The Adobe Dam - Desert Hills ADMP Archeological Assessment Project of Northern Maricopa County, Arizona

Autor: Rodgers, James B.
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2003
Předmět:
DOI: 10.48512/xcv8448792
Popis: The Flood Control District of Maricopa County has contracted separately for the production of a comprehensive plan that will eventually recommend alternatives for resolving certain hazardous flood control situations that presently exist in south-central Arizona. To assist in the development of that Adobe Dam-Desert Hills Area Drainage Master Plan, Scientific Archeological Services has just completed an assessment of all archeological sites known to occur in the resulting project area. This archeological assessment project has been sponsored solely by the Flood Control District itself. The concerned AD-DH ADMP project area is actually composed of 16 different parcels that range from 21 acres to 650 acres and total 2,781 acres, or 4.35 square miles. Those parcels occur in northern Phoenix and in unincorporated parts of the community of Desert Hills and the town of New River in northern Maricopa County, Arizona. Further, they are all indicated on five different 7.5’ quadrangle maps that the U. S. Geological Survey has officially designated as Biscuit Flat, Daisy Mountain, Hedgpeth Hills, New River SE, and Union Hills, Arizona. The three major drainages of this composite area include those of Desert Hills Wash, Apache Wash, and especially Skunk Creek. No fieldwork was ever performed during this assessment project. Thus, archival research has been the exclusive means for obtaining project data, and it has involved both literature searches and site record checks. Together, they reveal that 33 cultural resource investigations have previously been completed across the AD-DH ADMP project area. They are four different types that began in 1893 and have continued until 2001. Significantly, 25 of those archival projects are professional archeological field surveys that result in having intensively examined 781 acres, or 28 percent, of the concerned project area itself. Fifteen archeological sites are currently known to have been variously recorded in or immediately adjacent to the 16 project parcels. Only five of them have been formally recorded by archeologists, however. The other 10 are informal sites that were simply found and mapped, by GLO surveyors. Four of the 15 project sites (AZ T:4:132, 163, 190, and 210 ASM) date to the prehistoric past and represent two important activity patterns: habitation and natural resource exploitation. They are mainly Hohokam Indian sites, but one may date to the earlier Archaic period. The other 11 sites are historic properties that include AZ T:4:187 ASM and several undesignated dirt roads that also represent two cultural themes: vehicle transportation and residential living. All but one of them date to the Arizona Statehood phase of 1912-1953. The exception was used during Territorial times of 1863-1912. Pertinent recommendations are advanced later for careful evaluation and possible inclusion in the concerned master plan. Among others, it is suggested that all County, State, and Federal archeological compliance guidelines should be followed during the design and implementation of all future AD-DH ADMP projects that could result in land disturbances. Such would require the intensive field survey of certain construction areas, an evaluation of possible subsurface features occurring at known archival sites there, and the recording and National Register significance evaluation of all newly found sites.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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