Search

The Roosevelt Community Development Study (RCD) involved the testing and excavation of 27 sites in the Lower Tonto Basin of central Arizona. This is one of three related data recovery projects undertaken in the Tonto Basin for the Bureau of Reclamation prior to the raising of the Roosevelt Lake dam. The results of the RCD project are presented in four Anthropological Papers of the Center for Desert Archaeology: Anthropological Papers No. 12 is the research design; Anthropological Papers No. 13 (two volumes) contains background information and the site descriptions; Anthropological Papers No. 14 (three volumes) includes the artifact and environmental analyses; and Anthropological Papers No. 15 presents the synthesis and conclusions. The project was situated within the Tonto National Forest and covered a four-mile, continuous area along the north bank of the Salt River. Sites within the project area exhibited a great range of functional, temporal, and, possibly, cultural diversity. These included two sites with platform mounds (the Meddler Point and Pyramid Point sites); a 10Q-room masonry pueblo (the Griffin Wash site); smaller masonry compounds (e.g., the Porcupine site); and pithouse hamlets and farmsteads (e.g., the Hedge Apple and Eagle Ridge sites). Temporal components ranged from the Early Ceramic period (A.D. 100-600), at Locus B of the Eagle Ridge site, through the Roosevelt phase (A.D. 1250-1350) of the Classic period. The Early Ceramic component of the Eagle Ridge site is now the earliest documented ceramic period site in the Tonto Basin and provides definitive evidence for an indigenous ceramic-using population. The project area was inhabited most intensively during the Roosevelt phase, when platform mounds, pueblo room blocks, and small masonry compounds were occupied. Architectural and artifact variability suggest the presence of several different cultural groups co-residing in the Tonto Basin at this time, and migration is believed to have been a significant process in Tonto Basin prehistory. The RCD project area was largely abandoned by A.D. 1325, prior to the large-scale aggregation that occurred during the Gila phase; very few Gila Polychrome sherds were recovered from project area sites. The mandate of the RCD project, as spedfied by the Bureau of Reclamation, was to investigate the temporal and developmental sequence of the prehistoric populations within this area. To meet these goals, six sites were intensively examined through full-scale excavation, and an extensive data set was gathered from the remaining 21 sites. The three volumes in Anthropological Papers No. 14 contain the artifact and environmental analyses. More than 150,000 artifacts were recovered from the RCD excavations. This volume (Volume 3) presents the paleobotanical and osteological data. Included are analyses of the pollen (Chapter 18), flotation (Chapter 19), faunal (Chapter 20), and mortuary (Chapter 21) assemblages. Data from the subsistence analyses are combined and synthesized in Chapter 22. Volume 1 of Anthropological Papers No. 14 presents the analyses of the chipped stone, ground stone, jewelry and personal ornament, and shell assemblages. The ceramic artifact assemblage is examined in Volume 2 More spedfic information on the individual sites and the project background can be found in Anthropological Papers No. 13. Anthropological Papers No. 15 integrates and synthesizes these data to provide a more inclusive view of the prehistoric occupation of the RCD project area and the Tonto Basin.

Under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Reclamation, the New Waddell Dam Borrow Areas Mitigative Data Recovery Project, more simply known as the Waddell Project, performed data recovery at 17 sites in the vicinity of Lake Pleasant, Arizona. Supplemental surveys conducted under the same contract added two sites to the inventory slated for investigation. The project area, composed of multiple survey areas, was spread across two drainages, the Agua Fria and New River, in what is considered the northern periphery of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. The sites studied included large agricultural fields, sometimes with associated surface masonry field houses; farmsteads with small numbers of pithouses; resource procurement and processing sites; and a single special-purpose crematory site. Research efforts were organized into three broad topic areas so that all project researchers, including specialists, could gear their investigations along the same lines. At the intra-drainage level, the focus was on the individual sites and their locations with respect to the physical environment and each other. Terminology employed for agricultural features and systems in the literature was reviewed and it was proposed that the use of terms be standardized. The topographic situation, source of water (e.g., river. wash, and/or runoff), and soil conditions were identified for the different agricultural systems investigated. The functions of the various agricultural feature types were assessed. It was found, for example, that linear rock alignments tend to slow the flow of water across the fields and/or direct the flow from one portion of a field to another. A model of the development of an agricultural system was employed that helps account for the functions of certain enigmatic features (i.e., field stones) and aspects of features (i.e., gaps between rocks in alignments). Contemporaneity of sites was difficult to establish as dating was less than satisfactory, but it was possible to discern differences between one early site (primarily Colonial period) and several later sites that appeared to form a late Sacaton-Soho phase community. At the inter-drainage level, a comparison of patterns at project sites in the two drainages was made to assess whether the drainages had been used by the same or different populations and whether specialization in subsistence resources had occurred as suggested by survey evidence. Results of ceramic and ground stone petrographic analyses as well as ethnobotanical analyses suggested the areas had been used by distinct populations and that although corn cultivation was universal, agave cultivation took place in the Agua Fria, but not the New River, drainage. Evidence also suggested that the New River study area had been used seasonally, whereas a strong case could be made for year-round occupation of the Agua Fria study area during the later time periods. At the inter-regional level, we studied how our sites fit with those surrounding them in the northern periphery and farther afield in both the Hohokam core area and northern Arizona. Differences found between the two study areas at the inter-drainage level were used to suggest that they had different focal sites. The Beardsley Canal site was identified as a prime candidate for the Agua Fria study area's focal site and AZ T:4:10 (ASM) was suggested as the hub for the New River study area. Little, if any, contact was indicated between sites in the New River study area investigated by ACS and those to the south examined earlier by Soil Systems Inc. Based on the decrease over time in the frequencies of artifacts of Hohokam derivation (i.e., buff ware ceramics, schist palettes, and shell artifacts), it was obvious that ties with the Hohokam core area decreased concomitant with an increase in exchange with northern Arizona populations. probably those in the Prescott area. Note that the volumes are included here as one file.