Relocating the Platform Mound at La Plaza: Recent Archaeological Investigations on Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus

Summary

Recent archaeological and historical investigations at the Hohokam site of La Plaza revealed robust evidence that a Classic period platform mound once stood in the north part of Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. Maps from the late 1800s and early 1900s documented three Hohokam platform mounds within La Plaza. However, these mounds were leveled by the early to mid-1900s, and archaeologists today can only approximate their locations based on old maps of dubious accuracy. An earlier archaeological investigation showed tentative evidence for a platform mound in the north-campus location, and our more recent investigation corroborates and refines that finding. In this paper, we present multiple lines of evidence for the platform mound: a comparison of ancillary features from known platform mound contexts; examination of historical photographs; and a reconstruction of the ancient surface grade. Analysis of ancillary features beneath and adjacent to the inferred mound footprint provides new insights concerning the organization of public space in La Plaza and, more broadly, the mobilization of labor for communal construction projects in Hohokam society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17096