Hohokam Settlement Along the Slopes of the Picacho Mountains, Volume 4: Material Culture

This is the fourth volume in the Tucson Aqueduct Project, Phase A series reporting on archaeological investigations at over 50 primarily Hohokam sites in south-central Arizona. Each chapter in this volume incorporates the research focus, methodology and results of the analysis of one of the artifactual or material sets resulting from these investigations. The general ceramic analysis, conducted on over 159,000 sherds, provided the basic descriptive and comparative data and allowed us to ceramically seriate a large proportion of the sites and features. The undecorated ceramics were sorted into four varieties, three of which were found to be technologically distinct and temporally diagnostic. An intensive attribute analysis was then conducted on a reduced sample of sherds. Evidence from refiring experiments, recovered clays, unfired vessels and ceramic tool kits, and data gained from the petrographic analysis of 40 samples (Appendix A) indicate that much of the undecorated ceramics and some of the buffwares were locally produced. The ground and flaked stone artifacts are described and evaluated in Chapters ·2 and 3, respectively. The ground stone inventory was found to contain food processing tools similar to other peripheral sites. Differences were documented between the Brady Wash and Picacho localities, including the intensity of agave exploitation. Intriguing differences were noted in the flaked stone material procurement strategies between the Brady Wash and Picacho localities. An x-ray fluorescence analysis of a sample of recovered obsidian (Appendix B) resulted in the identification of seven distinct sources. Chapters 4 and 5 detail the results of the analyses of the project's shell and worked bone assemblages. Neither of these resources were heavily exploited by the Hohokam living in the project area.