The Excavations of Los Muertos and Neighboring Ruins in the Salt River Valley, Southern Arizona

This publication which originally was Emil W. Haury's doctoral dissertation for the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, is based on the work of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition of 1887-1888. The fieldwork was organized and overseen by Frank Hamilton Cushing. The Hemenway Expedition's work in the Salt River Valley was in truth a pioneering effort. Neither here nor in the adjoining Gila Valley had any systematic work of any sort been done. Although seen by some of the early Spanish explorers and recognized as ancient villages by the first white settlers, the ruins were given little more than passing attention and many were sacrificed in those early days of reclamation. An appreciation of the Indian's accomplishments came first through the recognition of their canal systems, for the white settlers busy in constructing their own irrigating systems were spared many hours of labor in some cases by clearing out the ancient ditches.

Unfortunately, the fulfillment of the proposed program of research was not to be realized. After somewhat over two years of intermittent work in the Salt River Valley, Arizona, and on ruins near Zufii, New Mexico, continued illness and complications forced Mr. Cushing's retirement as director of the Expedition. Haury's report provides a detailed description of the earlier work and uses architectural, feature, and artifact analysis to intepret the Classic period of Hohokam development and interaction with what he interpreted as a Puebloan (Salado) movement into the Salt River valley during the second half of the Classic period.