Report on new tree-ring-radiocarbon dates from Snaketown, Gila River Indian Community

Abstract

Ceramic chronologies are crucial for archaeological dating, but in many areas very few tree-ring dates are available for the high-precision refinement of ceramic phases. This paper takes a step toward the objective evaluation of Hohokam ceramic chronologies with high-precision tree-ring-radiocarbon dates. Tree-ring sequences from pit structures spanning ca. 500 years at the site of Snaketown (Hohokam Pima National Monument), an important ball-court center in the Pre-Classic Hohokam interaction sphere, were dated with wiggle-match calibration. We compare the new absolute dates to probability distributions generated from ceramic assemblages and other information. The results indicate that Middle Gila phase designations based on pottery wares and house types overlap with the wiggle-matched dates, with good agreement observed in earlier phases. However, the highest density 50-year intervals of ceramic dates generated from floor assemblages thought to date to Middle Sacaton phases do not agree with the new independent dates. Our discussion explores explanations for instances of low agreement and points out the potential contributions of scaled-up wiggle-matching studies in the Hohokam region.