Excavations at Valshni Village, a Site on the Papago Indian Reservation

VALSHNI Village is a surface ruin fourteen miles southwest of Sells, Arizona, in the Sells District of the Papago Indian Reservation. The site is located on the adobe flats of the Baboquivari Valley near the confluence of the Valshni and Fresnal Washes. It is approximately ten miles north of the International Boundary and one-half mile east of the Papago village of Burro Pond. Its distinguishing features are five trash mounds above the desert level and many sherd concentrations. Prior to 1938 no archaeological investigations had been carried on within the Papago Reservation other than surveys conducted by Gila Pueblo2 and the Arizona State Museum. During the winter of 1938-39, the first excavation in the area was completed at the Jackrabbit ruin under the supervision of Frederick H. Scantling. This work served to define what was called the Sells phase, which has been placed at 12501400 A.D. and thus occupies a relatively late position in the local chronology.3 Two prior phases were established at Valshni Village, the older of which has been called the Vamori phase and the younger the Topawa phase.4 It is with these two earlier phases that this paper is concerned. Valshni Village is situated in the middle of a broad flat covered with mesquite and creosote bush and is approximately 2300 feet above sea level. No vegetal matter was discovered during the excavations, but many plants were undoubtedly important to the occupants of the site. The location of Valshni Village was ideal for agriculture, yet evidence for a primarily agriculture economy is not strong; it is impossible to say to what extent these people depended on annual domestic crops. The water supply must have been a constant problem to the prehistoric inhabitants of this region, just as it has been to the Papago during the modern period, for there is no evidence that any of the washes in the Baboquivari Valley have carried a permanent flow of water in recent times. Water may have been stored in reservoirs for use during