A paleoecological study of the fields that incorporated analyses of soil texture, soil chemistry, and microfossil, pollen, and biosilicate content was accomplished. Seven distinct fields comprised the best-preserved field system, although additional fields were suggested by trace remnants of overlapping ditch segments. Nearly all elements of the field systems were represented, including distribution channels, primary laterals, secondary laterals, and ditch sublaterals that directly fed the fields. For the first time, Hohokam irrigated fields were exposed in both plan and profile in the Salt River Valley.Highlights of project findings include the following. Research for the PHX Sky Train project was designed to new insight and understanding about Hohokam irrigation, land use, and agricultural practices at the western margin of Pueblo Grande. The ages of the archaeological features ranged from the later Colonial through the Sedentary and Classic periods of the Hohokam chronology, roughly A.D. In all, 80 prehistoric features were documented, including large main trunk canals small and medium local canals agricultural fields and the systems of ditches that irrigated them water catchments and reservoirs an unusual canal-side basin that served multiple purposes and several habitation areas containing fieldhouses, processing and storage pits, and, in one case, an adobe structure. Located on the north side of the Salt River, west of 44th Street and south of the Grand Canal, the 17-acre project parcel overlapped the western margin of the Pueblo Grande ballcourt and platform mound community and lay just downstream of the headwaters of prehistoric Canal System 2.Ĭanals were anticipated from the outset of the PHX Sky Train project unexpected was the diversity of encountered irrigation and agricultural features. The PHX Sky Train® archaeology project was sponsored by the City of Phoenix in advance of construction of the 44th Street Station for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s then-new automated train system.
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