Archaeological Investigations at La Ciudad, AZ T:12:1(ASM), The Frank Luke Addition Locus, Volume 2: Analytical Studies, Synthesis, and Data Appendixes

Logan Simpson archaeologists recovered a total of 18,799 ceramic artifacts during testing and data recovery within the FLA Phase 2 and Phase 3 loci. The collection mainly consists of body sherds (92 percent) and rim sherds (8 percent) from pottery vessels, but small numbers of non-vessel ceramic artifacts (e.g., figurines, pipe stems, and raw clays), partially reconstructible vessels (PRV), and a complete vessel (CV) also were recovered. The PRVs generally consist of multiple refitted sherds that comprise at least one-third of a complete vessel; for the purpose of quantifying the ceramic data, the PRVs were counted as single items (rather than as individual sherds) to avoid inflating artifact counts. The overwhelming majority of ceramics (95 percent) were collected from Locus 2; ceramic artifacts from this locus outnumber those from Locus 3 by more than 20 to 1. The project area is situated outside but adjacent to the originally defined northwest site boundary of La Ciudad. However, it constitutes part of the larger La Ciudad settlement and appears to be situated along the margin between a Pre-Classic period residential area and the surrounding farm fields, based on the mix of features related to domestic and agricultural activities. The two-phase division of the project area was designed to assist with the construction management, but it is also fortuitous for archaeological investigations because it segregates what appear to be functionally and temporally distinct site components. Locus 2 on the east side of the project area consists of a dense cluster of features, including residential pit houses and associated activity areas (defined by various extramural thermal and nonthermal pits). In contrast, Locus 3 consists of two groups of small field houses associated with limited-use extramural activity areas. Both loci appear to have been occupied primarily during the late Pioneer and Colonial periods. This chapter provides an overview of the methods and inferred results from various analyses of ceramic materials from the project area.