Peoples of the Tall Pines: Precontact Architecture and Settlement Patterns in the Sierra Ancha, Central Arizona

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Research by PaleoWest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Sierra Ancha (Spanish for “wide mountain”) of central Arizona boasts some of the richest human history in the greater Southwest, yet its archaeology remains understudied and poorly understood. The region lies within or between the boundaries of the Hohokam, Salado, Ancestral Pueblo, and Mogollon culture areas, and most of the interpretations of Sierra Ancha culture history are based on more thorough understanding of the surrounding regions. PaleoWest recently conducted approximately 8,000 acres of cultural resource inventory in the heart of the Sierra Ancha for fuels reduction projects on behalf of the Tonto National Forest. The results suggest that the region experienced a population surge during the Early to Late Classic or Pueblo III/IV transitional period, a time in which the nearby Colorado Plateau was all but entirely depopulated.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Archaeological Research by PaleoWest   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36860.0