Archaeological Studies, Salt River Project, Coronado Station, State, Federal, and Private Lands, East Central Arizona: Research Design for Archaeological Investigations at the Coronado Generating Station, Draft Review Copy

Summary

The Coronado Station Archaeological Project is studying the variation in prehistoric economy and economic structure over space and through time. The station — a 1050 megawatt, coal-fired electric generating plant presently under construction for Salt River Project — dominates the horizon northeast of St. Johns, Arizona. - Corridors for transmission lines, water pipe lines, and a railroad spur radiate north and west from the main plant site, crossing in their passage most of the environmental zones that make up the southern part of the Colorado Plateau. In their path are numerous archaeological sites, the remains of almost 10,000 years of human tenancy in east central Arizona. From the shadowy remnants of late Pleistocene hunters, through the long tenure of Archaic foragers, to the eventual rise, flourescence, and decline of later agriculturists, the sites of the Coronado Project are a record of economic change, of man's adaptation to and accommodation with his natural environment. Thus, at the heart of the project are questions of economy and social interaction, subjects delicately intertwined in the human adaptation. On the one hand, we would like to examine the patterns of aboriginal land use, our presumption being that the pattern of location and activity reflect conscious, economic decisions whose goal is to maximize the use of resources for the satisfaction of men's needs. On the other hand, we wish to analyze the distribution of key artifact relationships, assuming them to represent networks of socialization and communication whose main purpose was adaptation and survival. In working towards a solution to our major research aims, we shall give careful consideration to study of normative factors, the regularities of form that serve as information media for adaptive response and community integration. The attempt is less to identify norms and predict their relationships than to measure their variability, for in doing so, units of social structure are delineated.

This is a draft review copy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Salt River Project Digital Library

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Contributor(s): William S. Marmaduke; Donald E. Weaver, Jr.; Alexander J. Lindsay, Jr.

Sponsor(s): Salt River Project

Prepared By(s): Museum of Northern Arizona, Department of Anthropology

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