Archaeological Monitoring at Van Buren Street, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona

Summary

This report presents the results of archaeological monitoring at Van Buren Street. The monitoring was conducted at the request of the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department under an on-call archaeological services contract between the City and SWCA, Inc. (Contract no. 90034) and was assigned project number PGM 2001-42 by the City of Phoenix Archaeology Section. Archaeological monitoring of the project area was requested due to the presence of documented prehistoric canals just south of Van Buren.

The project consists of improving the intersection of Van Buren Street and includes paving, installing a storm drain, as well as re-routing an existing irrigation easement. The Salt River Project plans to exchange an existing USA Irrigation easement for an adjacent property. The open concrete-lined canal was covered and a pipe was placed in the new adjacent easement. Pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) conducted a site file search and field visit of the project area and discovered prehistoric canals located roughly 800 and 1000 feet south of Van Buren Street. Additionally, a field visit by BOR archaeologist Dave Gifford revealed a light, highly disturbed scatter of artifacts, both historic and prehistoric, in and around the project area (Ellis 2001).

Prehistoric and historic artifacts were identified during the monitoring of this project area. Prehistoric artifacts identified included a piece of groundstone, and two basalt flakes. Historic artifacts identified included five white semi-porcelain sherds and one blue slipped semi-porcelain sherd, three whole bottles, and four bottle fragments. No features were observed in the project area and no signs of the canals were observed in the trenches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SWCA DAHA Resources   •
• Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Contributor(s): Bureau of Reclamation

Landowner(s): City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department

Prepared By(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

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

Record Identifiers

SWCA Project No.(s): 5445-129

Cost Center No.(s): ST85100140

City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department Contract No.(s): 90034

City of Phoenix Archaeology Section Project No.(s): PGM 2001-42

File Information