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Northland Research, Inc. (Northland) has completed archaeological data recovery within the prehistoric site of La Villa [AZ T:12:148(ASM)], in downtown Phoenix, for SCS Engineers. Archaeological investigations occurred between May 21 and July 23, 2003. A total of 351 historic and prehistoric cultural features were exposed as a result of investigations. A total of 110 of these features were either completely excavated, or sample excavated, during Northland’s investigations; a total of 31% of the features exposed were thus systematically treated. On the basis of these investigations, human use of the area where the prehistoric site of La Villa is located spanned the prehistoric period from ca. A.D. 500 to A.D. 950. Modern use of the site further spanned the period from the early 1900’s to the latter decades of the 20th century.

Northland Research, Inc. (Northland) has completed archaeological testing at seven sites along a proposed natural-gas pipeline at the request of the Salt River Project (SRP). The purpose of the testing was to determine the extent and eligibility status of the seven sites for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Two of the sites, AZ U:10:2(ASM) and AZ U:14:74(ASM), have been previously determined NRHP eligible based on their potential to inform on the prehistory of the region, but additional testing was required to determine the presence and extent of subsurface features within the proposed pipeline corridor (Lindly and Mitchell 2002b:41). The eligibility status of the five remaining sites could not be determined based on surface evidence alone. Additional testing was therefore recommended at AZ U:15:248(ASM), AZ U:15:249(ASM), AZ U:14:54(ASM), AZ U:14:361(ASM), and AZ AA:2:131(ASM) to determine if intact subsurface remains were present (Lindly and Mitchell 2002b:42). The following report documents the results of Northland’s testing program at the seven sites along the SRP pipeline corridor (Figure 1). In addition, the results of a small survey of Temporary Construction Easements (TCE) and realignments of the pipeline corridor are presented. Archaeological testing at the seven sites was conducted under Arizona Antiquities Act Project Specific Permit No. 2003-068ps. The TCE surveys were conducted under Arizona State Museum (ASM) permit No. 2003-14bl. Portions of the sites that were tested are located on lands that are privately owned or under the jurisdiction of the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD). Fieldwork was conducted between 24 February and 22 April, 2003. Douglas Craig served as Principal Investigator and Project Director for the project; David Hart served as Field Director. Artifacts collected on the project were analyzed by James Cogswell and Douglas Craig. This is a review draft.

This is the second in a series of three volumes documenting the results of the Grewe Archaeological Research Project (GARP). The Project was carried out by Northland Research, Inc. (Northland), under contract to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Portions of three prehistoric sites were investigated on the project - Grewe, Horvath, and Casa Grande Ruins. Each of the sites represents a separate spatial and temporal component of the Grewe-Casa Grande settlement, one of the preeminent Hohokam settlements in southern Arizona between A.D. 550 and 1450. Northland's data recovery efforts focused on a narrow corridor through the middle of Grewe and along the outskirts of Casa Grande Ruins. Over 1,300 cultural features were identified by GARP. Summary information on these features is presented in Volume 1. The purpose of Volume 2 is to describe and interpret the material remains recovered. Part I of Volume 2 focuses on the ceramic studies from the project. Close to 500,000 items of material culture were recovered on the project. Most of the materials are from Grewe, where 90 percent of the field effort was expended. Roughly 250 pit houses, 800 pits, 140 burials, and a portion of what have been the largest ballcourt ever built by the Hohokam were investigated at Grewe. The sample of features from Horvath and Casa Grande, in contrast, is much smaller and more limited in scope. It includes a few dozen houses and other features from a previously undocumented residential district on the outskirts of Casa Grande, along with segments of several canals that formed part of the Grewe-Casa Grande canal system, one of the engineering marvels of prehistoric North America.

This is the second in a series of three volumes documenting the results of the Grewe Archaeological Research Project (GARP). The Project was carried out by Northland Research, Inc. (Northland), under contract to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Portions of three prehistoric sites were investigated on the project - Grewe, Horvath, and Casa Grande Ruins. Each of the sites represents a separate spatial and temporal component of the Grewe-Casa Grande settlement, one of the preeminent Hohokam settlements in southern Arizona between A.D. 550 and 1450. Northland's data recovery efforts focused on a narrow corridor through the middle of Grewe and along the outskirts of Casa Grande Ruins. Over 1,300 cultural features were identified by GARP. Summary information on these features is presented in Volume 1. The purpose of Volume 2 is to describe and interpret the material remains recovered. Part II of Volume 2 focuses on the stone, shell, bone artifacts and biological remains of the project. Close to 500,000 items of material culture were recovered on the project. Most of the materials are from Grewe, where 90 percent of the field effort was expended. Roughly 250 pit houses, 800 pits, 140 burials, and a portion of what have been the largest ballcourt ever built by the Hohokam were investigated at Grewe. The sample features from Horvath and Casa Grande, in contrast, is much smaller and more limited in scope. It includes a few dozen houses and other features from a previously undocumented residential district on the outskirts of Casa Grande, along with segments of several canals that formed part of the Grewe-Casa Grande canal system, one of the engineering marvels of prehistoric North America.

This report is about 58 archaeological sites located in and around an expansive desert basin known as the Santa Cruz Flats, located south of the Gila River. None of these sites are large. The biggest among them had only three, widely separated houses. Most of them had no houses, and the majority lacked material remains except for a mere scattering of artifacts now perched on the modern ground surface. Several of the sites included occupations dated to the modern, Historic, Euro-American era, while a few other sites produced chipped stone projectile points that likely date to the Archaic stage, the time of hunter-gatherers, before the advent of agriculture among the prehistoric peoples of the region. The most frequently represented material remains were those associated with the prehistoric Hohokam culture, the sedentary (at least semi-sedentary) agriculturalists who occupied the northern Sonoran Desert between A.D. 300 and 1450. The sites located within the construction corridor of the Santa Rosa Canal, a large water delivery system linked to the Central Arizona Project, are not quintessential Hohokam sites. The few Hohokam sites that contained preserved houses likely represent seasonal use only, and the vast majority of the sites include evidence of limited employment, probably for gathering wild crops; hunting; or tending, harvesting, and packing the yield away for storage and use elsewhere. Overall, these sites suggest rather heavy exploitation of resources formerly located on the Santa Cruz Flats, to a degree not previously appreciated, and at a time when it was supposed the Flats held less attraction. During the Hohokam pre-Classic period, there were few large communities outside the Tucson and Phoenix basins; the few settlements that were located in the intervening range were tightly restricted, by all outward appearances, to the bajadas of the surrounding mountains (Wilcox 1988a).

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) , Indian Distribution Division (IDD) is designed to deliver allocated CAP water to Indian users. The Middle Gila Basin Overview is the initial cultural resources planning study for the system. It summarizes and evaluates the extant data in an area 3,570 square miles (9,139 sq km) large, centered on the Gila River. The data suggests that archaeological sites in this area are numerous and varied, but most of all poorly-studied despite 100 years of research. A defensible culture history and chronology exists for only 35 percent of the 12,000 years of human history in the Basin. Given this, an assumption that basic interpretive frameworks are available to support sophisticated processural arguments is inaccurate. Further data analysis shows that site distributions correspond to physical and biotic zones in only the most general sense. Sites tend to be large and densely-clustered on the second terraces of major rivers; large sites, less-closely spaced are also in higher interior valleys. Sites on upper bajadas slopes appear to be specialized activity areas, while valley bottom sites contain material suggestive of encampments and villages. Most important, the patterns of previous field investigdtions more than anything else are responsible for apparent clusterings of sites. Large areas of the Middle Gila Basin remain unexplored. CAP-IDD systems are likely to encounter substantial archaeological remains along almost any intended, gravity- flow canal alignment, and in many field areas proposed for agricultural development. Of these remains, the majority can qualify, probably, for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Place because, in reality, we know so little about them. See the appendices for a full site list.