Recent Work at the Pueblo del Alamo: Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Lower Salt River Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since 2015, WestLand Resources has excavated sites along the proposed South Mountain Freeway, Loop 202 extension in Phoenix, Arizona, for the Arizona Department of Transportation. The freeway corridor lies in the western, lower Salt River Valley near the confluence with the Gila River, within what is traditionally defined as the Hohokam core. It includes a portion of Pueblo del Alamo, a major Hohokam settlement occupied from the Pioneer to the Classic periods (~A.D.600-1450). I discuss two attributes of the ceramic assemblage identified during the initial analysis, and the implications of these findings regarding local exchange networks and demographics. First, the Colonial period assemblage contains red-on-brown variants of the Hohokam Middle Gila Buff Wares, that were likely produced in the lower Salt River Valley. These differ in composition, style, and distribution from the Middle Gila Buff Wares and should constitute a separate series. I also discuss increased diversity in utility wares during the Sedentary period, including unnamed types with technological qualities similar to the Patayan ceramic tradition. The appearance of these utility wares at Pueblo del Alamo and neighboring sites presents further evidence of interaction or co-residence between Hohokam villagers and nomadic Patayan populations during the Sedentary period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24768