Results of Cultural Resource Monitoring for the City of Phoenix Southern Avenue Storm Drain Project, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona

Summary

At the request of Ms. Homaira Parveen and Mr. Ed Checkley of the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department and under Environmental and Safety Regulatory Consulting On-Call Contract #124947, Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd (ACS) conducted archaeological monitoring of the installation of a storm drain, catchment basins, paving, sidewalks, busbays, and other roadway improvements along Southern Avenue. In the Archaeological Assessment reports prepared by the City Archaeology Office for this project, which were dated March 3, 2008, it was noted that the project corridor crosses Lombeye Ruin, AZ T:12:15(PG)/T:12:109(ASM), a prehistoric habitation with human remains, as well as the projected locations of several prehistoric canals. The City Archaeology Office recommended monitoring ground disturbance within the site as well as areas of disturbance within 250 ft of the site and within 50 ft of the projected canal crossings (Serocki 2008a, 2008b). An exception to that recommended coverage is for the portion of the project corridor, which crosses another portion of Lombeye Ruin. Past work along that segment of Southern Avenue had failed to yield undisturbed contexts or intact archaeological remains (Lindly and Mitchell 2004). Therefore, the City of Phoenix Archaeology Office determined that no archaeological monitoring would be needed for construction along that portion of the project corridor.

ACS’ archaeological monitoring of the City of Phoenix’s storm drain excavation identified no cultural resources. Isolated artifacts within disturbed contexts were observed during monitoring, although no artifacts were associated with intact deposits. Projected canal alignments and the Lombeye Ruin site boundary could not be confirmed based on observations during monitoring. Unfortunately, the level of disturbance documented by monitoring combined with the depth of the trenches dug for the storm drain—trenches were too deep to be safely entered for cleaning and inspection under OSHA standards— precluded confirmation of the canal alignments or the site boundary. The presence of artifacts mixed with modern trash suggests that intact, upper level subsurface deposits may have been present at one time but have become displaced as a result of modern construction activities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): City of Phoenix Archaeology Office

Contributor(s): Victoria Vargas; Randy Carlton; Lisa Champagne; Emily Higgins; Thomas Jones; Linda Schilling; Joanne Tactikos; Michael Droz

Prepared By(s): Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd.

Submitted To(s): City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department

Record Identifiers

Safety Regulatory Consulting On-Call Contract(s): 124947

PGM Project No.(s): 2008-23

City of Phoenix Project No.(s): ST83110065; ST85100171

PGM Project No(s): 2008-21

ASM Project Specific Permit No.(s): 2009-108ps

ASM Accession No.(s): 2009-446

ACS Project No. (s): 09-105-08

File Information