Phoenix Basin Archaeology: Intersections, Pathways Through Time

Summary

The Intersections project is an electronic archive of the archaeological monographs written for archaeological projects conducted at Hohokam sites on Canal System Two and funded by the Federal and Arizona departments of transportation. The searchable electronic archive includes the contents of about 37 separate volumes reporting on the findings of 11 different archaeological projects.

The Intersections project was funded by the Federal Highway Administration through the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Maricopa Association of Governments as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). The project begun in the early spring of 1997 and was completed in 2002; final CDROMs were mastered in 2003. Brenda L. Shears and Glen E. Rice of Arizona State University were the project co-directors and principal investigators, and Mark Danelowitz of the Arizona Department of Transportation administered the project.

An introduction to the project was prepared and is included below to more fully describe how the data and information was collected and by whom. This text also describes the contents in detail.

HISTORY OF THE INTERSECTIONS PROJECT AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Intersections project was funded by the Federal Highway Administration through the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Maricopa Association of overnments as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). The project begun in the early spring of 1997 and was completed in 2002; final CDROMs were mastered in 2003. Brenda L. Shears and Glen E. Rice of Arizona State University were the project co-directors and principal investigators, and Mark Danelowitz of the Arizona Department of Transportation administered the project.

The project had four objectives:

1. Develop an electronic archive of the archaeological monographs written for archaeological projects conducted at Hohokam sites on Canal System Two and funded by the Federal and Arizona Departments of transportation.

2. Develop a visual introduction to provide the general public with an interpretive summary of those archaeological projects.

3. Develop an archaeological overview of Canal System Two to

outline the future research uses of the monographs and integrate some results of the past research.

4. Enhance the curation of the artifacts and field records for the Ciudad collection housed in the Department of Anthropology at Arizona State University.

We wish to thank those involved in our proposal for their support: Peggy Lindauer for creating the visual introduction; Arleyn Simon for supervising the upgrade of the La Cuidad collections; Glena Cain for the concept of using “Intersections” as a play on words to describe the places in both time and space where highways and past cultures connect; Lauren Kuby for her editing (and cooking) contributions, Linda Williams, Debra House, Cheryl Wegner, Barbara Tenney, and Kathy Peterson for administrative assistance; Marvin Silins for sponsored project administration; consultants Keith Kintigh, Michael Barton, and David Abbott for contributions in the areas of electronic publishing, collections/database management, and the synthetic overview; and David Abbott, Cory Breternitz, John Durbin, Carol Griffith, Kathleen Henderson, Martin Sullivan who shared in our original vision and contributed strong letters of support to our proposal.

Making the Electronic Archive.

The electronic archive includes the contents of 37 separate volumes reporting on the findings of 11 different archaeological projects. Ten of the projects were funded through the Arizona Department of Transportation, and the eleventh was conducted by the Pueblo Grande Museum, which received funding from a number of federal, state and city funding sources. The list of projects and the number of associated volumes is as follows:

Casa Buena 2 volumes

El Caserio Project 1 volume

La Ciudad Project 7 volumes

Las Colinas Project 9 volumes

Dutch Canal Ruins Project 1 volume

East Papago Testing Project 1 volume

Grand Canal Ruins Project 2 volumes

La Lomita 1 volume

La Lomita Pequeña 1 volume

Pueblo Grande (ADOT) Project 8 volumes

Pueblo Grande (Museum) Project 2 volumes

Prehistoric Irrigation Project 2 volumes

These volumes were published between 1981 and 1994 and were available only in printed form. The electronic copies were produced by scanning the printed pages of text. Unbound copies of the reports, and frequently the original camera-ready copy used to print the reports, were provided by the institutions and consulting firms that published the reports originally or by the Environmental Section of the Arizona Department of Transportation. We especially want to acknowledge and thanks: Cory Breternitz, Soil Systems Inc.; Lynn Teague, Arizona State Museum; Todd Bostwick, Pueblo Grande Museum, City of Phoenix; Bettina Rosenberg, Arizona Department of Transportation, and David Wilcox, Museum of Northern Arizona, and the Department of Anthropology at ASU. This project would not have been possible without their important cooperation and facilitation. Brenda Shears oversaw the conversion of the publications into searchable digital files.

The monumental task of scanning about 15,000 pages, establishing links within each document to make them usable in electronic form, and compiling the files was conducted over a period of two years by Harue Yoshida. Chino Uchida verified the electronic links within each volumep. The scanning of the La Lomita volume was done by Sanaja Peringathara and Elizabeth Somers of the Center for Environmental Studies at ASU, and Ryan Peterson of OCRM/ASU. Barbara Tenney, Kimberly Peterson and Sanaja Peringathara compiled the master and topical bibliographies; final review and editing was done by Brenda Shears and Glen Rice. Oversize maps were scanned through the courtesy of the Life Sciences Visualization Lab.

The making of Intersections: A Visual Introduction to the Hohokam Communities of Canal System Two.

The goal of the visual introduction of the communities of Canal System Two was to use photographs, drawings and maps to illustrate the remarkable ways in which the modern occupation of the Phoenix basin parallels that of the prehistoric Hohokam. In the 19th century, Angloamerican settlers established their first agricultural fields and irrigated them simply by cleaning out and reusing the prehistoric Hohokam canals. An extensive set of modern canals had been constructed throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area by the early part of the 20th century. Geology and topography constrain these modern canals to closely follow the courses of canals built 1000 years earlier, and the modern town of Phoenix was constructed over the earlier Hohokam settlements.

The visual introduction was developed and written by Peggy Lindauer. It was produced by Arizona State University through the Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, and the Instruction Support Lab. Brenda Shears and Glen Rice helped identify primary written sources and acted as sounding boards during the development of the script. Candice Collins at Instruction Support, Information Technology, at Arizona State University oversaw the design. Other creative and production aspects were contributed by Risa Gepner (multimedia development), Guadalupe Cantu (graphics), Diane Mathus (graphic support), David A. Montour (music). Photographs and illustrations were provided by Salt River Poject History Services, Pueblo Grande Museum, City of Phoenix, Arizona Department of Transportation, Bettina Rosenberg, and Owen Lindauer.

Upgrading the Ciudad Collections.

In 1982 an archaeological team from the Office of Cultural Resource Management at Arizona State University excavated the northern part of the Ciudad archaeological site, and published the results in 1987 in a series of 7 volumes. The field notes and artifact collections for that project are housed in the Department of Anthropology at Arizona State University. The Ciudad project was conducted at a time when uses of the computer for quantitative applications were conducted on a centralized “main frame” serving the entire campus. As a result, no integrated electronic data base was generated as part of the Ciudad project, although the project director, T. Kathleen Henderson, maintained excellent records concerning the great number of separate “flat files” used for statistical analyses. The Intersections project provided a chance to integrate those flat files into a single data base, and to develop an electronic inventory (using bar codes) of the artifact collections. In this process, the artifacts were also repacked into curation quality plastic bags (the original paper bags had begun to deteriorate) and stored in new boxes. The field notes and photographs were also reorganized and inventoried, and where necessary transferred to curation quality packaging. Arleyn Simon organized and oversaw the reorganization of the Ciudad collections; Michael Barton, the curator for the Department of Anthropology, and Theodore Oliver helped pull together the necessary combination of hardware and software so the final product could be integrated into the Anthropology Department’s files. Destiny Crider and Christopher Garraty helped oversee the development of the computer inventory, and were assisted by Toni Bruins, Donelle Huffer, Kimberly Sonderegger, Samantha Thornton and Chino Uchida. Steven Swanson transferred the main-frame Ciudad files into an ACCESS database. Carol Ruppe reorganized the project records and field notes.

Writing the Overview.

The purpose of the archaeological overview of Canal System Two is to stimulate and guide the further research use of the archaeological reports in the archives. It includes a gazetteer of the archaeological sites with maps that place the locations of the excavated samples in relation to the larger site areas, and two additional chapters dealing with ceramic production and the environmental setting. The 13 years of research covered in the 37 reports contributed to improved, and sometimes markedly changed understandings of the spatial organization of Hohokam settlements, production and exchange of ceramic vessels, the subsistence system, and of burial practices. Glen Rice oversaw the writing of the overview and was assisted by Christopher Garraty. David Abbott and David Jacobs contributed articles to the overview. Shearon Vaughn drafted the great majority of maps and illustrations.

Producing the CDs.

Harue Yoshida organized the reports files for distribution in CD format. The Life Science Visualization Lab (LSVL) at Arizona State University completed the process and special recognition is given to Laural Casler and Cameo Hill for their designs of the CD label and jewelcase covers and for mastering the CD-ROMs. We also acknowledge the contributions of Charles Kazilek, director of the LSVL. The Center for Environmental Studies at ASU provided staff and technical assistance during the final stages of production.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• CRM Archaeology and tDAR   •
• Discover the Archaeology of Arizona   •
• Phoenix Basin Archaeology: the Intersections Project

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 200 to 1450

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Collaborator(s): Soil Systems, Inc.; Soil Systems, Inc.; Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University; City of Phoenix; Arizona Department of Transportation; Pueblo Grande Museum