Building a Village: Excavations at La Villa

Editor(s): Michael W. Lindeman

Year: 2016

Summary

The Hohokam village was one of the largest pre-Classic settlements in the Phoenix Basin. The recorded site boundary covers more than 80 acres, extending from the edge of the Salt River floodplain northward. Founded during the Vahki phase (A.D. 500-650), when settlement aggregated around two large plazas, the village thrived until the Santa Cruz phase (A.D. 850950), when people began to leave the village, possibly settling in villages further down the canal system. Final abandonment occurred during the eleventh century A.D., although by that time, La Villa was greatly reduced in scale and, presumably, in importance. The project detailed in this volume is the second conducted by Desert Archaeology, Inc., at La Villa (Lindeman, ed. 2015).

The current archaeological excavations preceded installation of a storm drain, which was part of the larger Downtown Storm Drain Improvements project. The City of Phoenix Jefferson Phase 2 Drainage project entailed installation of 36- and 30-inch diameter storm drains and associated manholes, catch basins, and pipe connections along Jackson Street in downtown Phoenix. In all, 248 features were identified, including 74 pithouses, 144 extramural features, 29 mortuary features, and 1 plaza. The central precincts of major Hohokam villages have only been rarely investigated during the modern era. Uncovering the Eastern Plaza at La Villa represents the first investigation of a plaza along Canal System 2. The large linear transects that structured the project provided a unique sample across a relatively large, albeit narrow, swath of the site, allowing for sampling of contexts from the center of the village to the edges. What was uncovered under the streets of modern Phoenix was incredibly well preserved, providing a robust base for the analyses presented in the following pages.

Cite this Record

Building a Village: Excavations at La Villa. Michael W. Lindeman. 2016 ( tDAR id: 446120) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8446120

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Keywords

Culture
Hohokam • Huhugam

Material
Ash • Caliche • Ceramic • Charcoal • Chipped Stone • Cobble • Fauna • Fire Cracked Rock • Ground Stone • Human Remains • Lapstone • Mano • Pestle • Plainware • Pollen • Shell

Site Name
AZ T:12:148 (ASM) • La Villa

Site Type
Agricultural or Herding • Archaeological Feature • Ash Pit • Burial Pit • Canal or Canal Feature • Domestic Structures • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Hearth • Pit • Pit House / Earth Lodge • Plaza • Post Hole / Post Mold • Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno • Storage Pit

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Data Recovery / Excavation • Ground Disturbance Monitoring • Historic Background Research • Research Design / Data Recovery Plan • Site Stewardship Monitoring

General
Ceramic Analysis • Flaked Stone Analysis • Ground Stone Analysis • Petrographic Analysis • Temper Analysis

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) • Maricopa (County) • Phoenix, AZ • Phoenix Basin • Phoenix Mountains • Salt River • Sonoran Desert

Temporal Keywords
Classic Period • Colonial Period • Estrella Phase • Gila Butte Phase • Pioneer Period • Sacaton Phase • Santa Cruz Phase • Sedentary Period • Snaketown Phase • Sweetwater Phase • Vahki Phase

Spatial Coverage

min long: -112.096; min lat: 33.428 ; max long: -112.032; max lat: 33.462 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): City of Phoenix Archaeology Office

Contributor(s): Jenny L. Adams; Leslie Aragon; Lorrie Lincoln-Babb; Connie A. Darby; Michael W. Diehl; T. Michael Fink; James M. Heidke; Michael W. Lindeman; Mary F. Ownby; Stacy L. Ryan; R.Jane Sliva; Christine H. Virden-Lange; Jennifer A. Waters

Principal Investigator(s): Kathy Henderson

Prepared By(s): Desert Archaeology, Inc.

Submitted To(s): City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department; Flood Control District of Maricopa County

Record Identifiers

Technical Report No.(s): 2014-07

Arizona Antiquities Act Project Specific Permit No.(s): 2013-104ps

City of Phoenix Project No.(s): ST83130316

Anthropological Paper No.(s): 22

Project No.(s): DAI 12-121C

Pueblo Grande Museum Project No.(s): PGM 2013-12

Burial Agreement Case No.(s): 2013-036

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
tr2014-07_final_withcover_OCR_PDFA_Redacted.pdf 400.27mb Mar 10, 2021 10:33:51 AM Public
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tr2014-07_final_withcover_OCR_PDFA.pdf 329.30mb Jun 1, 2018 10:50:12 AM Confidential
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Contact(s): City of Phoenix Archaeology Office

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