Archaeological Investigations of Early Village Sites in the Middle Santa Cruz Valley: Analyses and Synthesis, Part II

Summary

A series of archaeological investigations were conducted from 1993 to 1995 at four prehistoric sites in the middle Santa Cruz Valley. This fieldwork was part of the Arizona Department of Transportation's archaeological mitigation program of the Interstate 10 Corridor Improvement Project through Tucson, Arizona. The sites included the remains of three early farming settlements--the Santa Cruz Bend (AZ AA:12:746 [ASM]), Square Hearth (AZ AA:12:745 [ASM]), and Stone Pipe (AZ BB:13:425 [ASM]) sites—occupied during various intervals between about 800 B.C. and A.D. 550, and also having later occupations. At the fourth site, the Canal site (AZ BB:13:468 [ASM]), segments of several prehistoric canals constructed between about A.D. 1000 and 1450 and of a canal built in the late nineteenth century were identified.

These sites provide new information about several watershed changes during the prehistory of southwestern North America, including the transitions to agricultural dependence and sedentism; the shifts from houses-in-pits to more substantial pithouses and from round to rectilinear architecture; the first appearances of house groups, storehouses, communal structures, and possibly plazas, formal burial areas, and ditches for water control; the specializations and increased efficiencies of flaked and ground stone tools; the inception of ceramic vessel technology and the first stage of pottery-making as an economic process; the development of shell ornament production and other crafts; the establishment of local and long-distance trade networks; and possibly an indigenous sequence of development of water control technology

This volume includes a description of each site; its main periods of occupation or use; the cultural features that were identified and excavated; and the types, numbers, contexts, and densities of artifacts that were recovered. Also included are maps and photographs of the sites; plans and photographs of excavated features, and dating information based on apparent ages of carbonates, radiocarbon dates, and temporally diagnostic artifacts. Data recovery methods, site stratigraphies and spatial structures, architectural variability, mortuary patterns, and inferred site functions are described as well. Various analyses, comparisons, syntheses, and discussions of significance are presented in Anthropological Papers Number 19, Archaeological Investigations of Early Village Sites in the Middle Santa Cruz Valley: Analyses and Synthesis, edited by Jonathan B. Mabry.

Document includes errata sheet.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Salt River Project Digital Library

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: -800 to 150 (Cienega phase)

Calendar Date: 150 to 550 (Agua Caliente phase)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Contributor(s): Jenny L Adams; WIlliam L. Deaver; Alan Ferg; Suzanne K Fish; James M. Heidke; James P. Holmlund; Bruce B. Huckell; Lisa W. Huckell; Lorrie Lincoln-Babb; Jonathan B. Mabry; Elizabeth Miksa; Penny Dufoe Mintum; Barbara A. Murphy; Ryan Roecker; M. Steven Shackley; R. Jane Sliva; J. Homer Thiel; Charles Tompkins; Peter K. Van de Water; Arthur W. Vokes; Michael K. Wiley; Helga Wöcherl

Prepared By(s): Salt River Project, Tempe, AZ

Submitted To(s): Arizona Department of Transportation; Center for Desert Archaeology

Record Identifiers

Salt River Project Library Barcode No.(s): 00090588

Contract No.(s): 94-46; 90-21

Notes

General Note: Part 2 of 2

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