The Tuzigoot Survey and Three Small Verde Valley Projects: Archaeological Investigations in the Middle Verde Valley, Arizona

This report presents the results of the TUZI 86A archeological project, whose main objective was the inventory of cultural resources within Tuzigoot National Monument and a proposed land acquisition area adjacent to the monument. It states the results of the survey, presents
a summary of previous work in the project area, and discusses the cultural history and natural setting of the region. This is followed by site descriptions, artifact analyses and results, interpretations of the subsistence patterns and external relationships of the sites, and the
chronology of the area. The archeological survey of the monument and
adjacent land identified eight sites, all of which are Southern Sinagua
sites (A.D. 1100-1450). This includes the Tuzigoot pueblo and one
additional site within Tuzigoot National Monument. A discussion of two
nearby pueblos not in the survey area but important to the archeology of
the valley is also included.

In addition to the Tuzigoot survey, three additional small, unrelated archeological projects in the middle Verde Valley are reported on. These are two projects carried out during TUZI 86A, and a third project completed in 1983 but never published. During the Tuzigoot survey, the author and two other archeologists also excavated a child burial which had been on display in Montezuma Castle (MOCA 86B--Chapter 7), and surveyed a small section of land near Montezuma Well which
identified three additional Southern Sinagua sites (MOCA 86A--Chapter
8). In 1983, A. Trinkle Jones monitored installation of drains in the
Tuzigoot pueblo; this resulted in the recovery of an infant burial below
a room floor (TUZI 83A--Chapter 6). This report is included here since
it also deals with the archeology of the Verde Valley and was previously
unpublished. The environmental and background information in the first
part of this report applies also to these three small projects and is not repeated.