In New Mexico they are usually adobe brick with a mud
plaster coat.  They are usually built on a rock and
mud platform.  The ones I have seen in RR camps (and
some homes) in Colorado are rock and mud with mud
plaster on a rock and mud platform.

--- trish fernandez <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I believe Julia attributes them generally to a
> mediterranean influence and
> the historical research of the area would point to
> what specific ethnic
> iteration it represents.  In the Sierra Nevada they
> have been associated
> with Chileans, Mexicans, Italians, and French.  But
> of course, those are the
> ethnic groups that were there (here) who would have
> carried on such a
> tradition.  Mexican hornos should be expected to be
> covered in mud (stucco,
> whatever) like those found in the southwest.  Some
> of all of these types of
> ovens were at ground level, and some were built at
> about waist level.
> 
> Most often the interiors are void of any substantial
> artifacts because the
> feature would have been continually cleaned out, but
> around the feature
> there should be some material remains.  The
> challenge then, at least in the
> southern Sierra Nevada, is that associating the
> artifacts with the feature
> and therefore dating and associating the feature
> with a specific group of
> individuals is difficult to prove - because of a
> lack of relative
> stratigraphy.  
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David
> Legare
> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 3:03 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Railroad Camps
> 
> 
> These are also found with the Italian workers' camps
> in Colorado.  It was a fairly common European bread
> oven.  An interesting side note is that in New
> Mexico
> and other Spanish-speaking areas they are called
> "horno" while the Italian word comes directly from
> the
> latin as "forno."  French and Spanish dropped the
> "f"
> for a silent "h" sometime during the middle ages.
> 
> --- Kent Taylor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > In doing an archaeological survey in Wisconsin,
> one
> > our crews came upon what
> > they described as a railroad camp that included
> the
> > ruins of a
> > beehive-shaped stone cooking oven and a great deal
> > of faunal material,
> > especially bovine.  Has anyone else come across a
> > similar situation? And how
> > was it explained.  Thanks.
> > 
> > 
> > Kent Taylor
> > 
> 
> 
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