Hohokam Settlement Along the Slopes of the Picacho Mountains, Volume 2, Part 1: The Brady Wash Sites

This volume documents the excavation and testing by the Museum of Northern Arizona of 92 structures, a platform mound, and numerous other features at 15 loci of the Brady Wash site and six small sites in Reach 1 of the Tucson Aqueduct Project, Phase A. These sites are a major segment of the Brady Wash Complex, a Hohokam community that inhabited the floodplain below the northwest slopes of the Picacho Mountains.These investigations provide detailed insight into long-term Hohokam adaptation to a marginal, non-riverine environment.In contrast to the large, riverine Hohokam communities, the Brady Wash community was a much simpler society employing a highly mixed subsistence strategy, equally dependent upon floodwater farming and wild plant gathering. The exploitation and possible cultivation of agave played a particularly important role in this adaptation. The community began in the early Colonial period as a series of small farmsteads along Brady Wash, with field houses and resource procurement and processing sites scattered over a broad area of the floodplain. By the Civano phase, these farmsteads became aggregated into hamlets clustered around a platform mound. The greatest degree of aggregation occurred in the late Civano phase, a time that witnessed the breakdown of riverine Hohokam communities. The Classic period hamlets at Brady Wash retained the earlier and simpler organization of small courtyard groups rather than the large compound groups typical of Classic period riverine sites. The plat form mound at Locus S of the Brady Wash complex is the smallest known example of this architectural type. Although surrounded by other structures and by a compound wall, there was no evidence of habitation at the mound itself. Instead, the platform mound served as a communal food storage and processing area, particularly for agave. The Brady Wash complex was integrated into the Hohokam regional system, but by its simpler organization and mixed subsistence base, the Brady Wash community was apparently able to maintain its stability for 600-700 years, until the call apse of the general Hohokam system ca. A.D. 1450.

本卷记录了北亚利桑那博物馆（Museum of Northern Arizona）在图森输水工程（Tucson Aqueduct Project）A阶段第一河段的布雷迪水道遗址（Brady Wash site）15个遗址点以及6处小型遗址中，对92座建筑、1座台形土墩（platform mound）及众多其他遗迹开展的发掘与试掘工作。这些遗址是布雷迪水道遗址群（Brady Wash Complex）的核心组成部分，该遗址群属于霍霍坎文化（Hohokam）聚落，坐落于皮查科山（Picacho Mountains）西北麓之下的洪泛平原地带。本次调查为深入了解霍霍坎文化长期适应边缘非河流环境的模式提供了详实依据。与规模庞大的河流沿岸霍霍坎聚落不同，布雷迪水道聚落社会结构更为简单，采用高度混合的生计策略，同时依赖洪水漫灌农业与野生植物采集。龙舌兰（agave）的开发利用与潜在种植，在该适应模式中发挥了尤为关键的作用。该聚落始建于早期殖民阶段，最初为沿布雷迪水道分布的一系列小型农庄，伴随田野居所与资源采集、加工遗址散布于洪泛平原的广阔区域内。至西瓦诺阶段（Civano phase），这些农庄逐步聚合为以台形土墩为核心的小型村落集群。聚合程度最高的时期为西瓦诺阶段晚期，彼时正值河流沿岸霍霍坎聚落体系瓦解之际。布雷迪水道遗址的古典期小型村落保留了早期更为简易的小型庭院群组布局，而非河流沿岸古典期遗址常见的大型复合建筑群组格局。布雷迪水道遗址群S遗址点的台形土墩，是目前已知同类型建筑中规模最小的一例。尽管该土墩周边环绕有其他建筑与一道复合围墙，但土墩本体并无人类居住的痕迹。取而代之的是，这座台形土墩被用作公共食物存储与加工场所，尤其用于龙舌兰的相关处理。布雷迪水道遗址群被纳入霍霍坎文化区域体系之中，但凭借其更为简易的社会组织结构与混合生计基础，该聚落得以维持600至700年的稳定存续，直至约公元1450年霍霍坎文化整体体系崩溃。