Archaeology of the Pueblo Grande Platform and Surrounding Features Volume 2 Features in the Central Precinct of the Pueblo Grande Community

Volume 2 describes the prehistoric features, excluding the platform mound and its adjacent compound, that have been excavated at Pueblo Grande Cultural Park, a 102-acre portion of the prehistoric site owned by the City of Phoenix (see Downum and Bostwick, Volume 1:Chapter 1). This city park encompasses the central precinct of the Pueblo Grande site. Data curated in the Pueblo Grande Museum Archive (PGMA) concerning the non-platform mound features are compiled and synthesized here, with the summarized data organized into chapters for each of several different types of features. These consist of trash mounds (Chapter l), pithouses and other structures (Chapter 2), a ballcourt (Chapter 3), cremation and inhumation burials (Chapters 4 and 5), miscellaneous structures, pits, and work surfaces (Chapter 6), and irrigation canals (Chapter 7).

Although Volume 2 is largely descriptive, some of the chapters contain pertinent historical information about the individuals involved in the work and the circumstances of their employment. A variety of provenience systems was used at Pueblo Grande, as well as both the American Standard and Metric measuring systems. Descriptions of the individual excavation projects in this volume retain their original provenience systems, with metric conversions given in parentheses whenever the American Standard system was used. The vast majority of the features reported on in this volume were excavated between 1936 and 1940 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crews supervised by Julian Hayden. In Volume 1 :Chapter 6, Christian Downum presents a comprehensive history of Hayden’s work at Pueblo Grande.