Platform Mound Communities along the Middle Gila River

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Why Platform Mounds? Part 2: Regional Comparisons and Tribal Histories" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Extensive archaeological evidence shows that major shifts in settlement patterns occurred over time within the Phoenix Basin, and it appears that population densities along the lower Salt and middle Gila Rivers fluctuated through time, such that periods of high density along one stream correspond with concurrent episodes of low density along the other river. When Platform Mound communities were at their height during the late Classic period, population density appears to have been comparatively low along the middle Gila, with only 12 Platform Mounds at 11 sites compared with 52 Mounds at 31 sites along the lower Salt. In contrast, much larger settlement areas such as Snaketown were present in the same area during the Preclassic period, and data show that during the Classic period many people moved either upstream to the Casa Grande area, or north to the lower Salt River and the Tonto Basin. The middle Gila and lower Salt Rivers have divergent stream flow regimes, which appears to at least partially account for the differences observed in settlement patterns, including the scale of the Platform Mound communities along the two rivers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Why Platform Mounds? Part 2: Regional Comparisons and Tribal Histories

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23235