Roasting Pit Mounds of the Verde Valley, Central Arizona: New Implications for Yavapai/Apache Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations in the Verde Valley of central Arizona have documented the use of roasting pits for food processing from Archaic to modern times. The most obvious evidence for this can be seen in the large mounds of burned earth and fire-cracked rocks that dot the Valley. Over 90 such mounds have been recorded, but only a few have been excavated. These large mounds are attributed to the Yavapai and Apache, primarily for the processing of agave, and indicate a different technology and associated social behavior than that of the Valley’s earlier inhabitants, the Sinagua. Sinagua roasting pits are much smaller, and indicate limited use by a small number of people. Yavapai /Apache roasting pits are much larger and represent industrial-size processing by larger social groups over much longer time spans. C-14 dates from recent excavations challenge current interpretations of when the Yavapai/Apache are recognized in the Valley and their relationship with the Sinagua. This paper will summarize the results of these excavations and implications for understanding the late prehistoric period in the Verde Valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25138