The Roosevelt Community Development Study, Number 13, Volume 2: Meddler Point, Pyramid Point, and Griffin Wash Sites

Part of the Roosevelt Community Development Study-Center for Desert Archaeology (DRAFT) project

Author(s): Mark D. Elson; Deborah L. Swartz; Douglas B. Craig; Jeffrey J. Clark

Year: 1994

Summary

The Roosevelt Community Development Study (RCD) was one of three data recovery mitigative studies that the Bureau of Reclamation funded to investigate the prehistory of the Tonto Basin in the vicinity of Theodore Roosevelt Dam. The series of investigations constituted Reclamation's program for complying with historic preservation legislation as it applied to the raising and modification of Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Reclamation contracted with Desert Archaeology, Inc. to complete the research for this investigation.

The RCD study involved involved the testing and excavation of 27 sites in a four-mile continuous area along the north bank of the Salt River, in the lower Tonto Basin of central Arizona.The Center for Desert Archaeology's Anthropological Papers No. 13 consists of two report volumes that present project background and provide descriptive information on the excavation and testing of sites in the project area. These reports include site and feature descriptions, site and feature maps, general artifact data, and preliminary interpretations of the individual sites.

Volume 1: Introduction and Small Sites (Anthropological Papers No. 13) presents project background and provides descriptive information on the excavation and testing of the small sites in the project area. Volume 2 describes work at the larger sites of Meddler Point, Griffin Wash, and Pyramid Point.

Sites within the project area exhibited a great range of functional, temporal, and likely cultural diversity. These include two sites with platform mounds (the Meddler Point and Pyramid Point sites), a 100-room masonry pueblo (the Griffin Wash site), smaller masonry compounds (e.g., the Porcupine site), and pithouse hamlets and farmsteads (e.g., the Hedge Apple and Eagle Ridge sites). Temporal components ranged from the Early Ceramic Horizon (A.D. 100-600) at Locus B of the Eagle Ridge site through the Roosevelt phase (A.D. 1250-1350) of the Classic period. The Early Ceramic component of the Eagle Ridge site is now the earliest documented ceramic period site in the Tonto Basin, and it provides definitive evidence for an indigenous pre-Hohokam population. The project area was the most intensively inhabited during the Roosevelt phase, when platform mounds, large pueblos, and small masonry compounds were occupied. It was largely abandoned by A.D. 1325, prior to the large-scale aggregation that occurred during the Gila phase; very few Gila Polychrome sherds were recovered from project area sites.

Cite this Record

The Roosevelt Community Development Study, Number 13, Volume 2: Meddler Point, Pyramid Point, and Griffin Wash Sites. Mark D. Elson, Deborah L. Swartz, Douglas B. Craig, Jeffrey J. Clark. Anthropological Papers ,13. Tucson, AZ: Center for Desert Archaeology. 1994 ( tDAR id: 405606) ; doi:10.6067/XCV80K2BFB

Keywords

Culture
Hohokam

Material
Adobe Antler Argillite Azurite Basalt Black-on-Redware Black-on-Whiteware Bone Buffware Building Materials Cedar Creek Polychrome Ware Ceramic Chipped Stone Cobble Copper Dating Sample Decorated Diabase Escavada Black-on-Whiteware Fauna Fire Cracked Rock Gila Black-on-Redware Gila Butte Buffware Gila Butte Red-on-Buffware Gila Polychrome Ware Glass Glycymeris sp. Granite Grass Grinding Slab Ground Stone Gypsum Hematite Human Remains Juniper Kiatuthlanna Ware Laevicardium sp. Macrobotanical Malachite Marine Shell Masonry Metal Mineral Needle Obsidian Pinedale Black-on-Redware Pinedale Black-on-Whiteware Pinto Black-on-Redware Pinto Polychrome Ware Plainware Plaster Polychrome Ware Puerco Black-on-Whiteware Quartz Quartzite Red Mesa Black-on-Whiteware Red-on-Buffware Red Pigment Redware Reed Reserve Black-on-Whiteware Roosevelt Redware Sacaton Red-on-Buffware Salado Redware Salado White-on-Redware Sandstone Santa Cruz Buffware Santa Cruz Red-on-Buffware Schist Shell Shell Needle Shell Tinkler Snaketown Red-on-Buffware Snowflake Black-on-Whiteware St. John's Polychrome Ware St. Johns Polychrome Ware Steatite Tinkler Tularosa Black-on-Whiteware Turquoise Walnut A Black-on-Whiteware Walnut B Black-on-Whiteware White Mountain Redware White-on-Redware Whiteware Wingate Black-on-Redware Wood Show More

Site Name
AR-03-12-06-1027 AR-03-12-06-26 AR-03-12-06-27 AR-03-12-06-28 AZ C:5:10 (GP) AZ C:5:11 (GP) AZ C:5:12 (GP) AZ C:5:2 (GP) AZ C:5:3 (GP) AZ C:5:4 (GP) AZ C:5:5 (GP) AZ C:5:6 (GP) AZ C:5:7 (GP) AZ C:5:8 (GP) AZ C:5:9 (GP) AZ V:5:1(ASM) AZ V:5:100 (ASM) AZ V:5:101 (ASM) AZ V:5:103 (ASM) AZ V:5:104 (ASM) AZ V:5:105 (ASM) AZ V:5:106 (ASM) AZ V:5:107 (ASM) AZ V:5:110 (ASM) AZ V:5:122 (ASM) AZ V:5:123 (ASM) AZ V:5:176 (ASM) AZ V:5:177 (ASM) AZ V:5:178 (ASM) AZ V:5:189 (ASM) AZ V:5:2 (ASU) AZ V:5:3 (ASU) AZ V:5:4 (ASM) AZ V:5:90 (ASM) AZ V:5:91 (ASM) AZ V:5:92 (ASM) AZ V:5:93 (ASM) AZ V:5:94 (ASM) AZ V:5:95 (ASM) AZ V:5:96 (ASM) AZ V:5:97 (ASM) AZ V:5:98 (ASM) AZ V:5:99 (ASM) Eagle Ridge Griffin Wash Hedge Apple Las Manos Meddler Complex Meddler Point Porcupine Pyramid Point Show More

Site Type
Adobe Compound Adobe Pitroom Adobe Structure Adobe Wall Agricultural or Herding Archaeological Feature Artifact Scatter Ash Pit Bell Bell Pit Bell-Shaped Pit Bi-Lobed Pit Bone (Human) Burial Cache Campfire Ring Cemetery Cobble Wall Compound Copper Bell Courtyard Cremation Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex Domestic Structures Farming Village Farmstead Fieldhouse Funerary and Burial Structures or Features Granary Pedestal Hamlet Hamlet / Village Hearth Infant Inhumation Inhumation Juniper Post Lithic Concentration Mano Cache Masonry Compound Masonry Pitroom Masonry Room Masonry Roomblock Masonry Structure Masonry Wall Midden Mound Borrow Pit Mound Cell Non-Domestic Structures Oval Structure Pit Pit House Pit House / Earth Lodge Pitroom Platform Mound Platform Mound Cell Plaza Post Post Hole Post Hole / Post Mold Puddling Pit Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features Roasting Area Roasting Pit Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno Rock Alignment Rock Cluster Rock Concentration Room Roomblock Room Block / Compound / Pueblo Sandstone Room Sandstone Roomblock Settlements Sherd Cluster Sherd Scatter Slab-Lined Pit Structure Trash Concentration Trash Midden Trash Mound Village Wall Show More

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation

General
3 / 4 Grooved Axe Abrader Antler Antler (Deer) Anvil Apache Tear Archaeomagnetic Dating Argillite Pendant Axe Axe Blank Basalt Pestle Bead Beam Bone (Animal) Bowl Bracelet Bundle of Grass Bundle of Reeds Burned Fiber CAWCS Central Arizona Water Control Study Charcoal Chopper Core Corrugated Redware Corrugated Ware Debitage Dog Pendant Duck Effigy Pot Effigy Pot Glycymeris Bracelet Grooved Axe Gypsum Slab Handstone Harold Gladwin Inverted Metate Jewelry John Hughes Knife Lapstone Lithic tool Lyndon Hargrave Mano Maul McDonald Corrugated Ware Metate Morris Netherstone Painted Laevicardium Painted Shell Palette Pendant Pestle Pigment Polishing Stone Pot Projectile Point Quartz Crystal RCD Redware Bowl Roosevelt Community Development Study Salado Corrugated Redware Sally Van Valkenburgh Schist Palette Shell Bead Shell Bracelet Shell Pendant Sherd Disc Sherd Disk Slab Steatite Pendant Tabular Knife Tool Tree Ring Dating Turquoise Bead Turquoise Pendant Turquoise Piece Vessel Worked Animal Bone Worked Shell Worked Steate Worked Turquoise Show More

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) Lower Tonto Basin Salt River Salt River Floodplain Tonto Basin Tonto National Forest

Temporal Keywords
Ash Creek Phase Classic Period Colonial Period Early Ceramic Early Classic Period Gila Butte Phase Miami Phase Roosevelt Phase Sacaton Phase Santa Cruz Phase Sedentary Period

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 100 to 1350 (Apparent date range of project area sites.)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.015; min lat: 33.625 ; max long: -110.949; max lat: 33.673 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

Contributor(s): Geo-Map, Inc.; Jeffrey L. Eighmy; Michael Lindeman; Brenda G. Randolpf; Gerald Dawavendewa

Landowner(s): U. S. Forest Service

Repository(s): Center for Archaeology and Society, Arizona State University

Record Identifiers

Project Name(s): Roosevelt Community Development Study

Contract No.(s): 1-CS-32-01220

Notes

Redaction Note: In the public version of the report: Figure P.1 has been redacted due to the level of detail it contains about site locations. Detailed site features in Figures 7.18, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1 and 9.41 have been retained, but geographical information has been redacted.

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
CCRS-1994-006-Roos-Comm-Devel-Study-No-13-V2-Meddler-Point-Pyr... 13.63mb May 13, 2016 9:58:36 AM Confidential
This file is unredacted.
CCRS-1994-006-Roos-Comm-Devel-Study-No-13-V2-Meddler-Point-Pyr... 14.14mb Jul 13, 2017 2:39:27 PM Public
In the public version of the report: Figure P.1 has been redacted due to the level of detail it contains about site locations. Detailed site features in Figures 7.18, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1 and 9.41 have been retained, but geographical information has been redacted.

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Contact(s): USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

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