The Roosevelt Community Development Study, Number 13, Volume 2: Meddler Point, Pyramid Point, and Griffin Wash Sites

Part of the Roosevelt Community Development Study-Center for Desert Archaeology (DRAFT) project

Author(s): Mark D. Elson; Deborah L. Swartz; Douglas B. Craig; Jeffrey J. Clark

Year: 1994

Summary

The Roosevelt Community Development Study (RCD) 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 Desert Archaeology, Inc. to complete the research for this investigation.

The RCD study involved involved the testing and excavation of 27 sites in a four-mile continuous area along the north bank of the Salt River, in the lower Tonto Basin of central Arizona.The Center for Desert Archaeology's Anthropological Papers No. 13 consists of two report volumes that present project background and provide descriptive information on the excavation and testing of sites in the project area. These reports include site and feature descriptions, site and feature maps, general artifact data, and preliminary interpretations of the individual sites.

Volume 1: Introduction and Small Sites (Anthropological Papers No. 13) presents project background and provides descriptive information on the excavation and testing of the small sites in the project area. Volume 2 describes work at the larger sites of Meddler Point, Griffin Wash, and Pyramid Point.

Sites within the project area exhibited a great range of functional, temporal, and likely cultural diversity. These include two sites with platform mounds (the Meddler Point and Pyramid Point sites), a 100-room masonry pueblo (the Griffin Wash site), smaller masonry compounds (e.g., the Porcupine site), and pithouse hamlets and farmsteads (e.g., the Hedge Apple and Eagle Ridge sites). Temporal components ranged from the Early Ceramic Horizon (A.D. 100-600) at Locus B of the Eagle Ridge site through the Roosevelt phase (A.D. 1250-1350) of the Classic period. The Early Ceramic component of the Eagle Ridge site is now the earliest documented ceramic period site in the Tonto Basin, and it provides definitive evidence for an indigenous pre-Hohokam population. The project area was the most intensively inhabited during the Roosevelt phase, when platform mounds, large pueblos, and small masonry compounds were occupied. It was largely abandoned by A.D. 1325, prior to the large-scale aggregation that occurred during the Gila phase; very few Gila Polychrome sherds were recovered from project area sites.

Cite this Record

The Roosevelt Community Development Study, Number 13, Volume 2: Meddler Point, Pyramid Point, and Griffin Wash Sites. Mark D. Elson, Deborah L. Swartz, Douglas B. Craig, Jeffrey J. Clark. Anthropological Papers ,13. Tucson, AZ: Center for Desert Archaeology. 1994 ( tDAR id: 405606) ; doi:10.6067/XCV80K2BFB

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Keywords

Culture
Hohokam

Material
Adobe • Antler • Argillite • Azurite • Basalt • Black-on-Redware • Black-on-Whiteware • Bone • Buffware • Building Materials • Cedar Creek Polychrome Ware • Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Cobble • Copper • Dating Sample • Decorated • Diabase • Escavada Black-on-Whiteware • Fauna • Fire Cracked Rock • Gila Black-on-Redware • Gila Butte Buffware • Gila Butte Red-on-Buffware • Gila Polychrome Ware • Glass • Glycymeris sp. • Granite • Grass • Grinding Slab • Ground Stone • Gypsum • Hematite • Human Remains • Juniper • Kiatuthlanna Ware • Laevicardium sp. • Macrobotanical • Malachite • Marine Shell • Masonry • Metal • Mineral • Needle • Obsidian • Pinedale Black-on-Redware • Pinedale Black-on-Whiteware • Pinto Black-on-Redware • Pinto Polychrome Ware • Plainware • Plaster • Polychrome Ware • Puerco Black-on-Whiteware • Quartz • Quartzite • Red Mesa Black-on-Whiteware • Red-on-Buffware • Red Pigment • Redware • Reed • Reserve Black-on-Whiteware • Roosevelt Redware • Sacaton Red-on-Buffware • Salado Redware • Salado White-on-Redware • Sandstone • Santa Cruz Buffware • Santa Cruz Red-on-Buffware • Schist • Shell • Shell Needle • Shell Tinkler • Snaketown Red-on-Buffware • Snowflake Black-on-Whiteware • St. John's Polychrome Ware • St. Johns Polychrome Ware • Steatite • Tinkler • Tularosa Black-on-Whiteware • Turquoise • Walnut A Black-on-Whiteware • Walnut B Black-on-Whiteware • White Mountain Redware • White-on-Redware • Whiteware • Wingate Black-on-Redware • Wood Show More

Site Name
AR-03-12-06-1027 • AR-03-12-06-26 • AR-03-12-06-27 • AR-03-12-06-28 • AZ C:5:10 (GP) • AZ C:5:11 (GP) • AZ C:5:12 (GP) • AZ C:5:2 (GP) • AZ C:5:3 (GP) • AZ C:5:4 (GP) • AZ C:5:5 (GP) • AZ C:5:6 (GP) • AZ C:5:7 (GP) • AZ C:5:8 (GP) • AZ C:5:9 (GP) • AZ V:5:1(ASM) • AZ V:5:100 (ASM) • AZ V:5:101 (ASM) • AZ V:5:103 (ASM) • AZ V:5:104 (ASM) • AZ V:5:105 (ASM) • AZ V:5:106 (ASM) • AZ V:5:107 (ASM) • AZ V:5:110 (ASM) • AZ V:5:122 (ASM) • AZ V:5:123 (ASM) • AZ V:5:176 (ASM) • AZ V:5:177 (ASM) • AZ V:5:178 (ASM) • AZ V:5:189 (ASM) • AZ V:5:2 (ASU) • AZ V:5:3 (ASU) • AZ V:5:4 (ASM) • AZ V:5:90 (ASM) • AZ V:5:91 (ASM) • AZ V:5:92 (ASM) • AZ V:5:93 (ASM) • AZ V:5:94 (ASM) • AZ V:5:95 (ASM) • AZ V:5:96 (ASM) • AZ V:5:97 (ASM) • AZ V:5:98 (ASM) • AZ V:5:99 (ASM) • Eagle Ridge • Griffin Wash • Hedge Apple • Las Manos • Meddler Complex • Meddler Point • Porcupine • Pyramid Point Show More

Site Type
Adobe Compound • Adobe Pitroom • Adobe Structure • Adobe Wall • Agricultural or Herding • Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Ash Pit • Bell • Bell Pit • Bell-Shaped Pit • Bi-Lobed Pit • Bone (Human) • Burial • Cache • Campfire Ring • Cemetery • Cobble Wall • Compound • Copper Bell • Courtyard • Cremation • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Farming Village • Farmstead • Fieldhouse • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Granary Pedestal • Hamlet • Hamlet / Village • Hearth • Infant Inhumation • Inhumation • Juniper Post • Lithic Concentration • Mano Cache • Masonry Compound • Masonry Pitroom • Masonry Room • Masonry Roomblock • Masonry Structure • Masonry Wall • Midden • Mound Borrow Pit • Mound Cell • Non-Domestic Structures • Oval Structure • Pit • Pit House • Pit House / Earth Lodge • Pitroom • Platform Mound • Platform Mound Cell • Plaza • Post • Post Hole • Post Hole / Post Mold • Puddling Pit • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Roasting Area • Roasting Pit • Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno • Rock Alignment • Rock Cluster • Rock Concentration • Room • Roomblock • Room Block / Compound / Pueblo • Sandstone Room • Sandstone Roomblock • Settlements • Sherd Cluster • Sherd Scatter • Slab-Lined Pit • Structure • Trash Concentration • Trash Midden • Trash Mound • Village • Wall Show More

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation

General
3 / 4 Grooved Axe • Abrader • Antler • Antler (Deer) • Anvil • Apache Tear • Archaeomagnetic Dating • Argillite Pendant • Axe • Axe Blank • Basalt Pestle • Bead • Beam • Bone (Animal) • Bowl • Bracelet • Bundle of Grass • Bundle of Reeds • Burned Fiber • CAWCS • Central Arizona Water Control Study • Charcoal • Chopper • Core • Corrugated Redware • Corrugated Ware • Debitage • Dog Pendant • Duck Effigy Pot • Effigy Pot • Glycymeris Bracelet • Grooved Axe • Gypsum Slab • Handstone • Harold Gladwin • Inverted Metate • Jewelry • John Hughes • Knife • Lapstone • Lithic tool • Lyndon Hargrave • Mano • Maul • McDonald Corrugated Ware • Metate • Morris • Netherstone • Painted Laevicardium • Painted Shell • Palette • Pendant • Pestle • Pigment • Polishing Stone • Pot • Projectile Point • Quartz Crystal • RCD • Redware Bowl • Roosevelt Community Development Study • Salado Corrugated Redware • Sally Van Valkenburgh • Schist Palette • Shell Bead • Shell Bracelet • Shell Pendant • Sherd Disc • Sherd Disk • Slab • Steatite Pendant • Tabular Knife • Tool • Tree Ring Dating • Turquoise Bead • Turquoise Pendant • Turquoise Piece • Vessel • Worked Animal Bone • Worked Shell • Worked Steate • Worked Turquoise Show More

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) • Lower Tonto Basin • Salt River • Salt River Floodplain • Tonto Basin • Tonto National Forest

Temporal Keywords
Ash Creek Phase • Classic Period • Colonial Period • Early Ceramic • Early Classic Period • Gila Butte Phase • Miami Phase • Roosevelt Phase • Sacaton Phase • Santa Cruz Phase • Sedentary Period

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 100 to 1350 (Apparent date range of project area sites.)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.015; min lat: 33.625 ; max long: -110.949; max lat: 33.673 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

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

Contributor(s): Geo-Map, Inc.; Jeffrey L. Eighmy; Michael Lindeman; Brenda G. Randolpf; Gerald Dawavendewa

Landowner(s): U. S. Forest Service

Repository(s): Center for Archaeology and Society, Arizona State University

Record Identifiers

Project Name(s): Roosevelt Community Development Study

Contract No.(s): 1-CS-32-01220

Notes

Redaction Note: In the public version of the report: Figure P.1 has been redacted due to the level of detail it contains about site locations. Detailed site features in Figures 7.18, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1 and 9.41 have been retained, but geographical information has been redacted.

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
CCRS-1994-006-Roos-Comm-Devel-Study-No-13-V2-Meddler-Point-Pyr... 13.63mb May 13, 2016 9:58:36 AM Confidential
This file is unredacted.
CCRS-1994-006-Roos-Comm-Devel-Study-No-13-V2-Meddler-Point-Pyr... 14.14mb Jul 13, 2017 2:39:27 PM Public
In the public version of the report: Figure P.1 has been redacted due to the level of detail it contains about site locations. Detailed site features in Figures 7.18, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1 and 9.41 have been retained, but geographical information has been redacted.

Accessing Restricted Files

At least one of the files for this resource is restricted from public view. For more information regarding access to these files, please reference the contact information below

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

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