Developing New Interpretations from Old Data at Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

Summary

This paper addresses recent archaeological work at the Castle A site (AZ 0:5:95 [ASM]), located within the Montezuma Castle National Monument boundary in Camp Verde, Arizona.Initially excavated and stabilized in 1934 by National Park Service archaeologists Martin Jackson and Sallie Pierce, the project is a historically significant event in the development of Verde Valley archaeology.Based on Jackson and Pierce’s interpretation of stratigraphic evidence, they believed a catastrophic fire destroyed the site long after abandonment, an interpretation that has persisted for over 80 years. A recent reanalysis of ceramic data coupled with archaeomagnetic dating strongly suggests this initial interpretation is incorrect. Instead, evidence points to a large and intentional fire resulting in the abandonment of the site during the last quarter of the fourteenth century.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Archeological Stewardship and Science in the National Park Service

Keywords

Spatial Coverage