes. As a group, the round towers date from roughly 900-1200 CE. Much debate over the last several decades has centered on the function of the towers, which predate the Norman stone castles built after 1175. The most recent research has focused on the structures as bell towers – cloigtheach in Irish Gaelic. In this talk, I will explore the fascinating round towers of ancient Ireland.
UNM-Taos Professor of Anthropology and Preservation Archaeologist Paul Reed is a Preservation Archaeologist with the Tucson, Arizona based Archaeology Southwest and works as a Chaco Scholar at Salmon Ruins, New Mexico. Reed has been employed in this position for 15 years. Reed has written multiple journal articles and reports over 30 years as an archaeologist. He completed work as editor (and author of several chapters) on Chaco's Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region After AD 1100, published by the University of Utah Press in August 2008. Reed was also editor (and author of several chapters) of the three-volume, comprehensive report entitled Thirty-Five Years of Archaeological Research at Salmon Ruins, New Mexico published in 2006 by the Center and the Salmon Ruins Museum. His other books -- The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon and Foundations of Anasazi Culture (as editor) have explored the origins of ancient Pueblo culture and Chaco Canyon. For the last two years, Reed has been working to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape from the effects of expanded oil-gas development associated with fracking in the Mancos Shale formation. Through a series of meetings and forums with public officials, Tribal leaders, various US Government agencies, and New Mexico’s Congressional delegation, Archaeology Southwest and its partners have focused on expanding protections to sites, traditional cultural places, and fragile landscapes in the greater San Juan Basin.
Join other TAS members and our speaker for Dinner at 5 PM
Guadalajara Grill South, 1384 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, across from Ace Hardware.
Arrive between 5:00 and 5:30 PM, place your order at the front, and take your number to the back room. No reservations needed.
