The Roosevelt Rural Sites Study, Volume 2: Prehistoric Rural Settlements in the Tonto Basin, Part 1

Part of the Roosevelt Rural Sites Study (DRAFT) project

Editor(s): Richard Ciolek-Torello; Steven D. Shelley; Su Benaron

Year: 1994

Summary

The Roosevelt Rural Sites Study (RRS) 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 Statistical Research, Inc. to conduct this study.

The RRS was a two-year mitigative data designed to study small habitation, agricultural, and resource processing sites, which are located away from the main centers of prehistoric habitation in the Tonto Basin, and to contribute to an ongoing synthetic study of Tonto Basin prehistory. The specific research focus of the Roosevelt Rural Sites Study in Reclamation's overall compliance program was the evolution of prehistoric rural land-use systems in the Tonto Basin. Twenty-nine prehistoric sites grouped into six study areas located in the bajada zone surrounding the lake on lands administered by the Tonto National Forest comprise the data base for this study.

The Roosevelt Rural Sites Study Volume 2, the second of three volumes, presents the results of two phases of archaeological data recovery at the sites selected by Reclamation to provide the primary data base for the RRS. The original data base consisted of 29 prehistoric sites grouped in six study areas located in the bajada zone surrounding the lake, on lands administered by the Tonto National Forest. This number was reduced to 27 after two sites were deleted from further consideration following the first phase of data recovery. Many of these sites, however, contained multiple components representing either different ages or settlement classes. Eight farmsteads and small hamlets ranging in age from the Sacaton phase (around A.D. 1000 to 1150) to the Roosevelt phase (around A.D. 1250 to 1350) were intensively investigated. All represented short-term occupations of less than 100 years by groups of one to three households. The majority of the sites consisted of temporarily- or seasonally-occupied field houses dating to the Miami (A.D. 1150 to 1250), Roosevelt, and possibly Gila (A.D. 1350 to 1450) phases of the Classic period. In addition, three Classic period sites were associated with run-off control and water conservation technology. The two larger sites contained many rock piles, checkdams, and linear borders associated with roasting pits and mescal knives. The field houses and agricultural sites reveal that the bajada zone was utilized for corn and agave cultivation. Residence was small in scale, short-term and primarily limited to the lower edge of the bajada overlooking the floodplain terraces. This land-use pattern was apparently initiated in the early Sedentary period and climaxed in the Roosevelt phase of the Classic period. Traces of an earlier Archaic and later Apache occupation was evidenced at several sites, although little could be determined in regard to the nature of land-use during these periods.

The chapters in this volume document the field excavations and present the results of the analyses of material culture and faunal and human remains. This volume concludes with an analysis of rural settlement classes that synthesizes the project data with those from previous studies of small Formative period sites in the region and a preliminary reconstruction of Formative period land-use patterns.

The third and final volume presents the results of archaeobotanical, soil, and paleoclimatic analyses. These results are examined, along with those from Volume 2, in an interpretive framework derived from an examination of records pertaining to ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and historic land use in central Arizona.

Cite this Record

The Roosevelt Rural Sites Study, Volume 2: Prehistoric Rural Settlements in the Tonto Basin, Part 1. Richard Ciolek-Torello, Steven D. Shelley, Su Benaron. Statistical Research Technical Series ,28. Tucson, AZ: Statistical Research, Inc. 1994 ( tDAR id: 378211) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8D79C8S

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Keywords

Culture
Ancestral Puebloan • Hohokam • Salado

Material
Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Fauna • Ground Stone • Human Remains • Macrobotanical • Shell

Site Name
AR-03-12-06-111(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1171(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1464(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1551(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1554(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1558(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1560(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1561(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1562(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1568(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1574(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1576(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1578(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1579(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1580(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1584(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1590(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-1592(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-182(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-318(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-457(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-742(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-835(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-838(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-918(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-942(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-959(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-971(USFS) • AR-03-12-06-972(USFS) • AZ V:8:12(ASM) • AZ V:8:178(ASM) • AZ V:8:181(ASM) • AZ V:8:185(ASM) • AZ V:8:187(ASM) • AZ V:8:190(ASM) • AZ V:8:192(ASM) • AZ V:8:194(ASM) • AZ V:8:195(ASM) • AZ V:8:196(ASM) • AZ V:8:202(ASM) • AZ V:8:211(ASM) • AZ V:8:213(ASM) • AZ V:8:215(ASM) • AZ V:8:219(ASM) • AZ V:8:221(ASM) • AZ V:8:223(ASM) • AZ V:8:224(ASM) • AZ V:8:225(ASM) • AZ V:8:229(ASM) • AZ V:8:233(ASM) • AZ V:8:234(ASM) • AZ V:8:235(ASM) • AZ V:8:236(ASM) • AZ V:8:239(ASM) • AZ V:8:241(ASM) • AZ V:8:508(ASM) • AZ V:8:509(ASM) • AZ V:8:510(ASM) • AZ V:8:511(ASM) • AZ V:8:52(ASM) • AZ V:8:78(ASM) • Bald Eagle Hill • Grapevine Spring • Grapevine Vista • Marina Hill • Porter Springs Marina • Riser Site • Vineyard Point Show More

Site Type
Agricultural Field or Field Feature • Agricultural or Herding • Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Checkdam • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Encampment • Field House • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Hamlet / Village • Hearth • House • Hunting / Trapping • Hunting Blind • Isolated Burial • Midden • Pit • Quarry • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno • Rock Alignment • Settlements • Trash Midden

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Agriculture • Rural Settlement • Tonto Basin Prehistory

Geographic Keywords
Mazatzal Mountains • Roosevelt Lake • Salt River • Sierra Ancha • Theodore Roosevelt Dam

Temporal Keywords
Archaic • Gila Phase • Hohokam Early Classic period • Hohokam pre-Classic period • Sacaton Phase

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.364; min lat: 33.615 ; max long: -110.924; max lat: 34.032 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

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

Contributor(s): Kellie M. Cairns; William L. Deaver; Joel D. Irish; Barbara K.. Montgomery; Marcia H. Regan; Ronald Towner; Christy G. Turner II; Rein Vanderpot; Arthur W. Vokes; Stephanie M. Whittlesey

Principal Investigator(s): Richard Ciolek-Torello

Project Director(s): Steven D. Shelley

Landowner(s): US Forest Service, Tonto National Forest

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

Permitting Agency(s): US Forest Service, Tonto National Forest

Prepared By(s): Statistical Research, Inc.

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

Record Identifiers

Bureau of Reclamation, Central Arizona Project, RFP(s): 9-SP-32-01060

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