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New in 2019

The Lower Oak Creek Archaeological Project; Archaeological Data Recovery along State Route 89A: Cottonwood to Sedona, Yavapai County, Arizona

The SR 89A road-widening and improvement project involved phased data recovery at 13 archaeological sites along a 15.6-mile segment of the road between Cottonwood and Sedona, Arizona. The project corridor provided an environmental transect through the middle Verde River valley—from the semidesert grasslands along the river to the conifer woodland along the red rock formations marking the edge of the Colorado Plateau. Abundant water, plant, animal, and stone resources, as well as arable land have drawn people to the valley for a long time. Ancient hunter-gatherers ranged throughout the valley, leaving their dart points and other tools. Southern Sinagua and Hohokam peoples built the farmsteads and pueblos still dotting ridges and hilltops above the river. Yavapai and Western Apache groups used the valley as well, both viewing Montezuma Well as their place of origin. Hopi stories place Palatkwapi, the Place of the Red Rocks, in the region. The project sites reflected this diverse cultural landscape. The sites dated to the Middle Archaic through Protohistoric periods and functioned as resource-procurement and processing locales, short-term encampments, and farmsteads or field houses. Most work was expended on two sites, AZ O:1:105 (ASM) and AZ O:1:85 (ASM), located side by side along Spring Creek with arable land nearby. The first site was a multicomponent, Early–Late Formative period farmstead. A charred maize kernel on the floor of a Squaw Peak phase pit structure at the site yielded a 2σ calibrated date range of A.D. 410–600. Another maize sample from a roasting pit at the neighboring site, an Archaic/Early Formative period food-processing camp, returned the exact same date. This is the earliest directly dated maize in the middle Verde River valley and the earliest evidence of agriculture in the region. Some of the other work conducted during the project included investigation of a large multiethnic basecamp containing a series of possible Yavapai wickiup clearings (AZ O:1:53 [ASM]), excavation of a roasting pit at a Late Archaic period base camp (AZ O:1:28 [ASM]), and sampling of a protohistoric/historical-period horno at AZ O:1:133 (ASM). As these three volumes show, the project provided an excellent opportunity to study changes and consistency in settlement and land use in this environmental cross section over a long interval of human occupation. Volume 1 contains the introductory and background information, field and analytic methods, and descriptions of the 13 sites, along with a summary of the project sites. Volume 2 sets forth the material-culture analyses; studies of faunal, pollen, and macrobotanical data; and geomorphological data and environmental studies associated with the 13 investigated sites. A series of specialized analyses include petrographic analyses of prehistoric and possible protohistoric or historical-period ceramics, thermoluminescence dating of ceramic artifacts, obsidian sourcing, and a reconnaissance of raw materials for flaked stone tools. Volume 3 contains the synthetic and interpretive studies undertaken for this project. The chapters include a detailed overview of the project chronology, an examination of pottery types possibly affiliated with the Yavapai, in-depth paleoenvironmental and settlement studies for the middle Verde River valley, Native American perspectives on historical-period land use of the valley, and, in conclusion, a research summary for the project.

Playa Vista Archaeological and Historical Project

Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI), is pleased to announce the publication of the five-volume series, People in a Changing Land: The Archaeology and History of the Ballona in Los Angeles, California.

Volume 1: Paleoenvironment and Culture History

Volume 2: Archaeological Sites and Chronology

Volume 3: Material Culture and Subsistence Practices

Volume 4: Bioarchaeology and Paleodemography

Volume 5: Gabrielino/Tongva Origins and Development: A View from Guaspet

These volumes are available for download at no cost through the SRI Press at:

Playa Vista Technical Series

With the publication of these peer-reviewed final reports, the Playa Vista Archaeological and Historical Project (PVAHP), first begun in 1991, is now complete. The fundamental objective of the PVAHP was to understand how humans adapted to a dynamic wetlands environment in southern California over the course of 8,500 years of human occupation and use. To do so, SRI conducted numerous studies involving scores of scholars. Like so many big projects, PVAHP had many twists and turns and more than a few dead ends. Among its many accomplishments are:

• A detailed reconstruction of the Holocene history of the Ballona wetlands and surrounding region
• A thorough documentation of the Ballona’s archaeological record, including excavation and analysis of more than a dozen sites in the wetlands and surrounding region
• An extensive study of the ethnohistory of the region, focusing on the rancheria of Guaspet
• The excavation, study, repatriation, and reburial of 374 burial features associated with the prehistoric and ethnohistoric occupation and use of CA-LAN-62

We invite you to learn more about this fascinating part of the world, hidden right under our noses, in the heart of Los Angeles.