Tucson Aqueduct Project Phase B

Lynn S. Teague; Jon Czaplicki; John C. Ravesloot; USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

Tucson Aqueduct Project Phase B

Summary

The Tucson Aqueduct Phase B Project represents the first substantial archaeological investigations and excavations to be conducted in the Avra Valley. Prior to the 1983 intensive survey of the Phase B alignment by archaeologists from the Arizona State Museum, archaeological investigation of the Avra Valley had been limited primarily to occasional clearance surveys and test excavations. The identification of 47 prehistoric sites during the 1983 survey (Downum and others 1986) and the investigation of 13 of these sites during the 1986 data recovery project marked the beginning of intensive archaeological studies of the Avra Valley.

Phase B data recovery efforts were based on two broad research objectives. The first focused on themes relevant to the larger objectives of Central Arizona Project research and to other investigations underway in southern Arizona (Teague and Crown 1983-1984; Doelle 1985a, 1985b; Doelle and Wallace 1986; Doelle and others 1985; Rice and others 1984; Dart and others 1985; Rice 1987; Henderson 1987; Dart 1987; CiolekTorrello 1987; Ciolek-Torrello and others 1988). The second objective was to contribute to a better understanding of the pre-Classic periods in the Tucson Basin area, with a major focus on the Rillito phase. This was to be accomplished by compiling a data base that could be used to begin to address questions of chronology, organization, and economy.

Research efforts were geared toward acquiring a broadly defined data base that could be compared with data and interpretations from other studies along Phase A of the Tucson Aqueduct (Weaver and others 1986; Ciolek-Torrello 1987; Rice 1987; Henderson 1987; Ciolek-Torrello and others 1988), from along the Salt-Gila Aqueduct (Teague and Crown 1983- 1984), from ANAMAX-Rosemont (Ferg and others 1984), from the San Xavier Bridge Site (Ravesloot 1987), and from the Hodges Ruin (Kelly 1978; Layhe 1986).

The main data recovery effort was focused on two Rillito phase sites: Fastimes (AZ AA:12:384) and Water World (AZ AA:l6:94). Proportionately less effort was given to two farmstead-field house sites (AZ AA:l6:97 and AA:l6:161), which were believed to have been occupied from the late Colonial period into the Sedentary and early Classic periods, and which offer data on subsistence and settlement patterning. Minimal effort was given to the remaining sites, including one possible protohistoric site (AZ AA:11:26) and eight limited-activity sites (AZ AA:12:383, AA:12:465, AA:12:481, AA:l2:484, AA:l6:95, AA:l6:96, AA:16:157, and AA :16 :175).