A Buried Middle Archaic Site in the Tucson Basin

Abstract

Despite great gains in knowledge about the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period in the Tucson Basin, understanding of the Middle Archaic period remains slim. This paper reports on volunteer investigations at three buried Archaic sites within the Santa Cruz River floodplain: the Joe Ben Site (AZ BB:13:11), AZ BB:13:70, and an unnumbered locus north of the latter. The AZ BB:13:70 artifact assemblage and the Joe Ben site records suggest small-scale, short-term, repeated use of this portion of the Santa Cruz floodplain and the Santa Rita bajada by foragers between 4200 and 5100 BP, continuing into the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period. Though assumed to be absent within the southern Southwest during the Middle and Late Holocene, the skull of a juvenile bison at AZ BB:13:70 and post-cranial bison bones at the unnumbered locus indicate their sporadic presence within the Tucson Basin during this period and their occasional exploitation by Middle Archaic hunters.

A pesar de los grandes avances en el conocimiento sobre el período Arcaico Tardío/Agrícola Temprano en la Cuenca de Tucson, la comprensión del período Arcaico Medio anterior sigue siendo escasa. Este artículo informa sobre investigaciones de voluntarios en tres sitios Arcaicos profundamente enterrados expuestos a lo largo de Brickyard Arroyo en el borde de la llanura aluvial del Río Santa Cruz: el sitio de Joe Ben (AZ BB:13:11), AZ BB:13:70, y un al norte de este último sin nombre. El conjunto de artefactos AZ BB:13:70 y los registros del sitio de Joe Ben sugieren el uso repetido a pequeña escala, a corto plazo, de esta porción de la llanura aluvial de Santa Cruz y la bajada de la Sierra Santa Rita por parte de cazadores/recolectores del Arcaico Medio entre aproximadamente 4200 y 5100 BP, continuando en el período Arcaico Tardío/Agrícola Temprano. Aunque se supone que estuvo ausente en el suroeste del sur durante gran parte del Holoceno Medio y Tardío, los restos de bisontes proporcionan evidencia adicional de la presencia esporádica de estos animales dentro de la Cuenca de Tucson durante este período y su explotación ocasional por cazadores del Medio Arcaico.

KeyWords:

• Southwestern Archaic
• Santa Cruz River
• Tucson Basin
• bison
• Middle Archaic

Acknowledgments

Our thanks first to Marty Tagg, Rick Ervin, and Lisa Huckell who volunteered their time to map and collect the site in 1984; Lisa excavated the bison bones and artifacts at the small locus north of the site in 1993. She also analyzed the flotation sample from the site and critically reviewed the manuscript. The field work was conducted with the generous permission of Tom Scartaccini, then General Manager of ASARCO, Inc., owner of the property. The radiocarbon dates for AZ BB:13:70 and other localities were the result of Haynes' efforts in the field and in the laboratory, with support from NSF grants EAR-8216725 and EAR-8312651. We are also indebted to Karen Price, Archaeological Collections Manager of the Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico, for the fine artifact photographs that accompany this article. The late, talented archaeologist and artist Ken Rozen drew the projectile point and bifaces in Figure 7. Thanks as well to Jim Vint and Jennifer Waters, both of Desert Archaeology, for sharing their knowledge of preceramic archaeology in the Tucson Basin. Finally, we are grateful to two anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their helpful suggestions for its improvement.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Brickyard Arroyo should not be confused with the Brickyard Site, which was discovered at the eastern foot of A Mountain south of and adjacent to the Tucson Pressed Brick manufacturing plant and the San Agustin Mission site (AZ BB:13:6). The site, investigated in 1949, consisted of an estimated 50 tightly flexed burials lacking offerings, of possible preceramic age (Huckell 1984a: 140). Below them was an occupation zone, possibly including a domestic structure.

2 Although beyond the scope of this paper, we note that Wöcherl (1999) has reported one specimen of pronghorn in the Middle Archaic component at Los Pozos. She links its presence to grassland habitat along the Santa Cruz floodplain, but the Desert Grassland on the uplands away from the river would seem equally likely. Multiple Early Agricultural period sites or site components in the Tucson Basin also contain pronghorn (Waters 2005: Table 4.7).