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This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional analyses of projectile points often use visual identification, the presence or absence of discrete characteristics, or linear measurements to classify points into distinct types. Geometric morphometrics provides additional tools for analyzing, visualizing, and comparing projectile point morphology. In this study, I compare the effectiveness of semi-landmark analysis vs. elliptical Fourier analysis for identifying discrete clusters of similar projectile points, as well as the overall effectiveness of these methods for detecting patterns of technological similarity at a regional scale. I use photographs of Hohokam projectile points from the Tonto Basin and compare them to published illustrations and photographs of projectile points from other regions of the U.S. Southwest.

This is a presentation from the 2021 Arizona Archaeological Council (AAC) Fall symposium on "The Archaeology of Canals in the Arizona Desert". EPG conducted Phase I data recovery at ancestral O’odham/Hohokam site AZ T:12:91(ASM) south of the Salt River in Laveen, Arizona. Excavation revealed a prehistoric distribution or branch canal and two laterals. Although Phase II data recovery was not warranted, we did perform stripping of overburden above the junction of the distribution canal and one of the laterals. This revealed a canal-side work area with several small features and cached tools. We compare the tool assemblage with other irrigation-related tool assemblages and contrast it with nearby dry-farming tool assemblages. We discuss implications for irrigation maintenance, cultivation and crop harvesting during the Hohokam Classic Period, and recommend that additional work at such canal-side locations is warranted and may provide insights into the social organization of land and labor

This is a presentation from the 2021 Arizona Archaeological Council (AAC) Fall symposium on "The Archaeology of Canals in the Arizona Desert". For over a century, archaeologists have investigated the vast network of prehistoric Hohokam canal irrigation systems in the lower Salt and middle Gila river valleys, as well as in other areas of southern Arizona. However, documentation of the agricultural fields in which prehistoric farmers irrigated their crops generally was lacking until the last 25 years. This is largely a result of the difficulty in identifying ancient fields since they are not visible on the surface and have been obscured or destroyed by natural landscape processes as well as historic and modern disturbances. More recent archaeological investigations have revealed ancient Hohokam irrigated fields through innovative methods and excavation techniques that have exposed the faint traces of these fields. These discoveries occurred during projects conducted in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, enacted in 1966. In this presentation I will highlight these important studies that have expanded our view of ancient agricultural landscapes in southern Arizona.

This is a presentation from the 2021 Arizona Archaeological Council (AAC) Fall symposium on "The Archaeology of Canals in the Arizona Desert". In arid and semi-arid regions, soil salinization and waterlogging are thought to cause agricultural infertility and social change. Although common in irrigation models and theories, empirical evidence supporting a primary causal link among salinization, waterlogging, and infertility has proved elusive. Proxies and indirect measures (e.g., soil description maps and historic observations) are often held up as support in the absence of direct evidence. Recent subsurface soil health data from prehistoric and historic irrigated fields in central Arizona allow for direct assessment of factors which would have constrained agricultural success (e.g., sodium and nutrient accumulation levels). In this paper, we argue that despite historical assumptions, salinization and waterlogging were not likely to have been irreversible impediments to agriculture success. Instead, multiple lines of evidence, including irrigation system longevity and prehistoric soil studies, indicate Hohokam farmers could and did mediate both potential impacts. Our results reveal that deleterious impacts of salinization and waterlogging in the past should be demonstrated through direct measure and indicators, rather than inferred or assumed.

The presence and function in several Hohokam sites of controversial objects, currently described as handstones or crushers, remains an unsolved matter. Their morphology recalls similar Mesoamerican pieces, the manoplas, generally considered to be related to the ballgame. The identification of ballcourts in Hohokam sites has long been a controversial issue, but is now generally agreed on. This paper does not aim to resolve this interrogation, but rather to call attention to a problematic aspect of relationships between Mesoamerica and Oasisamerica. La présence et la fonction, sur plusieurs sites Hohokam, d’objets controversés, généralement qualifiés de broyeurs ou de pierres portables, demeurent un objet de discussions. Leur morphologie rappelle celle d’objets mésoaméricains, les manoplas, souvent associés au jeu de balle. L’identification de terrains de jeu de balle hohokam, longtemps controversée, est désormais acceptée. Ce travail ne cherche pas à résoudre la question, mais plutôt à attirer l’attention sur un aspect problématique des relations entre la Mésoamérique et l’Oasisamérique. La presencia y la función, en varios sitios hohokam, de ciertos objetos polémicos, generalmente calificados de trituradoras o de manoplas queda por discutirse. Su morfología recuerda la de otros objetos mesoamericanos, las manoplas, frecuentemente asociados al juego de pelota. La identificación de canchas de juego hohokam, previamente discutida, queda ahora aceptada. Este trabajo no busca resolver la pregunta, pero sólo llamar la atención sobre un aspecto problemático de las relaciones entre Mesoamérica y Oasisamérica.

Based on research that regionally contextualizes millions of data points and hundreds of sites, we have previously argued that the Salado phenomenon was a social movement aimed at returning power to all community members in the Hohokam world and led to what archaeologists have problematically called the “Hohokam Collapse.” In this chapter, we explain why terms like collapse indicate an underlying bias and fail to capture intentionality and the achieved positive outcomes of social and political decentralization and why current archaeological explanations may be useful for explaining local changes, but are inadequate for explaining the dramatic transition in cultural practices at the end of the Classic Period for the Hohokam world at large. Finally, we discuss how this new understanding of Salado as a social movement is supported by published Akimel and Tohono O’Odham oral histories.

– Integration of two-dimensional and three-dimensional images can define house features in buried dwellings. – Placement and number of interior features allows for determination of duration of occupancy. – Results of many GPR studies of houses of a specific age over a broad landscape can test ideas about community dynamics in the ancient Hohokam world.

Archaeologists have long compared the Hohokam world of the North American Southwest to contemporary traditions in Mesoamerica and West Mexico. A degree of cultural connectivity between the Southwest and Mesoamerica is evident in similarities in public architecture, ceramic technology and design, ritual paraphernalia, and subsistence, among other qualities. Researchers commonly frame this connectivity in economic or cultural evolutionary terms that position Hohokam communities as somehow descendant from or dependent on more complexly and hierarchically organized societies far to the south. In this paper, I examine this connectivity through the lens of iconography to show that shared religious themes and archetypes were strands within the nexus. I focus on three iconographic subjects in Hohokam media—serpents, flowers, and “pipettes”—each of which materializes seemingly Mesoamerican religious concepts. From a careful consideration of the inception and breadth of each, I argue that Hohokam artisans began to portray these subjects in concert with a religious revitalization movement that drew a degree of inspiration from the south. However, while the iconography may have been new to Hohokam media, the religious themes were not. I show that the iconography references Archaic religious archetypes and cosmological principles that probably accompanied the spread of agriculture millennia before the formation of the Hohokam world. Rather than representing a new religion, I suggest Hohokam artisans materialized these long-established and unquestioned principles in novel iconographic ways as a means of naturalizing and ordaining the rapid social change that accompanied the religious revitalization movement.

The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and traditional assemblages remained intact as the artifacts and ideas moved farther from their places of origin. The current study analyzes the distribution and deposition of blue-green stone mosaics, a craft technology that was well established in Mesoamerica by the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 250) and spread to the U.S. SW by the start of the Hohokam Pioneer period (AD 475). We assess the spatial distribution, contextual deposition, and morphology of mosaics at sites within Hohokam Canal System 2, located in the Phoenix Basin of Arizona. We use these data to infer mosaics’ social value and function within Hohokam social structure. Analyses suggest that, although the technology of mosaic making may have originated in Mesoamerica, the contexts and ways in which mosaics were used in the Hohokam regional system were decidedly Hohokam.

Mortuary rituals are compared and contrasted in order to better understand social interaction between the Tucson Basin Hohokam of southern Arizona and the Trincheras tradition populations of northern Sonora. This interaction is explored through the examination of ideas about personhood and embodiment, and their relationship to the biological profiles and posthumous treatments of individuals during the Hohokam Classic period (AD 1150–1450) and the occupation of Cerro de Trincheras (AD 1300–1450). In both areas, cremation was the main burial custom, and both groups had complex, multistage cremation rituals, in which burning of the body played only a small part. Examination of rich archaeological data and well-excavated contexts at these sites revealed remarkable similarities and differences in body treatment during the mortuary ritual. Tucson Basin Hohokam mortuary practices suggest a strongerconnection to,andremembrance of,the deceased within smaller social groups. In contrast, mortuary practices at Cerro de Trincheras emphasize similarities among the various cremated individuals, with rituals directed more toward the broader social group. Results suggest that the two groups were fundamentally similar in how they treated the bodies of the dead during the cremation process, but different in how the dead were remembered and commemorated.

Recent archaeological efforts to explain the emergence and persistence of social inequality have been hampered by little information about how wealth was transmitted across generations, and how it may have accumulated or diminished over time. Building on studies that have shown domestic architecture to be an excellent material expression of household wealth, we provide a method for reconstructing the amount of labor invested in house construction among the Hohokam of southern Arizona. We also account for different architectural styles from different time periods. To illustrate the utility of the method for addressing broader social issues, we investigate the relationship among population increases, resource shortages, and wealth differentials at Pueblo Grande—one of the preeminent settlements in the Hohokam region. Inequality at Pueblo Grande was tracked over time and compared to similar results at the Grewe site. High-status households at both sites were distinguished architecturally by larger and, in some instances, more elaborate houses. The proximity of these households to public areas for ceremonial expression further suggests that access to ritual played a key role in creating and maintaining inequality in Hohokam society.

The presence and function in several Hohokam sites of controversial objects, currently described as handstones or crushers, remains an unsolved matter. Their morphology recalls similar Mesoamerican pieces, the manoplas, generally considered to be related to the ballgame. The identification of ballcourts in Hohokam sites has long been a controversial issue, but is now generally agreed on. This paper does not aim to resolve this interrogation, but rather to call attention to a problematic aspect of relationships between Mesoamerica and Oasisamerica.

We explore the concept of scales to examine emerging irrigation realities, i.e., connecting more agents within larger spaces - relates to the complexity of irrigation systems. Modern hydraulic models allow the inclusion of emerging multi-scale issues over time, including social issues related to different spatial and temporal scales. We show that the time needed to manage irrigation efficiently relates to the size of a system. By reconstructing ancient Hohokam irrigation systems in Arizona, we identify how longer-term extension of spatial scales created management problems beyond the scope of available technology. This approach allows greater understanding of how stresses in daily irrigation management may have impacted longer-term societal stability. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10745-018-0023-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

For over thirty years archaeologists have provided evidence that southern Arizona pre-Columbian Native Americans, the Hohokam, extensively cultivated agave. However, no archeologists reported finding living agaves growing in the rock-piled or gridded Hohokam fields, therefore researchers could only speculate about the species cultivated. Our work expands upon a recent publication noting several agaves growing in prehistoric dry-farmed fields on terraces overlooking the San Pedro River. These agaves have affinities to A. phillipsiana W. C. Hodgs. and A. palmeri Engelm. based on flower color but differ by their gray-green leaves with thick bases and conspicuous bud imprinting. They are extremely rare, reproduce asexually via rhizomatous offsets with no apparent fruit set, have relatively uniform intra- and inter-population morphology, grow only with archaeological features and are unknown from natural settings: all characteristics expected in a domesticated crop. Here we describe Agave sanpedroensis, provide a key to distinguish it from other agaves in south-central Arizona and propose that it is a clonal, relictual crop grown from ca. A.D. 800–1450 by the Hohokam, and thus represents a ‘lost crop’ as sought by archaeologists. The extensive size and wide distribution of Hohokam agave fields that transformed the landscape and are still visible today indicates the crop's importance in the Hohokam economy. The question of where and when this agave originated has implications for North American domestication centers. Our discovery emphasizes the importance of collaborative research between archaeologists and botanists whose distinctive data can provide a richer understanding of how the Hohokam developed and then sustained one of the American Southwest's largest prehistoric populations.

Geoarchaeological investigations of the alluvial piedmont or bajada emanating from the Tortolita Mountains, Arizona, show that the distribution of Hohokam sites apparent from the surface is complete and undisturbed by geological processes. Late Holocene geomorphic processes and their resultant deposits on the bajada affected the location of prehistoric Hohokam agricultural settlements. Hohokam settlements were commonly situated on small alluvial fans dominated by sheetwash processes and deposition of fine-grained alluvium, where floodwater farming could be easily persued with little modification of the natural surface. Large alluvial fans, dominated by channel processes and coarse-grained alluvium were avoided by the Hohokam farmer because these areas were less suitable for floodwater farming. Includes the "Geomorphic Analysis of Hohokam Settlement Patterns on Alluvial Fans Along the Western Flank of the Tortolita Mountains, Arizona" by Michael R. Waters.

Recent examinations of more than 13,000 disk beads from mortuary contexts determined that macroscopic examination was not always enough to distinguish shell, stone, and fired-clay beads. Using replication experiments and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), we update the 80-year-old conclusions of Emil Haury, who defined features distinctive to bead manufacture. With this renewed confidence in materials identification, we analyzed the distributions of disk beads made from shell, stone, and fired clay among Hohokam inhumations and cremations at the Yuma Wash, Honey Bee Village, and Wetlands sites in the Tucson Basin. Not everyone was buried with disk beads, but all age groups were represented among those who were buried with beads. Some people were buried with only stone, or only shell, or only fired-clay beads, although more were buried with beads of some combination of these three materials. In this article, we consider why fired-clay beads were added to the mix and conclude that they were made as acceptable substitutes for stone beads, not for deceptive reasons concerning wealth or status, but rather in imitation of stone to honor a tradition that could not otherwise be efficiently met.

The results of phased data recovery efforts for the City of Phoenix Aviation Department in advance of construction of the PHX Sky Train are presented in this report. Investigations were conducted within the Sky Train's 44th Street Station area, located immediately west of 44th Street and south of the Grand Canal in Phoenix, Arizona. Twelve medium to large prehistoric canals were encountered during the project, which was an anticipated discovery given the project's location northwest of the Park of Four Waters at Pueblo Grande Museum and Cultural Park and in the trajectory of main canals that fed prehistoric Canal System 2. Unexpected was the discovery of prehistoric irrigated field systems comprised of ditches and field areas. This project provided the first plan exposure of such systems in the Salt River Valley. Also encountered during the project were several canal-side water catchment features and Hohokam habitation structures. The structures included pithouses, probably used a seasonal farm-houses, and a surface adobe structure, with associated pits, which was occupied more permanently as a farmstead. The ages of the archaeological remains ranged from the later Colonial period through the early Classic period, roughly AD 850-1350. The numbers and types of features documented by the project illustrate that people were using the canals and local terrain in a variety of ways, despite the intrusion of several large System 2 trunk canals through the area. Within the project area, land use, subsistence practices, and irrigation were inextricably intertwined. The results of the project reveal the Hohokam's intimate knowledge of their landscape and how to manipulate it to best advantage. The findings highlight why the study of the irrigated spaces between prehistoric settlements is crucial to fully understand how the Hohokam managed to thrive for so many centuries in their desert environment.

This article demonstrates the relevance of future discounting behavior to studies of prehistoric subsistence strategies. The case study of Agave spp. bajada cultivation among the Classic Period, a....

Changing Channels: Simulating Irrigation Management on Evolving Canal Systems for the Prehistoric Hohokam of Central Arizona

International audience; Construction, maintenance and abandonment of Hohokam Prehistoric hydraulic systems (Phoenix, Arizona): social or hydroclimatic constraints?

In 1997, a group of scholars assembled at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona, for five and one-half days of secluded focused discussion on the archaeology and history of an area largely absent from archaeological reports and history books, southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. The researchers present at the seminar included Bruce Masse, Anne Woosley, Allan MacIntyre, Jeff Altschul, John Douglas, Jeff Clark, Bill Doolittle, Jim Neely, Jerry Howard, Peggy Nelson, Jonathan Mabry, Tom Sheridan, and the author. The discussion session was followed by a field visit to some nearby sites, and in June of 1998, the group was led on an extensive tour of the Safford Basin and the lower San Pedro Valley so that everyone could see, firsthand, the setting and settlement in these prehistorically heavily populated regions. Although all the researchers agreed there was utility in treating the assigned study area as a useful geographical region, they were initially hampered by the lack of a term with which to refer to it. Cultural labels did not fit, because as a region, it trended, at times, one way or another — Hohokam, San Simon, Dragoon, Mimbres, Mogollon, Salado, or Casas Grandes — depending on time and personal bent. Consequently, the researchers were asked to look at such labels with a critical eye in their studies. Terms such as "international four corners" and the much longer "southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico" could be defined and used, although they are unwieldy. In fact, the latter term is used here to some degree for lack of another unambiguous geographical referent. Allan McIntyre suggested the term "a land between," which captures the essence of the region and theme of this volume, for it truly is a land caught between the better known and less known, between Mimbres and Hohokam, between Salado and Casas Grandes. The researchers who contributed to this volume who had conducted fieldwork in the region were asked to use it as an opportunity to publish much more than the usual amount of data for a synthetic volume of this sort. Because the region has few population centers and minimal local level cultural resource management regulations, the explosion of contract archaeology work that has transformed the discipline's knowledge of the Tucson-Phoenix corridor barely touched the Land Between—and most of that work occurred after the 1997 seminar. Consequently, much of the fieldwork in the region was conducted on shoestring budgets and private funding. Even part of one of the largest contract projects in the region, the work along a proposed highway route in the lower San Pedro Valley, which resulted in the excavations at the Peppersauce Wash sites — Alder Wash Ruin, AZ BB:6:9 (ASM), Una Cholla, AZ BB:6:18 (ASM), and Dos Bisnagas, AZ BB:6:7 (ASM)—was never published due to funding cuts from the highway department. With the Amerind Foundation setting a strong precedent from the work of Charles Di Peso, who published his raw data in exhaustive and very useful detail, it seemed only fitting that this volume should strive to do as much as possible to get information out to interested readers. As a result of the data focus of the volume, the reader will encounter some extreme swings in the lengths and detail included in the regional summaries, a direct result of the quantities of new or previously unpublished data available to the researchers involved. For example, the extensive unpublished data accessible to Masse, Gregonis, and Slaughter from their work in the lower San Pedro resulted in a much more data rich and lengthy chapter than the chapters by Douglas on the San Bernardino Valley, and Altschul, Vanderpot, Quijada, and Heckman on the upper San Pedro. For the San Bernardino Valley, there has not been as much work, so there are no data to publish. Much of the work from the middle and upper San Pedro has been published in technical reports in recent years, so it made more sense for the authors to summarize this work for a broader audience.

The origins and evolution of market-based economies remain poorly understood in part because the data from nascent markets are scarce and methods available to archaeologists are underdeveloped. Studying how markets evolved is vital for understanding the origins of a process that dominates modern economies around the world and has significant policy implications. We show how refining abstract models of exchange networks with household-scale distributional analyses and regional-scale computational agent-based models (ABMs) can lead to new understandings about the organization of a prehistoric economy. The Sedentary-period Hohokam of central Arizona—particularly for the middle Sacaton phase (A.D. 1020–1100)—have been identified as a middle-range society that traded pottery in a market-based economy, but the structure of their exchange networks is not well understood. We analyzed ceramic data from recent archaeological excavations at two sites in the Phoenix Basin using new network-inspired distributional approaches to evaluate exchange systems. Initial results were then assessed using simulated data generated by an ABM of Hohokam exchange networks. Final results indicated that the best-fitting ABM model configurations were those consistent with openly accessed market-based exchange and contributed new insights into the influence of natural landscape barriers such as the Salt River on exchange in the Phoenix Basin.

The Hohokam, a pre-Columbian people of the Sonoran Desert turned out a myriad of intricately designed ceramics. They were known to depict many aspects of their natural environment including animals, insects, birds and people. However, aside from vessels shaped like gourds or pumpkins and possibly datura seed pods, only a few clear representations of plants have been identified, most of which are obvious flower designs. Plants held great importance to the Hohokam as evidenced by botanical remains and irrigation canals. It is possible that the geometric design elements on Hohokam pottery also represent plants that were crucial to Hohokam subsistence. The comparison of designs from five site/site areas with actual plants as well as historic uses and traditions revolving around plant use support the hypothesis that Hohokam artisans were strongly influenced by the plants in their environment and depicted these plants on their pottery design.

Archaeological investigations at the northwestern margin of the large Hohokam village site known as La Plaza, AZ U:9:165(ASM), recovered 172 sets of human remains. Bioarchaeological analysis focused on the most complete 66 inhumations and 52 cremations. One of those, Burial 167, was the inhumation of a young adult female who exhibited a suite of pathological conditions that were identified as systemic infection (very likely tuberculosis), scoliosis, and premature degenerative bone disease. Burial 167 was interred with an elaborate assemblage of funerary items. The pathological conditions and funerary assemblage of Burial 167 are compared with other burials in the assemblage, and Burial 167 is identified as an example of the bioarchaeology of care among the Hohokam.

Archaeological evidence documents apparent depopulation of the Hohokam region of Southern Arizona at the end of the Classic period (A.D. 1150-1450). Major population centers were no longer occupied, and many distinctive material culture traits associated with the Hohokam tradition seem to disappear. Proposed explanations include migration, dispersion of the population into less archaeologically visible settlements, and wholesale population decline. The latter hypothesis is attractive partly because of a seminal study of paleodemography and health at the Classic-period site of Pueblo Grande in the Phoenix Basin. That study suggested that the population was not sustainable due to very low life expectancy, a very high dependency ratio of juveniles to adults, and other indicators of biological stress. A hazards analysis of the published demographic data reveals life expectancy at birth in the expected range for prehistoric populations with no evidence of a dependency crisis. Population decline at the end of the Classic period is more likely explained by reduced fertility than by increased mortality. Birth rates are sensitive to cultural and economic forces, and we should look beyond health factors in trying to account for the disappearance of Hohokam traditions.

Changing perspectives on concepts of personhood are explored by deconstructing mortuary customs from 10 Tucson Basin (Arizona) Hohokam archaeological sites dating from the Preclassic (A.D. 700–1150) and Classic (A.D. 1150–145011500) periods. Results indicate that certain aspects of personhood did not change across time and space at these sites. However, by analyzing changes through time in cremation rituals, it was possible to infer that some aspects of personhood did change. In the Preclassic period, after bodies were burned, the remains were distributed as inalienable possessions within social networks. This behavior suggests a relational social construction of self where burning transformed the deceased and the remains were considered part-person and part-object. Later in the Classic period, a higher frequency of cremated remains were not divided but instead transferred as a unit to secondary deposits. Perceptions of personhood during this period appear to have defined self as a complete, bounded unit, even after transformation by fire. This change possibly occurred as a result of a general decrease in remembrance networks. These changes in cremation parallel broader sociopolitical changes where increases in social differentiation and complexity are proposed for the Classic period Hohokam.

Hohokam buff ware pottery produced in Arizona has been much studied over the last few decades. However, petrographic analysis has been less frequently applied, due in part to mistaken assumptions regarding the raw materials utilized. The current study reexamined the use of petrography for locating the provenance of buff ware pottery from two sites, La Villa in the Phoenix area and Honey Bee Village in the Tucson area. The petrographic results suggest that production occurred in one primary area along the middle Gila River with minor production in a few other locations. The potters in this area supplied both the Tucson and Phoenix basins. Significantly, it was determined that, after the Early Gila Butte phase, potters switched from crushed schist to sand with natural schist. Such a phenomenon is likely related to increased demand developing from a rapidly evolving sociopolitical system and buff ware pottery becoming a socially valued commodity. This study indicates that petrographic analysis focused on relating sand to known sand composition zones, called petrofacies, can be a key tool for identifying production sources for Hohokam buff ware.

Honey Bee Village, AZ BB:9:88 (ASM), is a large, prehistoric ballcourt village in the northern Tucson Basin. It is situated on the southeastern bajada of the Tortolita Mountains in the southern Cañada del Oro Valley. The site area is adjacent to a large alluvial basin at the juncture of Big Wash and Honey Bee Canyon at a mean elevation of 878 m (2,880 ft) above sea level. In this report, descriptions of the excavated structures are provided for the most recent and most extensive archaeological investigations at the site, which were conducted in 2006 and 2007, by Desert Archaeology, Inc., personnel. The project provided a rare opportunity to investigate large portions of a minimally disturbed ballcourt village on the margins of the Tucson Basin. The research approach examined the diversity in social, economic, ritual, and ethnic spheres of Hohokam society from the perspective of households and villages. The research domains examined through this framework include subsistence production, specialized production, social standing, settlement structure, Hohokam markets, and ritual and religion. More detailed discussions of the results of data recovery in relation to the research issues are provided by Wallace (ed., 2012). The investigated project area covered nearly 37 acres surrounding the 13-acre preserve. One of the goals of the data recovery program was to create a detailed map of the overall site structure and to provide dates for the site occupation. Another goal was to determine the relationship of burial areas to residential areas, focusing on identifying and removing as many human remains as possible, to allow for repatriation so they would not be disturbed by development of the land. Based on the map that was created, a sampling strategy was used to collect samples from various households and time periods and to excavate all mortuary features that could be located. The sampling strategy and field methods are provided in Swartz and Wallace (2012). The structures described here were excavated in three areas for different landowners, with the largest area encompassing 31 acres to the east, south, and west of the preserve. The other two areas, covering nearly 6 acres identified at the site 2,004 primary features, including 331 structures: 295 pit structures, 33 possible pit structures, and 3 adobe structures. Of those, 183 structures were sampled or completely excavated: 179 pit structures, 1 possible pit structure, and 3 adobe structures. Results indicate that the site was occupied from as early as the Tortolita phase (A.D. 500-700) to the most intensive occupation during the Middle and Late Rincon phases (A.D. 1000-1150), with a relatively minor continuation and possible reoccupation of the site in the Tanque Verde phase (A.D. 1150-1300).

Northland Research, Inc. (Northland) has completed archaeological investigations within a portion of the Pueblo del Rio site, AZ T:12:116(ASM), a large Hohokam habitation site located in southwest Phoenix. The investigations were designed to collect information and analyze materials from a sample of features at the site in order to mitigate the impacts of commercial development (Moore and Stahman 2007). The work was sponsored by the Stravinski Development Group, LLC, in conformance with Section 802(A.1) of the City of Phoenix Preservation Ordinance and the Office of the City Archaeologist, and to comply with regulations outlined in the Arizona Antiquities Act and A.R.S. §41-865 concerning the treatment of human remains. The site of Pueblo del Rio has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places on the basis of its potential to inform on the prehistory of south-central Arizona (Criterion D). Northland’s archaeological investigations at Pueblo del Rio were conducted in two phases—an extensive testing phase (Phase 1) followed by an intensive excavation phase (Phase 2). The testing phase was conducted between December 28, 2006 and January 15, 2007 under the direction of Scotty B. Moore. Eighty backhoe trenches, totaling 1,584 linear meters, were excavated as part of testing, resulting in the discovery of 83 cultural features, including 5 pit houses, 10 possible pit houses, 2 prehistoric canals, 59 non-thermal pits, 3 thermal pits, 2 middens, 1 trash layer, and 1 secondary cremation. Temporally diagnostic ceramics observed during testing suggested the site was occupied primarily during the Hohokam Colonial period, ca. A.D. 750-950, though a possible Sedentary period component, ca. A.D. 950-1150, was also noted (Moore and Gage 2007). Based on this evidence, Northland recommended that additional archaeological investigations be conducted to mitigate the adverse effects of development on the site (Moore and Stahman 2007). Fieldwork for Phase 2 data recovery was conducted between February 21 and May 11, 2007 under the direction of Gina S. Gage. A roughly 6,300 square meter area was mechanically stripped as part of these data recovery efforts, resulting in the discovery of 583 features associated with the prehistoric occupation of Pueblo del Rio. Among the feature types identified were pit houses, thermal pits, non-thermal pits, trash concentrations, artifact caches, burials, and canals. Both cremations and inhumations were found in the portion of the site investigated. Priority during the excavations was given to removing all human remains, determining if features identified in the southern portion of the project area were associated with an Early Agricultural or Late Archaic component, and exploring Hohokam features in the central portion of the project area. Following City of Phoenix archaeological guidelines (Bostwick 2006:15), efforts were made to bound the distribution of burials by establishing a 10-m buffer zone around burial features.

Approximately 61 percent (74 percent if only the extant portions of the site are considered) of the 60.5-acre Hohokam settlement known as Honey Bee Village, AZ BB:9:88 (ASM) (Arizona State Museum site files designation) was mechanically tested and horizontally exposed during excavations in 2006-2007 by Desert Archaeology, Inc., under contract with Pima County and Rancho Vistoso Partners, LLC. Honey Bee Village is located in the Town of Oro Valley north of Tucson. The core of the village was set aside as a preserve, and only surface documentation was conducted in that area. Elsewhere on the preserved portions of the site most of the village plan was exposed, and excavations revealed 2,004 primary features. This is part 2 of 2

Approximately 61 percent (74 percent if only the extant portions of the site are considered) of the 60.5-acre Hohokam settlement known as Honey Bee Village, AZ BB:9:88 (ASM) (Arizona State Museum site files designation) was mechanically tested and horizontally exposed during excavations in 2006-2007 by Desert Archaeology, Inc., under contract with Pima County and Rancho Vistoso Partners, LLC. Honey Bee Village is located in the Town of Oro Valley north of Tucson. The core of the village was set aside as a preserve, and only surface documentation was conducted in that area. Elsewhere on the preserved portions of the site most of the village plan was exposed, and excavations revealed 2,004 primary features. This is part 1 of 2