new acquisition

Hohokam Site Preserved Within Subdivision

The Shamrock Estates preserve is a model for cultural resource management.

Life in the Phoenix Basin has always been dependent upon, and limited by, water, with prehistoric settlements focused around the Salt and Gila rivers and their various tributaries and springs. Between A.D.200 and 1450, the Hohokam culture flourished in the southern and central regions of what is today Arizona. They built platform mounds, ballcourts, and pithouse dwellings while using extensive canal irrigation to farm the Salt and Gila river valleys.

As fieldwork continues in the Hohokam area, stimulated in large part by the construction of housing developments, researchers are getting a clearer picture of these highly resourceful, well-organized people. A Hohokam hamlet with as many as 30 pithouses discovered during the development of a 340-acre subdivision in Gilbert, east of Phoenix, was recently donated to the Conservancy for permanent preservation. Testing of the site determined that it was occupied during two periods in prehistory, from A.D.800 to 850 during the late Gila Butte Phase, and from 1150 to 1200 during the Sacaton Phase of the Classic Period.

This hamlet-sized Hohokam site is similar to Shamrock Estates in its size and age.It’s located approximately three miles away from Shamrock.

Cooking hearths and outside activity areas were identified at the site, known as the Shamrock Estates Archaeological Preserve. Based on what’s known about typical Hohokam settlements, it’s thought that additional domestic features are likely to exist in association with the pithouses, including cooking and storage pits, as well as trash mounds. The site’s architectural features and associated artifacts suggest that it was seasonally occupied for the collection and initial processing of wild plants and other resources.

The developer, Taylor Woodrow Arizona Inc., donated the land to the Conservancy. This winter, Conservancy staff placed a layer of geotextile material and 10 inches of soil over the site, which will be leased back to Taylor Woodrow to be used as open space within a planned community park for the subdivision. A long-term management plan was also created for the preserve. Once the community is built, the Conservancy plans to make annual presentations to the homeowner’s association regarding the site’s significance and the importance of cultural resource preservation.

“The Conservancy sees this effort as an important experiment in cultural resource management designed to integrate archaeological preserves into modern neighborhoods,” said James Walker, the Conservancy’s Southwest regional director. “We hope that the Shamrock Estates Archaeological Preserve will be used as a model by other developers seeking creative solutions to the presence of cultural resources within proposed developments.” A similar preservation project was completed in 2003, whereby a large Hohokam community was preserved as an open space park within the Cortero Ranch Subdivision in the Town of Marana, northwest of Tucson. —Tamara Stewart