Carrying on the Tradition: University of Arizona Fieldschool Excavations at University Indian Ruin

Summary

Recent fieldschool excavations at University Indian Ruin, under the direction of Drs. Paul and Suzanne Fish, have uncovered a wealth of new data. University Indian Ruin is a large Classic period Hohokam village situated in the eastern Tucson Basin. The site likely contains hundreds of adobe rooms and at least two platform mounds, a form of monumental architecture built by or for elites. In the late 1930s, such archaeological luminaries as Byron Cummings and Emil Haury investigated the site and trained archaeology students. The most intensive investigations occurred in 1940, when Julian Hayden and a crew of CCC workers excavated a room-block and the primary platform mound. After a hiatus of 70 years, the Fish’s, joined by field school students and members of the local CRM community, reinvestigated the site for four field seasons between 2010 and 2013. This work resulted in intensive mapping and surface collection of the site, the testing of a second platform mound and a large borrow pit, and the excavation of several rooms, two of which were in the platform mound precinct and contained evidence for ritual closure. This paper summarizes our work and presents new data on the occupation of this highly important site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Regional to International Collaborations in American Archaeology: The Legacy of Suzanne Fish and Paul Fish

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15411