Maja Site: Archaeological Investigations at a Hohokam Ak-Chin Fieldhouse in the Southern Avra Valley, Arizona

Summary

This report details the excavation and analysis of the Maja Site (AZ AA:15:107 [ASM]), a Hohokam field house located on State Trust Land in the southern Avra Valley west of Tucson, Arizona. The site was completely excavated by SWCA, Inc., Environmental Consultants in December 1992 to mitigate impacts resulting from the construction and maintenance of a proposed transmission. Four cultural feature were identified, excavated, and recorded. Three features--a burned pit house, a roasting pit, and a pit of unknown function--represented Hohokam occupation of the site during the Tanque Verde phase of the Classic period. The fourth feature was a post hole dating to either the Historic or Modern period.

The material culture assemblage reflects the wide variety of activities carried out at the site, including processing of cultivated and native plant resources, grinding of pigment, manufacture and maintenance of stone tools, and possibly pottery manufacture. The macrobotanical and pollen remains indicate that maize and squash or gourd were the two primary cultigens produced at the site, but wild resources such as cheno-ams and cholla buds were also exploited at food resources.

The site is the only fieldhouse site to be excavated in the Avra Valley thus far. It is one of many similar sites that cluster along a physiographic zone on the northern bajada of the Sierrita Mountains. Due to several factors, this zone is particularly conducive to Ak-Chin farming. A band of slightly elevated vegetation density that is coincident with this site-bearing zone is visible in aerial photographs and satellite imagery, presenting the possibility that the locations of Ak-Chin farming sites may be predicted elsewhere in the Sonoran Desert through the use of remote-sensing techniques.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• ARMS, NM HPD Office of Cultural Affairs Collection   •
• SWCA DAHA Resources   •
• Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA)   •
• National Archeological Database (NADB)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Contributor(s): Susan B. Bierer; Linda Scott Cummings; Kathryn Puseman

Sponsor(s): Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Inc

Prepared By(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Submitted To(s): Arizona State Land Department; Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.

Record Identifiers

Contract Number(s): 93-2

Arizona State Museum Permit No(s): 92-97

NADB document id number(s): 5446670

NADB citation id number(s): 000000230998

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