Archaeological Data Recovery in the Maricopa County Department of Transportation of the Right-of-Way within AZ T:11:106 (ASM), the Morocco Ruin, in Goodyear, Maricopa County, Arizona

Summary

This document presents the results of archaeological data recovery completed by SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) in the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) right-of-way (ROW) in Goodyear, Maricopa County, Arizona. The area investigated lies within the boundary of AZ T:11:106 (ASM), a large prehistoric primary village site known as the Morocco Ruin. The area is the site of a proposed residential development, and in order to accommodate that and the development of a nearby subdivision, MCDOT is widening and paving. Previous archaeological testing at AZ T:T1:T06 (ASM) had resulted in the identification of several archaeological features within the realigned and widened Cotton Lane ROW (Lindly 2005).

The Morocco Ruin has been examined to varying degrees many times since the 1920s. This site appears to have been a primary Classic period village, although a pre-Classic period component is also suspected. When the site was first documented in the late 1920s and 1930s, numerous habitation mounds, trash mounds, burial areas, and a prehistoric canal segment were noted. Surface evidence of features at the site has been obscured by decades of agricultural activity. More recent work at the site, primarily on the fringes of areas that were mapped as containing substantial archaeological remains in the early 1900s, has identified additional canal segments and probable thermal features. Burials have been reported from the Morocco Ruin and additional burials were discovered during testing by SWCA.

The aforementioned testing phase of the project area identified two prehistoric pit houses, six pits, one rock feature, and 10 burials (Lindly 2005). The 10 burials were excavated and the area around them mechanically stripped, exposing nine additional burials (Mitchell 2006). Thus, the plan and work reported herein was to excavate the two pit houses and pits identified in testing and to conduct additional testing in previously untested portions (Foster, Mitchell, and North 2005).

The 2005 testing project resulted in the identification of five features: Features 4 and 10 were pit houses and Features 2, 12, and 13 were pits. Because of irrigation-related flooding at the end of the previous testing project, Features 2 and 4 were in very poor condition when exposed and Features 12 and 13 could not be re-identified. Additional exploratory testing (backhoe trenching) in previously untested portions of the ROW along the east edge in the front yard of two farmhouses and in the driveway and utility area just south of the farmhouses was also undertaken. This resulted in the identification of three additional features, Features 20-22. Feature 20 was the remnant of a small pit of undetermined function and Feature 21 was the inhumation of a preadolescent child. The partial remains of a third pit house, Feature 22, were identified immediately east of Feature 10 during the investigation of Feature 10.

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): Andrew D. Lack; India S. Hesse; Karla Hansen-Speer; M. Steven Shackley; Joshua S. Edwards

Landowner(s): Maricopa County Department of Transportation

Repository(s): Arizona State Museum

Prepared By(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Submitted To(s): SD Construction

Record Identifiers

SWCA Project No. (s): 9208-019

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