Roosevelt Community Development Study

1991-1995

This project was part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Section 106 compliance program to address the adverse effects of raising the height of historic Roosevelt Dam. The general compliance framework was established by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office. Desert Archaeology's project team was expected to maximize research results within that framework. Our project involved three major field seasons.

Desert Archaeology's fieldwork was focused on the eastern end of the Salt arm of Lake Roosevelt.

Small Early Ceramic period pithouses were common at the Eagle Ridge site, which also yielded some of the earliest evidence of cotton cultivation in the American Southwest.

The small platform mound at the Pyramid Point site was flanked by this very well-made, well-preserved room. Floor artifacts included a red painted shell scoop and a variety of turquoise and argillite ornaments.

Excavations at the Meddler Mound revealed a complex construction sequence. The mound and other structures within a large enclosing wall are believed to have been the ceremonial center of a local community.

Artist's reconstruction of the Meddler Point Platform Mound during a ceremony.

The broad research goal was to document change over time in community organization in the eastern Tonto Basin. Testing of sites showed there was a small sample of sites for most time periods between A.D. 1 and 1150. After A.D. 1150, site frequency was quite high, and by approximately A.D. 1350 much of the study area had been abandoned. Notable research results include:

• Documentation of construction methods for two platform mounds and placement of these ritual features in the social contexts of their surrounding communities.
• Documentation of the presence of a local community that included migrant groups from areas northeast of the Tonto Basin.
• Mapping of the distribution of sands in surface drainages of the entire Tonto Basin. This information allowed more refined study of where pottery was manufactured and how it was traded.
• Characterization of Tonto Basin population change over 1,400 years.

Multiple site tours and open houses were conducted during fieldwork. A special issue of the public-oriented Archaeology in Tucson newsletter was published at the completion of the project.

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