Salvage Archaeology on Highway 66 in Eastern Arizona

Abstract

AbstractBetween May 11 and June 10, 1959, the Arizona State Museum conducted salvage excavations along a section of U.S. Highway 66 from the Arizona-New Mexico state line westward through Lupton for about 5.8 miles. Work in 10 sites with heavy equipment and a large crew of Navajo laborers resulted in the excavation of 16 pit houses, 43 surface rooms, 7 kivas (two only partially excavated), 6 trash deposits, 18 burials, and 21 miscellaneous architectural features. These ranged from Basket-maker III to Pueblo III, with no Pueblo I representation, and included an early Basketmaker III village with Mogollon affiliations. It was possible to clarify the definition of the White Mound phase and to demonstrate a specific front-oriented village plan for the Wingate phase. This intensive excavation produced a large quantity of material and data, thus raising the problems of how to accomplish the analysis of them and the publication of the results. This preliminary report is only a partial answer.