Tonto Creek Archaeological Project: Life and Death Along Tonto Creek

Editor(s): Jeffery J. Clark; Penny Dufoe Minturn

Year: 2001

Summary

The Tonto Creek Archaeological Project (TCAP) area was located in the Tonto Basin of east-central Arizona. The project, funded by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), was undertaken by Desert Archaeology, Inc., in advance of the 1994-1996 realignment of Arizona State Route (SR) 188. The area available for investigation was a 61-m- (200-ft-) wide corridor, centered on the planned route for the realigned highway. This corridor, on Tonto National Forest land, followed a 13.3-km (8-mi) stretch of the western terrace overlooking Tonto Creek.

From 1992 to 1996, portions of 27 archaeological sites were investigated in the project area. To coordinate archaeological investigation with the construction timetable, the TCAP area was divided into three sections (south-to-north): Sycamore Creek, Punkin Center, and Slate Creek. The Punkin Center section contained most of the sites, and over 80 percent of the field effort was expended in this section. Site components ranged in date from the Middle Archaic period to the Late Historic era. The majority dated to the Colonial, Sedentary, and early Classic periods, circa A.D. 750-1325. A total of 108 structures and 315 burials were excavated, in addition to numerous other cultural features. The architectural sample included pre-Classic period pit structures, as well as early Classic period pitrooms and surface masonry rooms. Early Classic inhumations accounted for nearly 90 percent of the excavated mortuary features. Other mortuary features included 21 Colonial period cremations and 13 pre-Classic inhumations. Eight sites in the Punkin Center section yielded the vast majority of burial features.Only two of the 315 burials were encountered outside of the Punkin Center section.

A large assemblage of mortuary offerings was recovered from TCAP burials. Nearly 1,150 whole and reconstructible ceramic vessels, 37,500 pieces of shell and ground stone jewelry, and 187 projectile points were recovered from mortuary contexts. Additionally, painted wooden objects, three clay-lined and painted baskets, and several ground stone tools were collected. This collection was thoroughly documented prior to its repatriation to the Salt River-Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in 2000.

This volume contains the descriptions of mortuary features from the project area and many of the analyses related to the mortuary assemblage.

Cite this Record

Tonto Creek Archaeological Project: Life and Death Along Tonto Creek. Jeffery J. Clark, Penny Dufoe Minturn. Anthropological Papers ,24. Tucson, AZ: Center for Desert Archaeology. 2001 ( tDAR id: 427880) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8427880

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Archaic • Middle Archaic

Material
Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Fauna • Ground Stone • Human Remains • Pendants • Shell • Wood

Site Name
AZ U:3:224 (ASM) • AZ U:3:277 (ASM) • AZ U:3:289 (ASM) • AZ U:3:294 (ASM) • AZ U:3:297 (ASM) • AZ U:3:298 (ASM) • AZ U:3:299 (ASM) • AZ U:3:5 (ASM) • AZ U:300 (ASM) • Cerro Flojo • Granary Row • Heron Hatch • Hodgepodge Ridge • Las Tortugas • Los Hermanos • Prickly Saguaro • TNF AR-03-12-06-126 • TNF AR-03-12-06-1362 • TNF AR-03-12-06-1365 • TNF AR-03-12-06-1368 • TNF AR-03-12-06-199 • TNF AR-03-12-06-203 • TNF AR-03-12-06-2064 • TNF AR-03-12-06-2283 • TNF AR-03-12-06-332 • Tres Huerfanos • Vista del Puerto Show More

Site Type
Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Burial Pit • Cremation Burial • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Inhumation burial • Pit

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Data Recovery / Excavation • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Mortuary Assemblages

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) • Tonto Basin

Temporal Keywords
Colonial Period • Early Classic Period • Late Historic period • Middle Archaic Period • Pre-classic period • Sedentary Period

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.679; min lat: 33.532 ; max long: -111.135; max lat: 34.275 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Contributor(s): Matthew Crawford; Alan Ferg; Susan D. Hall; Lorrie Lincoln-Babb; Penny Dufoe Minturn; Nancy Odegaard; J. Homer Thiel; Arthur W. Vokes

Project Director(s): Jeffery J. Clark; Bruce Huckell

Prepared By(s): Center for Desert Archaeology

Submitted To(s): Arizona Department of Transportation Environmental Planning Services

Record Identifiers

Anthropological Papers No.(s): 24

SRP Library Barcode No.(s): 00090601

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
2001_ClarkMinturn_TontoCreek_OCR_PDFA.pdf 344.66mb Dec 1, 2001 Mar 22, 2017 3:21:40 PM Confidential
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Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager