A Settlement Pattern Analysis of Yavapai and Apache Archaeological Sites in the Verde Valley Area, Central Arizona

Summary

Ethnohistoric accounts, historic records, and the archaeological record indicate the Yavapai and Northern Tonto Apache lived a mobile lifestyle during Protohistoric time (approximately A.D. 1300 - 1850) across the diverse environment of the Verde Valley area of Central Arizona, just south of the Colorado Plateau. Due to their subtle, portable, perishable, expedient, and reused material traces across the landscape, archaeologists struggle to merely identify protohistoric sites much less distinguish between the Yavapai and Apache with their partially overlapping territories and similar lifestyles. Yet limited site recordation and excavation by archaeologists with a keen eye have revealed that diagnostic archaeological signatures such as rock clearings, rock rings, modified Puebloan masonry, roasting pits, rockshelters, rock art, utilitarian pottery wares, projectile points, and ground stone are present that indicate continuous occupation in the Verde Valley area during the Protohistoric period. Our poster presents the results of a settlement pattern analysis focused on Verde Valley area terrain within the Red Rock Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest. Using the Forest’s archaeological databases and other data sources, we explore the Yavapai and Apache settlement pattern in relation to major drainages, environmental zones, Puebloan archaeological sites, and trails.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22092