Archaeological Data Recovery at La Lomita (AZ U:9:67 ASM), Phoenix, Arizona

Under contract to Balsz School District No. 31, SWCA, Inc., Environmental Consultants carried out a program of archaeological data recovery at a portion of the prehistoric Hohokam village of La Lomita, in Phoenix, Arizona, during August of 1995. Three areas were excavated in portions of the school property where future improvements are planned. Overburden was removed, and hand excavations were conducted at a total of 21 archaeological features, including ten pithouses or house fragments, three cremation burials, two pits, two canals, two potbreaks, a midden, and a surface or trash area. All the pithouses were investigated, and the remaining features were test excavated or mapped. The excavations resulted in the collection of over 8,000 artifacts, most of which were ceramics. Ceramic analysis revealed a shift in external socioeconomic relationships between the Colonial and Sedentary periods. Botanical analyses (pollen and flotation) identified the remains of corn, cotton, squash, and a variety of non-domesticated plants. Faunal remains were dominated by rabbit and other small mammals. The features excavated are similar to those investigated at the northern part of La Lomita in 1988. This part of the village was found (through archaeomagnetic dating and ceramic seriation) to date to the late Santa Cruz and early Sacaton phases, between about A.D. 900 and 1000.