Vanishing River Volume 1: Part 1, Scorpion Point Village: Chapters 1 - 4

The Scorpion Point site is located on a remnant of a Pleistocene terrace about 37 m above the Verde River. Researchers began the fieldwork expecting to find no more than a dozen pit houses representing a few small pre-Classic period farmsteads scattered along the terrace above the Verde River. Instead, they found the remains of a ball court village with at least 50, and perhaps as many as 300, pit houses.

At the conclusion of fieldwork at Scorpion Point Village, archaeologists with the Lower Verde project had identified 284 features, including 57 pit structures, 5 inhumations, 20 cremations, 2 ball courts, and 199 extramural features. These features represented a settlement that was occupied intermittently from the end of the Pioneer period through the Sedentary period. Many of the surface features represented a later, Classic period reuse of the site area for dry-farming and a still-later, historical-period construction camp.

The pre-Classic period occupation of Scorpion Point is treated in this volume. The Classic period agricultural site is described in Volume 2, Chapter 4. The historical-period component has been treated in Douglas et al. 1994.

蝎子点遗址（Scorpion Point Site）坐落于一处更新世阶地的残余地带，海拔较佛得河（Verde River）高出约37米。研究人员启动田野考古工作之初，预计仅能发现十余座半地穴式房屋（pit houses），对应几处沿佛得河沿岸阶地散布的小型前古典时期（pre-Classic period）农庄遗存。然而实际工作中，他们却发现了一处球类球场村落的遗存，其中至少包含50座、最多或可达300座半地穴式房屋。

在蝎子点村落的田野考古工作收官后，下佛得河项目（Lower Verde Project）的考古学家共识别出284处考古遗存，其中包括57座半地穴建筑（pit structures）、5处土葬遗存（inhumations）、20处火葬遗存（cremations）、2处球类球场遗迹以及199处遗址外围遗存（extramural features）。这些遗存表明，该聚落从先驱期（Pioneer period）末期至定居期（Sedentary period）曾被间歇性占用。多数地表遗存则显示，该遗址区域在后续的古典时期（Classic period）被再次利用，开展旱作农业；更晚的历史时期则被用作施工营地。

本卷对蝎子点遗址的前古典时期遗存进行了专题论述。其古典时期农业聚落的相关内容将在第二卷第四章中予以阐述。该遗址的历史时期遗存相关研究已由Douglas等人于1994年完成。