The Tanque Verde Wash Site Revisited: Archaeological Excavations in the Northwest Locus

Summary

The Tanque Verde W ash site, AZ BB:13:68 (ASM), is a small agricultural village located in the eastern Tucson Basin, approximately 25 km east of the large riverine settlements along the Santa Cruz River. The northwest locus of the site was investigated during the current project for the City of Tucson prior to residential development, complementing previous investigations in the southeast locus. Including all work at the site, 57 pithouses have now been sampled or completely excavated, in addition to 43 mortuary features and hundreds of extramural pits. Occupation of the site probably began during the Rillito phase (A.D. 850-950) and continued into the transitional Late Rincon/Tanque Verde phase (A.D. 1100-1200). The most intensive occupation was during the Middle Rincon phase (A.D. 1000¬ 1100), particularly during the Middle Rincon 2 (A.D. 1040-1080) and Middle Rincon 3 (A.D. 1080-1100) subphases

Archaeological investigations focused on the courtyard group or household, the basic economic and social unit of Hohokam settlement. Occupation of the site grew from one or two households during the Rillito/Early Rincon phase, to five households during the Middle Rincon 2 and 3. The site was largely depopulated by the Late Rincon phase, which contained two households, while only a single household was occupied during the final Late Rincon/Tanque Verde phase. Household estimates are the minimum number, because one-third to one-half of the site area has not been systematically investigated, although limited testing has shown that additional Middle Rincon structures are present. The Tanque Verde Wash site data strongly suggest that settlement and subsistence systems seen in the more intensively studied Santa Cruz River area also occurred in the eastern Tucson Basin, where Middle Rincon settlement consisted of dispersed "rancheria" sites that aggregated into fewer, but larger, sites during the Classic period. The apparent depopulation of the site sometime in the Late Rincon phase also suggests it was during this time that aggregation began.

The inhabitants of the Tanque Verde Wash site made very few artifacts, consisting primarily of expedient flaked and ground stone tools. The lack of pottery-production tools suggests that even ceramics compatible with the "local" petrofacies were not made at the site itself. Tanque Verde Wash households were therefore not craft producers, but rather, were craft consumers, importing most of their pottery, shell jewelry, and ground stone tools. Petrographic data indicate the source for most of the decorated and approximately 40 percent of the plain ware ceramics was the Beehive Petrofacies along the Santa Cruz River, where large pottery-producing sites have been documented. Goods exchanged by the Tanque Verde Wash site inhabitants for these artifacts likely included higher elevation resources, above 4,000 ft, easily accessible in the nearby Santa Catalina and Rincon mountains. These resources included agave, acorns, and pieces of micaceous schist. Micaceous schist, found only in these mountains, was a highly desirable ceramic temper, and has been recovered in significant quantities from pottery-producing sites along the Santa Cruz River, where it is intrusive. The Tanque Verde Wash site inhabitants may have also engaged in limited craft specialization, specifically in the manufacture of mica ornaments.

The Tanque Verde Wash data strongly suggest each household functioned in a relatively independent manner. This is based on differences in food resources and ceramics among contemporaneous households, including those in close proximity to each other. This further suggests that each household may have had specific trade-partner ties with households at other sites, possibly based on kinship. Craft specialization in mica ornament production was also household specific, involving two or three of the five Middle Rincon households. Significantly, ethnobotanical and artifact data also suggest the Middle Rincon households in the southeast locus were wealthier, or better off, than contemporaneous households in the northwest locus, raising the possibility that status-based ranking or social stratifaction was present in Tucson Basin Hohokam society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Desert Archaeology, Inc.

Contributor(s): Jenny L. Adams; Patricia Cook; Michael W. Diehl; Mark D. Elson; James M. Heidke; Gary Huckleberry; Carlos P. Lavayen; Ann Magennis; John McClelland; Stacy L. Ryan; Arthur W. Vokes; Jennifer A. Waters

Submitted To(s): City of Tucson; Oasis Tucson, Inc.

Record Identifiers

Permit No.(s): 2005-132ps

Case No.(s): 06-52

Case No. (s): 05-67

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