Archaeology of the Pueblo Grande Platform Mound and Surrounding Features Volume 1 Introduction to the Archival Project and History of Archaeological Research

Pueblo Grande is a special place. The subject of legend both ancient and modern, it is one of the most impressive and familiar of all surviving Hohokam sites. Until recently, any visitor could plainly see from exposed rooms, deteriorating walls, and eroding test holes and tunnels that Pueblo Grande had been extensively excavated. It would have been logical to assume from this evidence that the site was one of the most famous and best documented of all Classic period Hohokam villages.
Until the present study, however, Pueblo Grande has been one of the least understood of all Hohokam sites. Due to a long series of conflicts and misunderstandings, the vast majority of the archaeological excavations conducted at Pueblo Grande remained unreported and, therefore, widely unknown. Despite the information resulting from these excavations, the site was seldom mentioned in the archaeological literature, and it was assumed by Hohokam scholars that the most important excavation records from Pueblo Grande had been lost or discarded. As with all too many sites, Pueblo Grande was written off by many archaeologists as a casualty of an earlier archaeological philosophy that considered the collection of artifacts and the exposure of architecture more important than the systematic recording of information.
We now know this viewpoint was unwarranted; the Pueblo Grande Museum Archives (PGMA) contain a wealth of information from past excavations. This archival report represents the first comprehensive attempt to synthesize and interpret the rich archaeological records of Pueblo Grande. This chapter sets the stage for those syntheses and interpretations by outlining the significance of the Pueblo Grande site, the historical factors leading to the present study, and the contents of the remainder of this and the five subsequent volumes of the Pueblo Grande Archival Project report. The chapter begins with a discussion of Pueblo Grande’s importance from prehistoric, ethnohistoric, and modem viewpoints.