Life at the River's Edge: Hohokam Irrigation and Settlement Along the Red Mountain Freeway Between the Price Freeway and McKellips Road

Editor(s): Douglas R. Mitchell; Thomas N. Motsinger

Year: 1998

Summary

Archaeological testing and data recovery were conducted along a segment of the Red Mountain Freeway (Loop 202) corridor between the Price Freeway and McKellips Road, including a realigned segment of Dobson Road in Mesa, Arizona. Conducted under contract to Stanley Consultants, Inc., for the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), the work was done in four phases (testing and data recovery for each of two segments) between October 1994 and April 1996. One site (AZ U:9:6 [ARS]) was found to lie entirely outside of the freeway right-of-way. Although no other sites were visible on the surface of the Holocene floodplain, trenching revealed three sites beneath Salt River flood deposits and within the right-of-way. AZ U:9:135 (ASM) was a repeated-use field house or farmstead site that included four canals, one a probable segment of Canal Muertos. AZ U:9:136 (ASM) was primarily an irrigation site that included three pit features and four canals, including a probable segment of Turney’s (1929) Canal 9. AZ U:9:149 (ASM) was a burned farmstead that included four pit houses, a canal, and three pit features. These sites indicate a change in the use of the Lehi Terrace from irrigation and agriculture during the Pioneer and Colonial periods, to a brief period of limited habitation during the late Sedentary and early Classic periods, followed by an abandonment of habitation sites and a return to irrigation through the Classic period.

Cite this Record

Life at the River's Edge: Hohokam Irrigation and Settlement Along the Red Mountain Freeway Between the Price Freeway and McKellips Road, 23. Douglas R. Mitchell, Thomas N. Motsinger. 1998 ( tDAR id: 427916) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8427916

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Keywords

Culture
Archaic • Hohokam • Late Archaic

Material
Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Fauna • Ground Stone • Macrobotanical • Pollen • Shell

Site Name
AZ 11:9:136 (ASM) • AZ 11:9:149 (ASM) • AZ U:9:135 (ASM) • AZ U:9:6 (ARS)

Site Type
Agricultural or Herding • Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Canal or Canal Feature • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Pit • Pit House / Earth Lodge • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno • Rock Concentration

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Environment Research • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Hohokam Irrigation Systems

Geographic Keywords
Dobson Road • McKellips Road • Mesa, AZ • Red Mountain Freeway

Temporal Keywords
Early Classic Period • Late Archaic • Late Sedentary Period • Pioneer Period • Pre-Classic

Spatial Coverage

min long: -112.306; min lat: 33.421 ; max long: -112.255; max lat: 33.45 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Contributor(s): Regina Chapin-Pyritz; Andrea K. Freeman; Todd Howell; Gary Huckleberry; Jo Anne Miller; Laural Myers; Sharon Urban; Mary-Ellen Walsh-Anduze

Field Director(s): Michael Stubing

Principal Investigator(s): Douglas R. Mitchell

Project Director(s): Thomas N. Motsinger

Prepared By(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Submitted To(s): Stanley Consultants; Arizona Department of Transportation

Record Identifiers

ADOT Project No.(s): STP-600-8-(1)

SWCA Archaeological Report No.(s): 97-23

TRACS No.(s): 202L MA H3329 SS1D

SRP Library Barcode No.(s): 00091018

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
1998_MitchellMotsinger_LifeatRiversEdge_OCR_PDFA_Redacted.pdf 117.80mb Oct 20, 2021 9:04:59 AM Public
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1998_MitchellMotsinger_LifeatRiversEdge_OCR_PDFA.pdf 93.22mb Jan 9, 1998 Mar 24, 2017 12:48:59 PM Confidential
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Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

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