A GIS-Approach to a Prehistoric Travel Corridor in the Phoenix Area

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster presents the preliminary results of a GIS-based approach for the documentation and interpretation of a prehistoric Hohokam travel corridor in the South Mountains of Phoenix, Arizona. Trails, their associated features and co-occurrences of artifacts, when combined with settlement data, provide important clues about intercommunity relationships and communications. Trails connect areas that have different resources and identify routes between task-specific sites and base camps or villages. Mapping and analysis of trail segments and artifacts found in association with trail systems is necessary in order to evaluate processes related to mobility, resource acquisition (both spiritual and physical) and communication. The GIS-based study investigated site AZ T:12:207(ASM), an approximately one-mile section of a prehistoric trail system through the South Mountains connecting prehistoric settlements of the Gila and Salt River Basins. The research explores artifact distribution, feature distribution, points of origin, and destinations of this prehistoric trail system. Additionally, geospatial data from this site, along with associated artifacts and features, are integrated into the larger prehistoric and historic cultural landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26316