Phoenix Basin Archaeology: the Intersections Project

Part of: Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA) , Arizona Department of Transportation

The Intersections Project created an electronic collection of archaeological monographs and synthetic reports written for archaeological projects conducted during the 1980s and 1990s at Hohokam sites on Canal System Two. These investigations were funded by the Federal and Arizona Departments of Transportation. The searchable electronic collection includes the contents of about 37 separate volumes reporting on the findings of 11 different archaeological projects. The electronic publication was made available on a set of Compact Discs. Subsequently the digital files were added to tDAR as a project and collection for wider distribution and long-term preservation.

The Intersections Project was funded by the Federal Highway Administration through the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Maricopa Association of Governments as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). The project begun in the early spring of 1997 and was completed in 2002; final CDROMs were mastered in 2003. Brenda L. Shears and Glen E. Rice of Arizona State University were the project co-directors and principal investigators, and Mark Danelowitz of the Arizona Department of Transportation administered the project.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-40 of 40)

  • Phoenix Basin Archaeology: Intersections, Pathways Through Time
    PROJECT Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    The Intersections project is an electronic archive of the archaeological monographs written for archaeological projects conducted at Hohokam sites on Canal System Two and funded by the Federal and Arizona departments of transportation. The searchable electronic archive includes the contents of about 37 separate volumes reporting on the findings of 11 different archaeological projects. The Intersections project was funded by the Federal Highway Administration through the Arizona Department of...

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas Research Design (1985)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David A. Gregory. Fred L. Nials. Patricia L. Crown. Lynn S. Teague. David A. Philips.

    This volume presents the research design constructed to guide both the field work and analysis stages of the Las Colinas Project. It is the first in a series of seven volumes covering the project; the remaining volumes will document and interpret the substantive results of the research. The seven volumes are collectively designated as Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 162.

  • Death, Society and Ideology in a Hohokam Community: Colonial and Sedentary Period Burials from La Ciudad (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Randall H. McGuire.

    The nature of Hohokam social organization has always been at the core of debates surrounding the prehistory of southern Arizona. Changing theoretical perspectives have shifted the directions and foci of controversy but the differences in these orientations can largely be described in terms of the assumptions made about social organization. A continuing thread to the arguments has been disagreement over the nature of power relationships in Hohokam society and the importance of such relationships...

  • Frank Midvale's Investigation of the Site of La Ciudad (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David R. Wilcox.

    La Ciudad Phoenix was one of numerous Hohokam Indian villages that once were located about every three miles (4.8 kilometers) along extensive irrigation canals in the Salt and Gila river valleys. First founded in the early centuries A.D., La Ciudad endured for a millennium or more, evolving new forms of organization to meet life’s challenges on several scales of interaction, only to fail in the end when the Hohokam abandoned the Phoenix basin about A.D. 1450. The more archaeologists learn about...

  • The Hohokam Community of La Ciudad (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    In 1982, the Arizona Department of Transportation awarded a contract to the Office of Cultural Resource Management at Arizona State University for a data recovery program in the northern resource zone (Rice and Most 1982). Funding was provided through the Federal Highway Administration as part of a project to mitigate the impacts associated with the construction of the Papago-Loop of the I-10 Interstate Freeway. Our investigations were focused in the northern portion of the site in an area...

  • La Ciudad Canals: A Study of Hohokam Irrigation Systems at the Community Level (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Neal W. Ackerly. Jerry B. Howard. Randall H. McGuire.

    The nineteenth-century farmers, merchants, and prospectors who settled in the Salt River Valley of Arizona encountered one of the most dense and most visible concentrations of prehistoric ruins in North America. They named their new city Phoenix because they envisioned it rising up from the ashes of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. One of the most pronounced features discovered was large irrigation canals that stretched across most of the valley floor--an ancient irrigation network, the...

  • A Spatial Analysis of the Hohokam Community of La Ciudad (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Glen E. Rice.

    Of the many valleys in the southern desert of Arizona, the prehistoric Hohokam concentrated the largest and greatest of their communities in the Phoenix basin. It was here that they constructed the most elaborate and extensive of their canal networks. Their success drew on two unique characteristics of the basin environment. The first was the Salt River; the most competent and consistent source of water in the southern desert, it surpasses five-fold the volume and capacity of the Gila River to...

  • Specialized Studies in the Economy, Environment and Culture of La Ciudad Part III (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This volume presents the results of a set of diverse studies into special data sets from the site of La Ciudad. La Ciudad is one of the large Hohokam ruins within the network of prehistoric irrigation canals in the Phoenix basin (Figure A). It lies on the north side of the Salt River, midway along a canal system that originates at Pueblo Grande and extends a distance of seven miles to Las Colinas. La Ciudad is composed of multiple loci dispersed along the banks of four canals, and covers about...

  • Specialized Studies in the Economy, Environment and Culture of La Ciudad Parts I and II (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This volume presents the results of a set of diverse studies into special data sets from the site of La Ciudad. La Ciudad is one of the large Hohokam ruins within the network of prehistoric irrigation canals in the Phoenix basin (Figure A). It lies on the north side of the Salt River, midway along a canal system that originates at Pueblo Grande and extends a distance of seven miles to Las Colinas. La Ciudad is composed of multiple loci dispersed along the banks of four canals, and covers...

  • Structure and Organization at La Ciudad (1987)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text T. Kathleen Henderson.

    The last decade has seen a quantum leap in our understanding of the Hohokam. From those first days of defining the Hohokam as a cultural entity, great strides have been taken in describing their subsistence and settlement systems, explicating core-periphery relationships, and modeling the processes of Hohokam development, expansion, and decline. And yet, the old adage “the faster we go, the further behind we get” seems particularly descriptive of the current state of Hohokam archaeology. While...

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: Material Culture (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David R. Abbott. Kim E. Beckwith. Patricia L. Crown. R. Thomas Euler. David A. Gregory. J. Ronald London. Marilyn B. Saul. Larry A. Schwalbe. Mary Bernard-Shaw.

    The analyses of artifacts recovered during the 1982-1984 excavations at Las Colinas are described in this volume. Temporal variation was addressed using the traditional Hohokam chronology and the site-specific chronology defined in Volume 2. Spatial contrasts focused on distinctions between the Mound 8 assemblages and those of the surrounding residential area. A discussion of mortuary practices that emphasizes the nature of associated artifacts is presented in the final chapter.

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: The Mound 8 Precinct (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David A. Gregory. David R. Abbott. Deni J. Seymour. Nancy M. Bannister.

    The principal focus of this volume is a reconsideration of the construction history and organization of the Mound 8 precinct at Las Colinas. Seven stages of mound construction were identified, with some changes in construction methods and mound configuration over time. As a consequence, Mound 8 provides a record of the transition from an earlier mound form, similar to some stages of the pre-Classic mound at the Gatlin Site, to a later form similar to patterns evident in other Classic period...

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: The Site and Its Features (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David A. Gregory. WIlliam L. Deaver. Suzanne K. Fish. Ronald Gardiner. Robert W. Layhe. Fred L. Nials. Lynn S. Teague. W. Bruce Masse.

    In this volume the features and deposits discovered and excavated at Las Colinas outside the Mound 8 precinct are described. The nature of the sample recovered from Las Colinas, the chronology and history of the occupation, and the geomorphology and natural stratigraphy of the site area are covered in Chapters 1 through 4, providing the groundwork for the remaining chapters and for the other volumes in the report series. The major classes of features discovered at the site--structures,...

  • Archaeological Investigations at the Dutch Canal Ruin, Phoenix, Arizona: Archaeology and History Along the Papago Freeway Corridor (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report presents the results of combined archaeological testing and excavation conducted at the Dutch Canal ruin site within the Interstate 10, Papago Freeway corridor, Phoenix, Arizona. The project was sponsored by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) was contracted by HNTB Engineers, consultants to ADOT, to complete the archaeological studies. Field work was conducted during May, June and July, 1986. Prehistoric resources identified...

  • Arizona Department of Transportation Archaeological Testing Program: Part 2, East Papago Freeway (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This document is a report upon cultural resources found in the western portion of the East Papago Freeway corridor. It represents the second phase of testing to be reported for the entire corridor, data recovery at three small sites suspected of being Hohokam fieldhouse loci (AZ T:12:48(ASM), AZ T:12:50(ASM), and AZ T:12:51(ASM)), and testing at El Caserío (AZ T:12:49 (ASM)) and La Lomita (AZ U:9:67(ASM)). The investigations reported herein were conducted by Soil Systems, Inc. of Phoenix for the...

  • Excavations at Casa Buena: Changing Hohokam Land Use Along the Squaw Peak Parkway Volume 1 (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report presents the results of archaeological data recovery at two prehistoric loci in Phoenix, Arizona. The major component investigated is a portion of the Classic period Hohokam village of Casa Buena (AZ T:12:37(ASM)). The smaller loci contains two temporal/functional components, a late Colonial period fieldhouse site and a Colonial to Sedentary period transition farmstead. The sites are located within the Squaw Peak Parkway corridor. The data recovery program was funded by the City of...

  • Excavations at Casa Buena: Changing Hohokam Land Use Along the Squaw Peak Parkway Volume 2 (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report presents the results of archaeological data recovery at two prehistoric loci in Phoenix, Arizona. The major component investigated is a portion of the Classic period Hohokam village of Casa Buena (AZ T:12:37(ASM)). The smaller loci contains two temporal/functional components, a late Colonial period fieldhouse site and a Colonial to Sedentary period transition farmstead. The sites are located within the Squaw Peak Parkway corridor. The data recovery program was funded by the City of...

  • Excavations at La Lomita Pequeña: A Santa Cruz/Sacaton Phase Hamlet in the Salt River Valley (1988)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report is a result of archaeological investigations at the prehistoric Hohokam site of La Lomita Pequeña (AZ U:9:66(ASM)) by Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI), Arizona. in the city of Phoenix, The site is within the path of the East Papago Freeway, a state funded freeway system in the Phoenix being constructed by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). The site was tested, located initially by survey, was subsequently and was finally subjected to an intensive data recovery program sponsored...

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: Environment and Subsistence (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Donald A. Graybill. David A. Gregory. Fred L. Nials. Suzanne K. Fish. Charles Miksicek. Robert E. Gasser. Christine R. Szuter.

    This volume is one of several substantive reports detailing the results of the 1982-1984 excavations at Las Colinas. This series of reports is collectively designated Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 162. The research design constructed to guide the investigations has been published as Volume 1. Other volumes deal with material culture, site structure, and the Mound 8 precinct. This volume presents the results of the environmental studies carried out as a part of project research.

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: Special Studies and Data Tables (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David A. Gregory. Barbara A. Murphy. William L. Deaver. Richard C. Lange. Martha Sullenberger. Christine R. Szuter. Mary Bernard-Shaw. Arthur W. Vokes. R. Thomas Euler. Charles H. Misicek. Marilyn B. Saul.

    This is last of the seven volumes collectively designated Archaeological Series 162. In Part I of this volume, the provenience system used during the 1982-1984 excavations at Las Colinas and the computer procedures used in processing the enormous volume of data that resulted from those excavations are explained, and the results of some special analyses are presented. Artifact data are provided in tabular form in Part II. Other volumes in this series provide the project research design (Volume...

  • The 1982-1984 Excavations at Las Colinas: Syntheses and Conclusions (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lynn S. Teague. William L. Deaver.

    This is the sixth in a series of seven volumes reporting results of archaeological investigations at Las Colinas, a predominantly Sedentary and Classic period settlement on the Salt River within the boundaries of what is today urban Phoenix. Excavations at Las Colinas were funded by the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, with the additional support of the University of Arizona during report preparation and publication phases of the project. Work was...

  • Archaeological Investigations at the Grand Canal Ruins: A Classic Period Site in Phoenix, Arizona Volume 1 (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report presents the results of the archaeological excavation of a prehistoric Hohokam village known as the Grand canal Ruins (AZ T:12:14(ASU) and AZ T:12:16 (ASU)). Excavations were performed at the site in 1986 in advance of the Squaw Peak Parkway, a city-funded transportation project located in Phoenix, Arizona. The archaeological work was conducted by Soil Systems, Inc., for the City of Phoenix under Contract Nos. 41116 and 42877. The Grand Canal Ruins represent a large Classic period...

  • Archaeological Investigations at the Grand Canal Ruins: A Classic Period Site in Phoenix, Arizona Volume 2 (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This report presents the results of the archaeological excavation of a prehistoric Hohokam village known as the Grand canal Ruins (AZ T:12:14(ASU) and AZ T:12:16(ASU)). Excavations were performed at the site in 1986 in advance of the Squaw Peak Parkway, a city-funded transportation project located in Phoenix, Arizona. The archaeological work was conducted by Soil Systems, Inc., for the City of Phoenix under Contract Nos. 41116 and 42877. The Grand Canal Ruins represent a large Classic period...

  • El Caserío: Colonial Period Settlement Along the East Papago Freeway (1989)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    This volume reports the results of excavations conducted at a small Colonial period Hohokam site in Phoenix, Arizona. Excavations were undertaken at El Caserío (AZ T:12:49(ASM)) as part of the East Papago Freeway Archaeological Project funded by the Arizona Department of Transportation under Contract 85 33. El Caserío contained several extramural surfaces, trash deposits, 20 pithouses, Decorated ceramic and a variety of miscellaneous pits. analyses and chronometric dates place the primary...

  • The La Lomita Excavations: 10th Century Hohokam Occupuation in South-Central Arizona (1990)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Archaeological investigations were conducted at the prehistoric Hohokam Site ofLa Lomita (AZ U:9:67(ASM)) in Phoenix, Arizona, sponsored by the Arizona Department of Transportation. The portion of the site within the project area contained over 30 pithouses, 20 burials, several prehistoric canal segments, and numerous pits. La Lomita was primarily occupied during the late Santa Cruz and Sacaton phases, ranging from about A.D. 890 to 1025. Several house groups were identified, representing a...

  • The Operation and Evolution of an Irrigation System: The East Papago Canal Study (1991)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Jerry B. Howard. Gary Huckleberry.

    Archaeological investigations sponsored by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) were conducted by Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) at several sites within the East Papago Freeway corridor, including El Caserío (AZ T:12:49(ASM)), La Lomita (AZ U:9:67(ASM)), and La Lomita Pequeña (AZ U:9:66(ASM)). During the investigation of these sites, a significant number of canal alignments were encountered, prompting the sponsoring of the East Papago Canal Study by ADOT. Canal System 2, traversed by the...

  • Prehistoric Irrigation in Arizona: Symposium 1988 (1991)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Studies of Hohokam irrigation systems undertaken in the past 5 to 10 years, particularly in the Phoenix Basin, have provided a wealth of new data to be studied and assimilated by archaeologists. Recently completed and ongoing projects have required archaeologists to ask new questions and to apply a variety of investigative techniques to better understand the complexities of Hohokam irrigation systems. It is important that archaeologists studying Hohokam irrigation systems evaluate the increasing...

  • Archaeology of the Pueblo Grande Platform Mound and Surrounding Features Volume 1 Introduction to the Archival Project and History of Archaeological Research (1993)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Pueblo Grande is a special place. The subject of legend both ancient and modern, it is one of the most impressive and familiar of all surviving Hohokam sites. Until recently, any visitor could plainly see from exposed rooms, deteriorating walls, and eroding test holes and tunnels that Pueblo Grande had been extensively excavated. It would have been logical to assume from this evidence that the site was one of the most famous and best documented of all Classic period Hohokam villages. Until the...

  • Archaeology of the Pueblo Grande Platform and Surrounding Features Volume 2 Features in the Central Precinct of the Pueblo Grande Community (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Volume 2 describes the prehistoric features, excluding the platform mound and its adjacent compound, that have been excavated at Pueblo Grande Cultural Park, a 102-acre portion of the prehistoric site owned by the City of Phoenix (see Downum and Bostwick, Volume 1:Chapter 1). This city park encompasses the central precinct of the Pueblo Grande site. Data curated in the Pueblo Grande Museum Archive (PGMA) concerning the non-platform mound features are compiled and synthesized here, with the...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: An Analysis of Classic Period Hohokam Mortuary Practices (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Ceramics and the Production and Exchange of Pottery in the Central Phoenix Basin, Part One (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Ceramics and the Production and Exchange of Pottery in the Central Phoenix Basin, Part Two (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Environment and Subsistence (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Feature Descriptions, Chronology, and Site Structure (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Introduction, Research Design, and Testing Results (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: Material Culture (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • The Pueblo Grande Project: The Bioethnography of a Classic Period Hohokam Population (1994)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Joshua Watts

    Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) of Phoenix, Arizona conducted a 16-month data recovery project at the large Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande. The site is located on the north bank of the Salt River in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the site was excavated as the result of the expansion of the urban freeway system in Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) sponsored the project. Pueblo Grande was one of the primary villages in the Phoenix Basin and is...

  • Ceramic Markers of Ancient Irrigation Communities (2002)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David R. Abbott.

    More than 1000 years ago, a people that archaeologists call the Hohokam first inhabited the deserts of what is now Arizona. They flourished for more than 70 generations in the lower Salt River Valley, the place where Phoenix now stands. Buried beneath the modern metropolis are the ruins of many aboriginal villages and a vast and elaborate irrigation network that may have watered 40,000 acres of cropland. (Jerry Howard completed this map, Figure 1, of the Hohokam irrigation canals and major...

  • A Gazetteer of Excavated Hohokam Sites on Canal System Two, Phoenix Basin, Arizona (2002)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Glen E. Rice.

    From 1982 to 1990, a dozen archaeological sites associated with the Hohokam Canal System Two in the Phoenix Basin were excavated in anticipation of the construction of a network of freeways in the City of Phoenix (Figure 1). Ten of the excavation projects were funded through the Arizona Department of Transportation and two through the City of Phoenix Engineering Project; the work was conducted by the Arizona State Museum, the Museum of Northern Arizona, Arizona State University, and Soil...

  • Hohokam Impacts on the Vegetation of Canal System Two, Phoenix Basin (2002)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text David Jacobs. Glen E. Rice.

    In 1850, the Phoenix Basin had been uninhabited for about 350 to 400 years. It was visited occasionally by hunting, fishing, or gathering parties from the Pima, Pee Posh, Yavapai or Apache, but the last people to have cleared farming fields, excavated canals, and built villages in the lower Salt River valley had been the Hohokam, and they had abandoned the area sometime between A.D. 1450 and 1500. This timeline is important to archaeologists because it means that the desert vegetation in the...