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"We need to address the problem of whether these were made by one person or many," says Lindly. Nineteen of the figurines were found within a single burned and abandoned pithouse. Cushing, now famous for his ethnographic work among the Zuni tribe of New Mexico, named the site after recovering 15 of the animal figurines that, to him, resembled llamas (Los Guanacos means "The Llamas").Īrchaeologists hope this new discovery may clarify the function of the guanacos, now believed to be representations of domesticated dogs. The earliest excavations in the area were directed by anthropologist Frank Cushing in the late 1800s. "You could work the rest of your life on the Hohokam and never see another one," says John Lindly, assistant field director for SWCA Environmental Consultants, which conducted the recent excavations at the premier archaeological site of Los Guanacos. To date, only 27 of the ceramic representations of dogs have been recovered from excavations at other Hohokam sites, making their significance a puzzle to archaeologists. But in “10 to 20 percent” of the cases, “some kind of archaeology” comes into play, Montero said.The discovery of 21 guanaco figurines during the excavation of a 1,000-year-old Hohokam village in Tempe, Arizona, has nearly doubled the known number of these enigmatic artifacts. Most are routine, involving minor construction, unlikely to disturb ruins. What is also known is that this won’t be the last “discovery.” Every month, Montero’s team processes 10 to 20 development plans. What is known is that somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people called the region home, and that some of the early homes were lived in for 800 years. “What were they doing at the time? Were they growing corn? There is evidence of that elsewhere in Arizona.” “We don’t have much information on it,” Montero said. Our knowledge of that era is much like the shards that came up from Block 23. and 300 A.D., and there early indications that the pit homes come from that period. Experts call this phase of settlement the Red Mountain period which they place between 300 B.C. It may or may not answer some key questions about Arizona’s early inhabitants. Scientists will radiocarbon-date the shards, and after about two years of inquiry, archaeologists will prepare a report for the city.
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The old Hohokam homes will be destroyed when the supermarket, offices and apartments rise. Beyond the basic floor structure, a few shards of pottery and stone came forth, and not much else.Īll of it will be photographed, calibrated, charted, recorded, and packed off for review. Crews also found remnants of an old fire station, a J.C. This area, surrounded by tall buildings, is known to city planners as Block 23. “In areas between those developments, there is still archaeology.” “We know there is archaeology in the area, but not every area has been investigated,” Montero explained. When news broke, some were surprised there was anything that had been left undisturbed by a century of building in what is now the sixth-largest city in the country.
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Work on CityScape, the sports venues and other downtown sites turned up similar artifacts. Montero said there was nothing remarkable in the find. Montero’s team reviewed that plan, which included exploratory trenching months ago. RED Development, the company building on the surface parking lot across the street from Talking Stick Resort Arena, brought in specialists two years ago to assess the site and come up with a plan. We had reason to believe a site was there,” said Laurene Montero, the city archaeologist for Phoenix. This was something the city and developers planned. “People think it was discovered in construction. The discovery also renews old misunderstandings about urban archaeology. Their discovery resurrects a scholarly debate about who first settled the Salt River basin, when, and what were they up to. Teams found the packed dirt floors of these simple dwellings, which featured hearths and clay-and-wood walls, sometimes coated with chalky material. It’s not yet certain, but archaeologists think the pit houses likely date from the time of Christ. So it was when a team of archaeologists told the developers of a Fry’s Food Store and high-rise across the street from CityScape last week that they had unearthed the remnants of a half-dozen prehistoric homes. But they don’t always know exactly what the earth will yield. When archaeologists dig in the dirt in a downtown Phoenix development site, they know that chances are, they will find something.