End Of Fieldwork Interim Report: Archaeological Data Recovery And Burial Removal For A Proposed Building Footprint And Utilities Along A New Alignment Of Monroe Street, East Of 44th Street, at Pueblo Grande (AZ U:9:1(ASM)), Phoenix, Arizona - DRAFT REPORT

Summary

Between May 24 and June 13, 2007, Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI) archaeologists conducted a limited data recovery and burial removal excavations for Sun America, Inc. to mitigate the adverse effects of construction in the Washington Park development in Phoenix, Arizona. The construction project was a proposed new building footprint and associated utilities along a proposed re-alignment of Monroe St, east of 44th St. Soil Systems personnel had already completed archaeological work in this area, but the newly proposed construction would result in excavation below grade of all previous archaeological data recovery. In addition, this proposed construction would include modification to a landscaping easement along the east side of 44th Street (where the new street alignment would form an intersection with 44th Street), and to the south of that intersection (where no previous archaeological data recovery or burial removal had occurred).

SSI's previous archaeological work in this location had been undertaken for Sun America, Inc. between 1997 and 2001 as part of a larger project that investigated the entire Washington Park parcel. This project was completed before specific building plans for the property had been formulated. In addition, the previous work did not mitigate any adverse impacts from the proposed landscaping easement along the east side of 44th Street. Therefore, Sun America contracted SSI to conduct further excavation in the area. SSI was contracted to complete archaeological clearance for the proposed construction in all locations where impact might occur to unexcavated cultural remains or features. The archaeological work was conducted to comply with City of Phoenix planning requirements as well as A.R.S. 41-865 for the protection of human burials and associated remains.

SSI archaeologists performed a mechanical excavation of the proposed building footprint; they excavated the area down to the level of previous excavations. They then continued excavation to culturally sterile sediments. Personnel conducted hand excavation of all cultural features encountered within the area. SSI archaeologists followed the same methods to excavate the alignments of two proposed subsurface utilities – a sewer line and a water line – that would run under the proposed new alignment of Monroe Street (north of the proposed building footprint). To investigate the utility line right-of-ways, SSI excavated a single swath from the landscaping easement to the east, until this trench intersected a relict streambed that was known to be devoid of prehistoric cultural features. In total, the work resulted in the excavation of a 0.28 ac area. The new excavations encountered 13 previously unidentified prehistoric features, including compound architecture, a small midden, human inhumations, a bird inhumation, and a human secondary cremation burial. All of these features were fully documented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Pueblo Grande (AZ U:9:1(ASM)): Unit 14, Washington Park Development and Ruby Tuesdays: Soil Systems, Inc. Sun America Data Recovery and Burial Removal

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Principal Investigator(s): Cory D. Breternitz

Project Director(s): Banks L. Leonard

Prepared By(s): Soil Systems, Inc.

Submitted To(s): SunAmerica, Inc.

Record Identifiers

Arizona State Museum Burial Agreement Case No.(s): 97-36

Soil Systems Technical Report No.(s): 07-42

Notes

General Note: This report represents the only written discussion of Sun America Data Recovery at present. There is no final report available for the full data recovery project that occurred between 1997 and 2001.

General Note: This is a near finalized draft report. The text was finalized and formatted, and tables were inserted into the text. However, this electronic report does not contain any figures.

General Note: Please note that SSI recorded the Pueblo Grande number as AZ U:9:7(ASM), which is the designation for a portion of Pueblo Grande. The correct number for the site as a whole is AZ U:9:1(ASM).

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