Demarcating Spheres of Interaction in the Uplands of Central Arizona with Electron Microprobe Analyses of Phyllite-Tempered Pottery

Summary

Various conflicting ideas pervade debate about how 13th century occupation was organized in the upland zone of central Arizona, which overlooks the Phoenix Basin to the south. Some researchers characterize the upland settlements as subservient and peripheral to the densely packed irrigation-based Hohokam communities along the Salt River. Others, instead, describe the upland populations as independent communities with rich histories of their own. Still others speculate about the extent to which different parts of the region were connected. As a contribution to this debate, we have used electron microprobe assays of phyllite-tempered ceramics to trace the movement of pots across the uplands and thereby demarcate networks of interaction among neighboring settlements. Several pertinent results have emerged. First, two disconnected spheres of interaction divided the upland region. One sphere included close connections with the Hohokam to the south; the other did not. One sphere engaged the populations on Perry Mesa to the north; the other did not. Second, Hohokam farmers probably imported seasonal agricultural labor from one part of the upland zone. Third, an integrated community along Cave Creek shared the same pottery until the area became an abandoned frontier, where unaffiliated farmsteads moved in without exchanging pottery with one another.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20129