CHAPTER 16

SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality, than they are hurried from it . .. (Charles Damin 1962:394).

Archaeological investigations at Los Morteros (AZ AA:12:57) and sites AZ AA:12:146 and AZ AA:12:147 provided an overview of the settlement structure of a large Tucson Basin Hohokam village and glimpses of the economic, social, ritual, and subsistence related pursuits of its inhabitants. With 98 structures fully or partly excavated and 143 other cultural features tested or excavated, a wide range of detailed architectural, artifactual, and ecofactual data were gathered and documented. The sites were found to date to the Rillito, Rincon, and Tanque Verde phases. Based on a detailed ceramic analysis, stratigraphic information, and absolute dates from key contexts, the Rincon phase portion of the Tucson Basin chronology was substantially refined. Floor assemblages of structures and quantities of preserved macrobotanical and faunal remains were particularly rich sources of information. In this chapter, the findings of the Los Morteros investigations are summarized and some of the more interesting results are discussed. Many of the conclusions are somewhat speculative; they are presented to place the author's current thoughts on the table and to stimulate future research.

CHRONOLOGICAL REFINEMENTS AND IMPLICATIONS

Dating the archaeological contexts at Los Morteros involved Heidke's refinement and testing of the Rincon phase ceramic seriation developed by the author (Wallace 1986a, 1986b, 1986c), evaluation of stratigraphic data, and running a modest series of radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dates. There was a specific attempt to excavate contexts that had the potential for chronological refinement and Los Morteros proved to be a fertile ground in this regard. Clear confirmation of the basic Rincon phase seriation, induding the division of the Middle Rincon subphase into three parts, was obtained via stratigraphic associations (Chapters 5 and 6). This now divides the period from A.D. 950 to 1150 into five parts, no one of which is longer than 50 years in duration. Enough information was also accumulated to support the strong likelihood of their being an additional division that could be drawn within the Late Rincon subphase. Confirmation from other sites will be required to assess the validity of that split. Potential temporal seriation attributes were also identified for Tanque Verde Red-on-brown ceramics, but could not be adequately tested within the limited set of Tanque Verde phase contexts available at Los Morteros. A seriation of plain ware jar rim-neck forms was also developed and proven effective.

The single most important aspect of the Los Morteros chronolOgical research is the refinement of the ceramic seriation. The results of this investigation facilitate relatively precise dating of ceramics commonly found throughout the Tucson area. Absolute dates will undoubtedly shift somewhat as new dates are obtained and techniques become more refined. For Los Morteros, the refined chronology documented important trends in settlement organization and artifact trends. It also permitted the documentation of post-reinforced adobe wall architecture, induding a compound enclosure, in the Late Rincon subphase (probably late in that subphase). The sequence of abandonment that occurred in Los Morteros South was clarified and it was estimated that the average use life of Preclassic pit structures was somewhere between 15 and 25 years. No data on the longevity of the adobe architecture of the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phases were obtained, but recent excavations north of Punkin Center in the Tonto Basin (Jeff Clark,

802 Chapter 16

personal communication 1995) and simulations run on data from the Roosevelt Community Development Project (Wallace 1995a) indicate a potential use life of 50 years or more.

Because it has not yet been possible to seriate Tanque Verde Red-on-brown ceramics, it was not possible to identify the sequence or time of abandonment in the excavated portions of Los Morteros. Absolute dates indicate that an early to mid-Tanque Verde phase date is likely, perhaps no later than AD. 1230.

The results of the ceramic seriation and other data recovered led us to seriously reevaluate the placement of the Late Rincon subphase in the Tucson Basin period sequence. We are at an awkward crossroads in chronological refinement there are enough data to indicate that the old phase and period labels do not function as they were intended, but there are insufficient data to completely change them or change just phases without also changing period labels. The Late Rincon subphase is a case in point. From all indications at Los Morteros, the Classic period, defined at the onset by certain Late Rincon-like ceramic attributes and new architectural forms (especially adobe architecture), actually has its roots in the latter portion of the Late Rincon subphase. It is awkward, given the nomenclature, to move the Late Rincon subphase into the Classic period (the author's former arguments against Late Rincon being called the "Cortaro phase" are returning to haunt him! [Wallace 1985]). The actual solution to this dilemma is, unfortunately, somewhat elusive. As the most important cultural changes seem to have occurred within the Late Rincon subphase, when the subphase can be divided, the division should mark the beginning of the Classic period. In that event, the author recommends that the Late Rincon subphase label be retained for the early portion of Late Rincon as it was originally defined here and in Wallace (I986a), and that the Cortaro label be applied to the portion moving into the Classic period. By taking this approach, adobe architecture, the compound enclosure, and indeed virtually all of the Late Rincon material excavated at Los Morteros North would be assigned to the Cortaro phase, while most of the Late Rincon material from Los Morteros South would remain in the Late Rincon subphase. In the chronology presented for the study in Chapter 6 (Figure 6.5), the boundary of the Sedentary and Classic periods are shown to be fuzzy for the reasons cited here.

Realistically, the chronology is in need of a much more thorough overhaul, but that is something that will require more than this site report to work out. With increasing refinements to ceramic dating, it has become dear that the marked periods of rapid culture change occurred within some of the phases rather than at the phase boundaries. For example, the ballcourt system and mortuary practices that mark what most consider to be "Hohokam" appear to have evolved fairly rapidly around AD. 800 in the middle of the Canada del Oro-Gila Butte phase. The collapse of the ballcourt system and marked shift in settlement pattern in the Tucson area occurs at about AD. 1025 in the middle of the Middle Rincon subphase. The system presented in this report must be viewed, therefore, as an interim solution that is expected to change. The changes anticipated are not expected to alter the sequence of events documented in this report because the foundation of this study rests on the chronological markers derived from ceramic analysis, not on phase labels and the semantic baggage they carry.

SETTLEMENT mSTORY

The initial settlement of the project area, thought to date early in the Rillito phase, was limited in the excavated sample to two superimposed structures. A series of small farmsteads, and isolated field houses were present, perhaps related to a larger, permanently settled village near the ballcourt in the central portion of the site (see Figure 1.4 for an overview of the portions of the site excavated). These farmsteads or field houses may have been situated near small ak-chin fields on the Holocene alluvial fans of the Tucson Mountains. For the Point of the Mountains region, substantial Rillito phase populations were restricted to only a few localities: the Pleistocene terrace in the central portion of Los Morteros, pOSSibly the Redtail site, the Brickyard site (AZ AA:12:51; by far the largest Colonial period settlement in the region other than what may have been present at Los Morteros), and perhaps the Huntington Ruin. Both Redtail and Brickyard may have been largely abandoned by the start of the Rincon phase and they are very likely

SUmmlJry and Concluding Remarks 803

candidates for founding populations at Los Morteros. If the ballcourt area in the central portion of Los Morteros was already occupied in the Rillito phase, the next best place to have expanded in the settlement would have been along the Holocene fan deposits of Los Morteros South where Loci 1 through 8 are situated.

Settlement Stability: The Early and Middle Rincon Subphases

The Early Rincon subphase heralded a settlement pattern shift that established the settlement structure that characterized Los Morteros up until the large-scale changes of the Late Rincon subphase. The refined Rincon phase chronology (Chapters 5 and 6), now fully supported by independent stratigraphic evidence, documents the sequence of settlement changes through the Early Rincon, Middle Rincon 1, Middle Rincon 2, Middle Rincon 3, and Late Rincon subphases. Suggested Late Rincon 1 and Late Rincon 2 subphases are discussed in Chapter 5 (pp. 311-315). Current approaches to absolute dating do not allow for precise placements of the Middle Rincon subphase divisions, but estimates are provided.

The Early and Middle Rincon subphase occupation of Los Morteros, a period of 100 to 150 years, was a period of residential stability, reflected in long rebuilding sequences within particular courtyard groups. Where constrained by soil conditions or land tenancy, these rebuilding episodes involved construction of overlapping structures over time. In areas with somewhat more space, new structures were built alongside the remains of earlier dwellings. Some population growth or immigration occurred, reflected in the establishment of Locus 2 sometime in Middle Rincon 1 on less desirable land than that already occupied by the residents of Loci 1,3,4, and 5 nearby.

The land around the portion of the settlement excavated in Los Morteros South appears to have been cleared, presumably for agriculture. Maize, an important domesticate, was processed off-site, presumably in field or fieldhouse settings. Evi<;lence from the excavations at a locus near the Santa Cruz River (Bernard-Shaw 1989b), the Murdock map (Figure 1.14), and the report of a local pot hunter (personal communication to Henry Wallace, 1980), indicate that there apparently was extensive Rincon phase exploitation of the river floodplain using irrigation agriculture. The Santa Cruz River carried water near Los Morteros only after heavy rains historically, and in prehistory, probably only carried water during the summer monsoon season and during the winter (perhaps sometimes as late as March or April after wet winters). Surface marshland conditions were present several times in the Holocene, but the water table appears to have been too low for this to have occurred during the occupation span of Los Morteros (Bernard-Shaw 1989b). Irrigation agriculture was therefore probably only reliably practiced in the summer and fall montlls, witll wet winters sometimes allowing double cropping of fast-maturing species. Domestic water supplies were probably ensured by wells dug in tlle river channel and reservoirs excavated in the clayey soils of the floodplain.

The excavations in the floodplain east of Los Morteros at site AZ AA:12:143 (formerly "Los Morteros Locus 1") provided tentative evidence for the initiation of canal irrigation either late in the Rillito phase or in the Early Rincon subphase (Bernard-Shaw 1989b). If indeed marking the first such large-scale cultivation of the floodplain using canal irrigation, it is notable that it occurred when the settlement structure of the site changed and the community expanded.

Settlement of Los Morteros proper appears to have been year-round in the Early and Middle Rincon subphases (and into at least the early portion of the Late Rincon subphase). Important wild plant foodstuffs such as mesquite beans, amaranth, and cactus fruit were probably harvested near the site on a seasonal basis. Agricultural production and wild plant gathering were sufficiently successful to permit the storage of sizeable quantities of foodstuffs in spedally constructed storage structures. Earthen jars and probably baskets were used as receptacles for storage. Spedalized bell-shaped pit storage fadlities were also utilized in some courtyard groups, though we do not know what foodstuffs or materials they stored. Agave cultivation appears to have been practiced in field settings or immediately adjacent to or within

804 Chapter 16

the confines of the village, and agave roasting may have been a special activity of each village segment's corporate group. Most of the homos used for the roasting of agave hearts showed evidence of repeated, long-term use.

Rabbits were hunted in the winter and spring, no doubt to supplement the diet in lean months. On occasion, rabbit drives were held and large numbers of rabbits were butchered and eaten as part of feasts that may have been associated with mortuary ceremonies or other special events.

The Early and Middle Rincon phase community at Los Morteros was composed of a series of village segments, each of which shared a cemetery, and one or more communal agave roasting facilities (homos). Trash was disposed of in mounds near to particular structures or courtyard groups, and on an opportunistic basis in abandoned pits and pit structures. The social unit involved was probably a corporate descent group or lineage. Each village segment was composed of from two to four courtyard groups. Courtyard groups are interpreted as the archaeological remains of households or extended family households. This type of settlement structure is thought to be replicated throughout the Tucson and Phoenix areas. Courtyard groups contained from two to five contemporaneous structures (two or three is typical), one of which may be dedicated to storage of foodstuffs and other goods. Isolated structures are also present and may in some cases represent the founding house of a new household, or they may represent special function facilities or socially segregated individuals or families.

Settlements dating to the Middle Rincon subphase in the Tucson area tend to be both large and widely dispersed, traits well illustrated in the data from Los Morteros (see Figure 15.9). Although a large ballcourt is present at Los Morteros within the bounds of the Middle Rincon subphase community, there is currently no evidence to suggest that it was in use at that time as occupation predating the Middle Rincon subphase is known to be present in the vicinity. Data from elsewhere in the basin indicate that the Los Morteros court may have been abandoned prior to the Middle Rincon 2 subphase (Doelle and Wallace 1986, 1991; Wallace 1987). This dispersed form of settlement implies relatively peaceful conditions, a lack of a clear centralized authority, be it secular or nonsecular, and the presence of widely dispersed field systems. This is a marked change from the more tightly integrated Rillito phase settlement pattern that focused on ballcourts and central plazas such as that seen at the Valencia site (Elson and Doelle 1986).

The terms "primary village," and "ballcourt village" have been applied by some researcllers to Los Morteros and other similar sites. These labels, denoting a tiered settlement system, may (see Wallace 1987:119-120) apply to the Rillito through Early Rincon portion of the settlement, but would be misleading for the Middle Rincon subphase occupation of the region. The linear, non-nucleated settlement structure for the subphase does not accord with the implicit assumption of centrality and settlement hierarchies. This is aptly demonstrated in the southern Tucson Basin in the Valencia and San Xavier-Punta de Agua areas (Doelle 1987). In each case, be it Los Morteros, Valencia, or Punta de Agua, the dispersed settlements do represent an aggregation of population because they are separated from other such settlements or settlement systems. In areas such as Los Morteros where large tracts of relatively level, habitable land could be found, these clumps of village segments occurred at relatively closely spaced intervals. For areas like the Valencia site, where drainages dissected the potential zones of settlement, the village segments were somewhat more dispersed. Therefore, one can argue that the "packing" of village segments was partly due to local environmental conditions.

For the period from the Middle Rincon 1 subphase through the Late Rincon subphase, there are no obvious integrative facilities that are as dramatic as the ballcourts earlier in the sequence and the platform mounds later on. This is not an indication that integrative mechanisms did not exist; they most surely did; but they are most likely found in subtle ties such as those established through marriage alliances, exchange relationships, and ritual gatherings that took place in less formal settings than ballcourts. These would not be expected to leave dramatic archaeological traces.

Summary and Concluding RemJlrks 805

Due to the fact that settlement was more widely dispersed on the landscape during the Middle Rincon subphase than at any other time in prehistory, there is the implication that riverine conditions and rainfall were particularly advantageous to irrigation agriculture and ak-chin farming at that time. Macrobotanical and palynological data from Los Morteros did not directly support or refute this possibility. Riparian spedes tended to be more prevalent late in the sequence, but due to the nature of the sample obtained, these results are at least partly attributable to the location of the latter portions of the settlement closer to and within the river floodplain. If a series of Middle Rincon subphase contexts could be sampled for paleobotanical remains from one of the northern village segments, we would be in a better position to evaluate environmental trends.

Particularly favorable riverine and rainfall conditions would not by themselves have been a catalyst for the dispersal in settlement that occurred between the Rillito phase and Middle Rincon subphase. Other sodal factors must also have been at work. The key to the changes observed is believed by this author to be the loss or modification of the "Hohokam" religion that had dominated central and southern Arizona since at least AD. 800 (Wallace et al. 1995). This "Hohokam ideology" had dominated relations with the Phoenix Basin and permeated virtually all aspects of life in the Tucson area. In essence, it is perceived as the glue that bound the ballcourt communities together. By loosening, and ultimately dissolving the ideological "glue," new, more dispersed communities could develop. Possible indicators of the conduding chapters in this belief system at Los Morteros are present in some of the Early Rincon subphase contexts such as structures 21 and 3179 (stone censers), and secondary cremation Feature 3045 (stone palette). Items such as these censers and palette were rare in post-Middle Rincon 1 contexts at Los Morteros. The notable loss of micaceous temper in plainware and red-on-brown ceramics at about this same time (Figure 16.1) is undoubtedly correlated with the soda 1 transformation underway, given the strong preoccupation with micaceous objects in the Colonial period (Wallace et al. 1995). It is interesting that there are no indications of hostilities during this transition. This supports the notion that the shift in religiOUS beliefs was panregional and did not meet much opposition (at least in the northern Tucson Basin), and it implies that there was still an abundance of suitable land for occupation and farming in the Tucson area. If the dating of the canal system east of Los Morteros is accurate, the expansion in settlement and movement away from the ballcourts at Los Morteros and other sites in the Tucson area may have been accompanied by the expansion of previous canal systems and the opening of larger tracts of irrigated farmland. A more favorable rainfall regime could also have accompanied these settlement changes.

It is unknown whether population levels that had probably been growing steadily for a long time in the Los Morteros region, may have reached a plateau sometime during the Middle Rincon subphase or whether they continued to climb in the Tanque Verde phase. The poor level of chronological control over the Tanque Verde phase occupation in the region restricts interpretations for that phase. The population of Los Morteros in the Middle Rincon subphase can be approximated from the data presented in Chapter 15. ApprOximately 20 to 26 contemporaneously inhabited Middle Rincon subphase village segments are estimated to have been present at the site (see Figure 15.9). Each village segment is thought to have included, on average, about two to three contemporaneous courtyard groups that are interpreted as households. Multiplied by the range of 20 to 26 village segments, this yields 40 to 78 households. Using Doelle's (1995) estimates of 5 to 8 persons per household, this produces a population estimate of 200 to 624 persons. The numbers would probably not be substantially larger if the Huntington site was induded, the only other known substantial Middle Rincon subphase settlement in the region (prior to the expansion of settlement along the Marana canal system).

Many of the structures at Los Morteros appeared to have been intentionally burned and, as discussed later in this chapter, this may relate to the death of the head of the household (see Huntington 1986:343-347). Many of the floor assemblages may have been intentionally depleted or enriched as part of the rituals involved. It cannot be assumed that all burned houses and their contents resulted from abandonment due to the death of an occupant, but the Los Morteros cases show that this interpretation accords with some, and perhaps most of them.

806 Chapter 16

O;---~--~---'----~--~--'----r--~--~~--~--~--~--~---'--~ A.D. 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200

Time

Figure 16.1. Temporal trends in the utilization of micaceous added temper in ceramics from the Los Morteros, Redtail, and Lonetree sites (from Wallace et aL 1995:608).

Late Rincon Subphase Settlement Reorganization

At the Middle Rincon 3/Late Rincon transition, something happened to initiate wholesale abandonment of the existing settlement pattern over a period of, at most, 50 years and probably less than several decades. The southern portion of Los Morteros was completely abandoned over the course of this brief span of time aside from a few isolated structures that may have been built at a later date. At the north end of our study area, occupation continued from the Early Rincon subphase into the Tanque Verde phase, but there are no indications of continuity in community organization. At Loci 11 and 12, where continuity might be expected to have been present, there appears to have been a hiatus. Locus 11 is a Rincon phase village segment overlain by a Tanque Verde phase cemetery. Continuity is possible in this locality (only a single structure was excavated), but the cemetery's placement atop the previous residential area suggests otherwise. Locus 12 was founded in the latter portion of the Late Rincon subphase; there is no trace of earlier settlement.

A host of changes in architectural forms, burial practices, and subsistence and economic pursuits accompanied the changes in settlement structure. Adobe architecture, perhaps initially in the form of heavily lined true pithouses (such as Feature 1154), and then as post-reinforced and puddled, solid adobe walled structures, first appeared in the latter portion of the Late Rincon subphase. No adobe architecture was observed at Los Morteros South, but in Los Morteros North, the compound is believed to have been founded late in the Late Rincon subphase. We know little of Late Rincon mortuary behavior; a single inhumation (Feature 3204) was the only burial at the site dated to the subphase. Primary cremations

Summary and Concluding Remarks 807

(which contained grave goods, but only a small portion of the bone) and several distinctive new forms of secondary cremations were introduced sometime after the appearance of the Tanque Verde Red-on­brown ceramic design style.

The changes observed in the Late Rincon/Tanque Verde phase subsistence pursuits compared with previous phases of occupation were dramatic and indicative of significant changes in social interaction and economy. Perhaps most striking was the trend through time in the acquisition and utilization of agave at Los Morteros. The data obtained from flotation analyses, the ubiquitous presence of tabular knives in household contexts, and the association of large homos (used for roasting agave hearts) with many of the village segments, all demonstrate that agave was grown in the vicinity of the site and processed, eaten, and utilized in the Rillito, Early Rincon, and Middle Rincon subphases. Actual cultivation of agave is assumed because the species is only rarely found in the northern Tucson Mountains and would have to have been cultivated to have occurred in sufficient numbers for the level of utilization observed. Sometime in the Late Rincon subphase, this lifeway changed and the data indicate that agave was no longer grown in the vicinity of the site, it was not roasted on site, and utilization was restricted to the importation (and processing?) of leaves and fiber. Presumably, processed, roasted hearts would also have been imported as a food resource, but these would not be expected to leave any archaeological traces.

S. Fish, P. Fish, Miksicek, and Madsen (1985) and Fish et al. (1992a) offer convincing evidence for specialization in agave production during the Tanque Verde phase in the Marana area across the river from Los Morteros. Large field systems oriented towards agave production have been reported for the Classic period from the region (see Figure 16.2), and near the Zanardelli site in the southern Tucson Basin (Doelle et al. 1985). As noted by Fish et al. (1992a:86-87), these systems represent agricultural intensification as a response to large-scale habitation in a marginal environment with low potential for floodwater farming. What has not been dear from these studies is whether the specialization in production represented by these systems equates with increased utilization by the villages located nearby, whether much of the crop was intended for export, or whether the agave crop was actually cultivated in these settings by the residents of villages located some distance away on a cooperative basis with the nearby residents. Los Morteros offers some intriguing data in this respect.

In the period from the Rillito phase through the Middle Rincon subphase, agave (all parts of the plant combined) was present in 57 percent of the structure flotation samples. Forty-three percent of the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phase samples contained agave. The high presence value for agave in the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phases at Los Morteros is illuminating. Because it consists solely of leaf and fiber fragments, it actually represents an increase in agave utilization from the preceding phases. Comparing fiber values, only 23 percent of the Rillito through Middle Rincon structure samples contained agave compared to 33 percent for the later phases. If it can be assumed that agave hearts were still being imported (without leaving any preservable traces), increased utilization may be assumed.

Comparable data are not available from the Marana area sites, but it is dear from the excavations at the Middle Rincon through Tanque Verde phase components of the series of sites excavated by Arizona State University (ASU) southeast of the Marana mound site (Henderson 1987b) that agave was an important part of the local economy and that it was grown in the immediate vicinity of the sites (Miksicek 1987b). Evidence of on-site processing and utilization of agave leaves, stalks, and hearts was recovered. Overall frequencies of occurrence in the flotation samples from the sites are lower than those from Los Morteros, but it is not dear whether this is a function of different approaches to sampling and analysis. Analyses of flotation samples from excavations at the Marana Mound site were not available at the time of this publication. The dose proximity of the largest concentration and by far the largest areal extent of rockpile fields to the Marana Mound site is striking and may be indicative of varied subsistence and economic strategies by the inhabitants of the various settlements along the Marana canal system. Rockpile fields were probably being used by the inhabitants of most of these settlements, although some may have placed their greatest efforts on other cultigens in the river floodplain.

808 Chapter 16

o

~o Rockpile fields

•• Hobitotion sites

C:;:)O Other sites , Roosting pit / horno

~ Rockpile field with roosting pit / horno

• Platform mound -- Conal

o I Mile FI ==" _--I' o I Kilometer

Contour Intervol 100 Feet

•• .. " 0 Huntington

Tucson Mountoins

~"OoJ

o

Q o ~ o

Figure 16.2. Settlement distribution in the Los Morteros and Marana canal system region during the Tanque Verde phase. Data provided courtesy of Paul Fish, Suzanne Fish, and Jolm Madsen.

SummJlry and Concluding Remarks 809

How did the inhabitants of Los Morteros obtain agave if they were no longer growing it on site? There are some speculative dues in this regard. First, although exhibiting a decline over time, tabular knives, thought to have been used for harvesting agave, were present in Tanque Verde phase contexts at Los Morteros. As these knives are thought to have been used most often for cutting rather than pulping while processing agave (steep-edged scrapers are more efficient for pulping [Bernard-Shaw 1990bD, their presence implies that either some agave plants were still being grown on-site or nearby, or that the occupants of Los Morteros took the knives to agave fields across the river for harvesting in the rockpile field systems there. This seems all the more likely when one considers that the inhabitants of Los Morteros may not have been roasting agave on-site, except perhaps on a very limited basis. The only definite Tanque Verde phase homo found during the Desert Archaeology excavations was much smaller than earlier homos. The only substantial homos dating late in the sequence found at the site appear to be the two side-by-side ones excavated by ASM just south of the canal at the northern limit of the Los Morteros North study area (Lange 1989a:139-142). None are known from the other zones of pure Tanque Verde phase settlement at Los Morteros. There is, therefore, the possibility that the inhabitants of Los Morteros might have joined, the residents of the Marana sites in harvesting and roasting agave in the enormous roasting facilities present there. This possibility will be revisited later.

Another cultigen that provided important clues to changes in settlement structure and economy at Los Morteros is corn. Corn occurred throughout the site sequence in appreciable amounts, increasing somewhat in the Tanque Verde phase. Most Significant was the change in processing indicated: prior to the Late Rincon subphase, corn arrived at the site shelled, whereas after the Late Rincon subphase it was brought in on the cob. Pollen data also indicated a change in processing strategies. Given a lack of corn pollen in the sampled Tanque Verde contexts at Los Morteros, it is likely that processing occurred in extramural areas or in special function facilities. In any event, the processing (drying, shelling) that formerly occurred in field or field house settings became on-site in the Tanque Verde phase (at least the shelling; the corn was probably shucked elsewhere and we have no indications of where the corn was dried). This shift may signal a large-scale reorganization of agricultural practices in the river floodplain. The faunal and palynological data, which point to denser vegetation in the vicinity of the site during the Tanque Verde phase than earlier, support this possibility. Corn was also shelled on-site at the ASU Marana sites (Miksicek 1987b) and the seasonal Late Rincon component of the Lonetree site (Miksicek and Bernard-Shaw 1990:154), indicating that Los Morteros reflects a regional pattern in the processing of corn.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the paleobotanical data set from Los Morteros was the near-absence of tansy mustard in the Tanque Verde phase component of the site when it had been a ubiquitous species prior to that time. In Chapter 11, the possibility was raised that this might indicate that all or a portion of the settlement moved to other locations in the late spring/early summer. Other spring and early summer species such as chia and its associated weeds (globemallow and bluegrass) also dropped in frequency in the botanical record as would be expected if the inhabitants of Los Morteros at that time were seasonally mobile. The author's first reaction to this hypothesis was skepticism, but it has proven difficult to discount the botanical record. A wide range of Tanque Verde phase contexts were sampled and it is unlikely that a sampling bias was the culprit. Moreover, although mustard family pollen (Cruciferae) was never common on the site, its absence in Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phase contexts is in keeping with the macrobotanical record.

The strongest argument against seasonal mobility at Los Morteros was found in the substantial architecture represented by the adobe-walled compound and related structures and in the full range of artifact types and burial remains present. This is not a stumbling block, however, because people would have spent most of their time each year at Los Morteros. As late spring and early summer is the dry season in the Tucson area, there would be little concern for maintenance of one's dwelling while away. With most of the year spent at Los Morteros and perhaps not all residents even moving, artifactual, mortuary, and architectural remains would be expected to be identical to those seen in a fully sedentary occupation. Though perhaps coincidental, one pit structure at Los Morteros was excavated that had a large artifact assemblage apparently left in storage, awaiting the return of its owner (Feature 1186 - vessels were

810 Chapter 16

stacked and inverted in the rear of the dwelling, no evidence of stored foodstuffs or offerings as seen in possible intentional abandonrnents, and most significantly, the structure was unburned). Dating to the transition from the Late Rincon to Tanque Verde phase, it was the only such case uncovered at the site. One would anticipate examples such as this to occasionally occur if someone died while away from the village for seasonal subsistence pursuits. Doelle (1983) documents an historic example where a Tohono O'Odham woman had stored her possessions at her primary residence in Nolic while she was farming at Big Fields. She died while at Big Fields and her house remained sealed and unburned, and collapsed with the full floor assemblage left intact.

Some architectural data at Los Morteros North do support a seasonal or limited occupation interpretation. All excavated structures in Locus 13 were oriented either to the northeast or southeast and at least in two cases, it is unlikely that courtyard groups could have been present. Based on the excavations at AZ AA:12:368 (AZ AA:12:2 [ASU]), Locus D (Bostwick 1987), along the Marana canal system, and on the mapped patterning of the Linda Vista trincheras (Downum 1986), it is known that the Rincon phase settlement structure, which induded village segments with multiple courtyard groups sharing a common cemetery or cemeteries, carried into the Tanque Verde phase at those sites. The lack of this structure in Locus 13 is consistent with an impermanent or short-term occupation.

If harvesting and communal roasting of agave was the motivation for seasonal movements of a portion of the Los Morteros settlement, one might wonder why the inhabitants would go to the trouble when they had successfully grown agave closer to home prior to the Late Rincon subphase. Indeed, it appears that some limited roasting occurred on site. The answer may lie in the social aspects of the visit more than the direct economic return. Sharing in the agave harvest resulted in access to leaves for fiber, and highly visible, large-scale roasts of many hearts at once were probably an occasion for feasting during a lean portion of the year. Such occasions would likely have coincided with important ceremonies, and because this occurred shortly before the time for planting crops, it would also have been an opportune time to coordinate the division of labor for tending fields and canals.

Classic Period Settlement Pattern Dynamics

The Tanque Verde phase component of Los Morteros excavated as part of this project was probably a peripheral portion of the settlement. Larger concentrations of Tanque Verde phase settlement were located on the Pleistocene terrace in the central portion of the site, in what is now the abandoned Arizona Department of Transportation materials pit and nearby along the eastern edge of Rillito Peak, on the slopes of Linda Vista hill, and possibly where the La Puerta del Norte trailer court is situated. A large component was also present on the west side of Rillito Peak at the Huntington Ruin. Not all these areas were necessarily contemporaneously occupied and it has long been suspected that at least portions of the Huntington Ruin may date very late in the Tanque Verde phase. The hillside village at Linda Vista was settled sometime in the Tanque Verde phase rather than in the latter portion of the Late Rincon subphase.

Across the Santa Cruz from Los Morteros approximately adjacent to Los Morteros North lies the take-off point for tlle Marana canal system (Figure 16.2; Fish et al. 1992b:23). The earliest settlements along the canal alignment once one moves beyond the end of the Tucson Mountains and away from the river, date to the Rincon phase. At Muchas Casas, dose to the end of the canal system, excavated remains included a few Middle Rincon 3 contexts (personal observation of excavated material), but most of the settlement loci date to the Late Rincon or Tanque Verde phases (Henderson 1987c). This suggests that most of tlle canal system was constructed during the Middle Rincon 3, Late Rincon, and Tanque Verde phases, with tlle largest portion of it being completed in Middle Rincon 3. As reported by Fish et al. (1992b:27), the northernmost settlements along the canal system were situated near its probable terminus, 7 km from the intake along the Santa Cruz River. At the terminus is the Marana site, which has a platform mound.

Summary and Concluding Remarks 811

The construction of the canal system coincided with the shift in settlement organization at Los Morteros. It was at the Middle Rincon 3/Late Rincon transition that the cemetery in Locus 2 may have been abandoned, and within a decade or two Los Morteros South was vacated but for a few isolated structures. The timing is too close to be considered coincidental, particularly given the evidence for shifting strategies in agricultural production cited earlier. Why the shift from settlement farther south? Settlements spanning the ceramic period were present just southeast of Los Morteros at the toe of a large alluvial fan (Red tail, Lonetree). Inhabitants of those sites probably practiced floodwater farming on the alluvial fan and canal irrigation or floodwater farming on the floodplain. Annual flooding from the Santa Cruz must have been suffident to keep charcos filled, or the water table was high enough for digging wells. A series of dry years and a corresponding drop in the water table could easily have forced a consolidation of settlement closer to the river at the Point of the Mountains where flows would be greatest or subsurface water table levels would have been highest. In addition, the clayey soil in the floodplain near the Point of the Mountains probably marks the location of the charcos mentioned in a variety of early historic accounts of the region. In dry years, these may have been critical resources. Supporting this scenario was the consolidation of settlement and the evidence for reduced cultivation near the populated areas of Los Morteros North. If field systems shifted from the west to the east side of the river in this period, a whole new system of land tenure may have been established with the construction of the canal system. Such a reorganization may well have resulted in changes in agricultural production, as seen by the shift from shelled to unshelled corn, and the ubiquitous presence of cotton. With the abandonment of Los Morteros South may have come the seeds of settlements along the canal system, as property rights were established and more favorable land was sought than had been available in the crowded northern and central portions of Los Morteros.

Developments at the Huntington Ruin also seem to jibe with the events occurring at Los Morteros. Our knowledge of the site is limited to surface mapping (John Madsen, personal communication 1993), small­scale excavations (Mark Slaughter personal communication 1995), historic accounts (Fewkes 1909; Murdock 1927), and personal observation of surface artifacts, artifacts in private collections, and interviews with residents living on the site. Even with these low resolution data, it is clear that although there was a notable Colonial and Sedentary period occupation of the site, by far the majority of the remains dated to the Classic period, including a large area near the west slope of Rillito Peak that apparently was settled initially in the Tanque Verde phase. Significant growth in the Classic period may reflect population movement away from Los Morteros South nearer to portions of the floodplain that could then be irrigated. As settlement does not extend to any significant degree west of the Huntington Ruin on the south side of the Santa Cruz River (until one reaches Brawley Wash), it is reasonable to conclude that most of the successful irrigation agriculture in the region occurred right around the Point of the Mountains and northward in the floodplain along the Marana canal system.

Fish et al. (1992b) view the settlements along the Marana canal system and Los Morteros as pieces of a single community, in part due to the placement of the intake of the canal system in a vulnerable position adjacent to Los Morteros. Indeed, the Tanque Verde phase inhabitants in the area (see Fish et al. 1992b:23) may have relied on the canals for floodplain irrigation agriculture as much or more than people living at the sites located farther down the line. They also point out that the canal system may have been occasionally fed by runoff from large Tortolita Mountains drainages that are crossed by the canal and that the canal probably was only functional for a small part of the year. Large charcos would have been required to ensure perennial water supplies to the settlements along the canal.

The placement of the canal system intake near Los Morteros does not automatically preclude conflict as Fish et al. (1992b) imply. The construction of the Marana canal system may well have initially occurred relatively rapidly in response to subsistence pressures. Opening up large new areas of potentially productive farmland was a setting ripe for the fomentation of conflict. Regardless of how the new land was distributed, it would have represented a marked change from what had been the status quo in previous years. The development of the agave field systems could have been a necessary step into spedalization in a more marginal setting for the mound site and an effort to bind the community together

812 Chapter 16

and reduce the potential for conflict. Establishing annual multi-settlement feasts and harvesting activities could have helped integrate the community.

How do the sites excavated by ASU (Henderson 1987b) fit into the settlement system? Fish (1987:238) and Fish et al. (1992b:27) suggest that the occupants of the sites obtained water from the Marana canal system, but that "farming of the flood plain was performed mainly by people living there rather than in the [ASU] sites" (Fish 1987:238). In other words, these researchers postulate that Los Morteros and perhaps other now-disturbed or buried settlements on the river floodplain controlled agriculture in that setting. Although presumably offering an opportunity for irrigation agriculture (as has been documented in historic times), the canal(s) documented by Fish et al. (1992b), is discussed purely as a source of domestic water for the sites located past the Point of the Mountains. Given documented canal irrigation agriculture in the fields near Los Morteros (Bernard-Shaw 1989b), it seems likely that this also occurred along the Marana canal system, and this author suggests that if the canal provided domestic water for a settlement, it would be likely that the settlement would have access to the water for agricultural purposes as well. If settlements were present downhill from the canal system, they would also have had access, and together with the settlements upslope, may have partly relied on river flooding to irrigate fields.

This scenario for the canal system might be somewhat oversimplified if a high degree of specialization adapted to agave cultivation had developed. One of the settlements partly excavated by ASU, Rancho Derrio, situated just southeast of the Marana mound site, may have been specialized in this fashion for at least part of its occupation span. A very low macrobotanical diversity and overall frequency of cultigens (Miksicek 1987:212), high frequency of agave remains (Miksicek 1987:213), and pollen spectra indicating a lack of fields in the vicinity of the site (Fish 1987:245) support the idea of a specialized subsistence economy and raise the possibility of seasonal occupation. If portions of the Tanque Verde phase occupation of Los Morteros were seasonally mobile, Rancho Derrio may well have been one of the sites they moved to during the spring agave harvest.

Also oversimplified here is the tacit assumption that most the of the occupants of the settlements along the Marana canal system came (at least originally when the canals were constructed) from Los Morteros. The apparent very large population of the Marana mound site and related settlements (Fish and Fish 1992) could be partly explicated by seasonal mobility. If several localities like Rancho Derrio, perhaps even a part of the mound site, were occupied by seasonal residents helping with and participating in the agave harvest (and perhaps tending fields?), the actual population of the region could look very inflated. Therefore, immigration is not a necessary explanation for the apparent magnitudinal increase in settlement area from the Rincon to the Tanque Verde phase in this region. Indeed, the low frequencies of decorated ceramics reported from the ASU sites could be a reflection of short-term, repeated, seasonal occupation. Evidence of large-scale plainware ceramic production (Kisselburg 1987) at the sites may have also contributed to this phenomenon in that most ceramics used on-site may have been locally produced. If large-scale community activities surrounded the agave harvest, craft production would have been particularly advantageous for the permanent or seasonal residents in the vicinity of the fields, as they would have been in an excellent position to exchange their wares during the gatherings.

A relatively large-scale settlement system involving seasonal mobility is only one option to account for the potentially misleading concentration of Tanque Verde phase settlements in the Marana/Los Morteros area. Sequential occupation of settlements is also likely over the course of the 100- to ISO-year span of time involved. This will be addressed further later. It is important to recognize that there are likely alternatives to the cohesive contemporaneous community posited by Fish et al. (1992b).

Construction of the platform mound and the large compound reported by Fish et al. (1992b) at the mound site undoubtedly were significant developments in the sociopolitical structure of the Marana settlement system. The mound and compound are structurally similar to many such sites in the Phoenix Basin. In most Phoenix Basin canal systems, large platform mound sites were situated at the canal intake as well as at the terminus. Was Los Morteros a platform mound site? No mound is known (or suspected) to

Summary and Concluding Remarks 813

have been present in the lowland portion of the settlement, but it is possible that the mountaintop compound on the Linda Vista trincheras served this function (see Chapter 15).

Regardless of the level of integration achieved within the group of settlements along the canal system and Los Morteros proper, there are indications of possible stress. The initial reorganization of the settlement may have occurred, as discussed earlier, due to a shift in river or rainfall regimes. It is also possible that it occurred solely as a result of stress derived from the construction of the Marana canal system. Regardless of who built the canal system, the addition of large areas of formerly unusable desert to settlement and farming could have strained the system by opening the door to political splintering and conflict over the allocation of new farmland and water rights. If outsiders moved in and established the system, perhaps in cooperation with a splinter group from Los Morteros, considerable stress could have been placed on the system. The consolidation and aggregation of settlement in the central and northern part of Los Morteros in the Late Rincon subphase could thus be seen as a response to a number of potential factors, anyone of which could have stimulated a shift in settlement (the author favors an environmental impetus, but there currently is no evidence to support it other than the heavy rainfall events marked by the flooding of the northern portion of Locus 2 in Middle Rincon 3).

Once the Marana canal system was constructed and sizable population levels developed along it, if a shift in river conditions occurred that left the canal system dry or much reduced in available water, serious conflicts could easily have erupted. The Marana Mound site depended on river flooding for domestic water and probably for irrigating fields. A few dry years and any available reservoir capacities would have been depleted. It was a long way to the river for domestic water! The historic evidence of unpredictable Santa Cruz River flows in the Point of the Mountains region leads the author to believe that the construction of the canal system and the settlements and agricultural fields that relied upon it, was ultimately a prescription for disaster. Building the canal system at the peak of Middle Rincon subphase occupation in the Tucson area likely coincided with the wettest and most reliable period of rainfall since Los Morteros was founded (based on settlement patterns in the Tucson area cited earlier), a proposition that may soon be testable with dendrochronological data. If so, the fact that the system apparently was operative for at least 100 years is a testament to the flexibility in subsistence strategies operable in the region and it helps to account for the large dry farming field systems in tlle region as a hedge against riverine conditions.

Settlement in the Point of the Mountains area may well have been very dynamic in the 150- to 200-year span of time encompassing the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phases. Initial aggregation may have been accompanied by splintering as former residents of Los Morteros moved to the Marana area. Subsequent unrest could have led to even greater consolidation of settlement in the area adjacent to Rillito Peak. Though possible that Los Morteros may have had power over the Marana mound settlement due to the location of the canal intake, it does not mean that relations were necessarily amicable. One would not necessarily want to simply cut off water supplies to a downstream settlement that had a formidable population and the ability to exact significant reprisals.

The Linda Vista and Rillito Peak trincheras offer convincing evidence of tensions in the region. In this respect, the author's perspective sharply contrasts with that of Downum (1986, 1993), Downum et al. (1993, 1994), and Fish and Fish (1989). These researchers point out that these trincheras sites (and nearby Cerro Prieto), based on excavations detailed in Appendix L and in Downum et al. (1993), show no evidence of being defensive retreats. Instead, they show every sign of being hillside villages, complete with structures, agricultural plots, burials, and possible ceremonial facilities. In addition, they point to ready access to residential areas along the lower slope of Linda Vista, and to trail access and several of the sites, implying that ready access would have been obtained by raiding parties. Most of the linear trincheras constructions occur on north, northeast, or northwest-facing slopes, leading Katzer (1993) and the aforementioned researchers to conclude that an agricultural motivation for their construction was more likely than a defensive one.

814 Chapter 16

Each of these arguments can be readily countered or explained with the evidence from Los Morteros and other trincheras sites in the region. First, the author concurs that Linda Vista was a hillside village, /'lot an emergency defensive refuge site. The question is, why was it constructed on the hillside? The energy expended on housing and agricultural production in such an environment is much greater than that for locations on the level terraces below and shortage of land was not an issue. The agricultural motivation argument is a weak one. No matter how one looks at it, the agricultural potential of the mountainside terraces was limited. In one article, Fish et al. (1984:69) wrote that: ''Production from the terraces would have been relatively minor. Labor investment was substantial and acreage was very modest." It is true that the terraces provided a form of diversification, but such agricultural diversification could have been accomplished without resorting to mountainside habitation. Fish et al. (1984:70) also acknowledge that, in keeping wi th the concept of diversification, "As less accessible, dispersed, and defensible targets, terrace crops also might have survived intentional destruction during conflict." In sum, while the Linda Vista trinclleras included small agricultural terraces, and spaces near dwellings that may have been used for agriculture, they would have provided no more than do kitchen gardens, possibly facilitating the production of certain crops such as agave and yucca that were less suited to floodplain irrigation agriculture.

Despite protestations to the contrary by some researchers, Linda Vista and Rillito Peak were defensible sites. One of the underlying assumptions of those arguing against a defensive motivation for their construction is that prehistoric warfare was large-scale and involved activities such as large-scale assaults and laying siege. Based on ethnohistoric accounts, this was unlikely. Most of the accounts of non-Anglo­induced warfare for the Pima are of small-scale raids and threats rather than large-scale events. Confrontations were generally very brief and few people were killed (Russell 1975). Aggregation as a response to Apache raiding is documented for the Gila River Pima (Russell 1975:201). Russell's accounts are important because they demonstrate that defensible locations do not need to be hilltop fortresses surrounded by walls, and that a variety of responses to the threat of lethal force are taken in different settings by different groups (see also Vencl 1984). By moving onto rocky slopes, a margin of visibility and defensibility was afforded the residents of Linda Vista. Trails to residential areas on sites such as Cerro Prieto and Linda Vista may not have been known to raiders, and so, contrary to Downum (1993:118), these need not have been "design flaws."

Perhaps most telling for Linda Vista and Rillito Peak is the placement of the trincheras; they are located along portions of the Tucson Mountains where high, sheer cliffs bound one complete side of the mountain, making ascent very difficult. At Linda Vista, there is a masonry wall that blocks off the pass immediately north of the village - this is the one point of ready access from the west side of the mountains (Figures 16.3, 16.4, 16.5). This wall, not discussed in previous publications, is difficult to explain through anything other than a defensive motivation. In its present collapsed position, it still stands up to a meter in height and 3 to 5 meters in width. It would have stood at least 2 meters in high prior to its collapse. As seen in Figure 16.5, the wall is situated so as to completely block off passage through the mountain pass. A potential alternative route on the southern mountain slope in the pass was also blocked by a combination of natural mountain boulder talus and a built-up terrace. A high boulder at the south end of the wall and high rock outcrops north of the wall would have provided good observation posts, if lookouts were required. A short distance to the east of the wall in "defended" territory, an oval depression marks the location of a possible trinchera structure. It was surrounded by boulders as is commonplace at Linda Vista, and a hammers tone was found within it.

Although it is true that some trincheras are found near the base of the slope at Linda Vista and Cerro Prieto in less "defensive" locations, one must assume that sentries would have been required had these structures been there or not. If the Gila River Pima could live in open villages with the threat of ongoing attack, so too could the lower slope residents of Linda Vista and Cerro Prieto. During times of strife, particularly on dark nights noisy from foul weather, the Pima posted sentries (Russell 1975:201). From all indications, most of the concern at Linda Vista seems to have been with protecting the western flank.

Summilry and Concluding RemJlrks 815

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816 Chapter 16

Summary and Concluding Remarks 817

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818 Chapter 16

Had the motivation for the placement of the trincheras been simply diversification and agricultural intensification, much more favorable northern and eastern slopes would have been used. The most optimal location was on the southern margin of the pass south of Rillito Peak. Notably absent at that location, however, are steep slopes and a clearly defensible location ... and no trincheras were constructed there.

In sum, it is proposed here that the threat of conflict, whether it actually occurred or not (see Ferguson 1984), led the inhabitants to build the large hillside village of Linda Vista and the smaller habitation (possibly temporary?) on Rillito Peak. This hypothesis differs slightly from earlier proposals regarding trincheras sites and warfare because it acknowledges that Linda Vista Hill was not a defensive refuge, but was instead a defensively constructed village. The same can be said for Cerro Prieto. Doelle and Wallace (1990:245) suggest that these sites marked the boundary between potentially hostile groups farther north and the occupants of the northern Tucson Basin, supporting the argument with a notable gap in the distribution of platform mounds and by the distribution of certain ceramic types. The fact that they lie near to what became a no man's land between the Tucson and PicacllO areas, supports this premise. As seen here, there are also possible explanations that involve conflict within local settlement systems.

The construction and occupation of the trincheras at Linda Vista and Cerro Prieto have been discussed at some length by Downum (1993) as being integrated aspects of their respective communities. Fish and Fish (1992:103) also assume contemporaneity among the various Tanque Verde phase settlements in the Robles and Marana-Los Morteros areas. By raising the specter of potential conflict and considering the possibility of seasonal mobility and a sequential process of aggregation and reorganization in the Los Morteros area, a very different and much more dynamic picture of settlement can be drawn. Population levels were probably nowhere near what has been implied in previous studies (Fish and Fish 1992:103).

The abandonment of the Northern Tucson Basin and lower Avra Valley-Los Robles areas in the later portion of the Tanque Verde phase was one of the most dramatic and comprehensive in the history of the Tucson Basin (Fish et al. 1992; Fish and Fish 1992, 1993; Wallace and Holmlund 1984). As noted by Fish and Fish (1993:105), it encompassed an area of some 1,300 square kilometers from the juncture of the Canada del Oro Wash and the Santa Cruz River to the Picacho Mountains. It did not, however, necessarily occur as a short-term event accompanied by a mass exodus. There are hints that settlement had consolidated into areas such as the eastern section of the Huntington Ruin and the Pleistocene terrace in central Los Morteros during the latter portion of the thirteenth century (based on the architectural remains present in these areas). But how much of the floodplain portion of Los Morteros was occupied then is unknown. The portions excavated as part of this study had probably been abandoned well before that time. The most likely scenario from the author's perspective is one in which the Linda Vista hillside village was one of the last portions of Los Morteros occupied (perhaps in addition to one or two lowland areas). Whether this was coeval with the closing days of the Marana Mound site or not is subject to conjecture. Perhaps the trincheras village was constructed as a result of developing tension between Los Morteros and the residents of the mound site, or perhaps it was the last trace of substantial occupation in the region and it was constructed because it was on the edge of a no-man's land with potential enemies located beyond; it will take additional excavations to be sure.

Due to the changes underway in the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phases, the long span of time involved, and poor preservation of this settlement component, it is very difficult to estimate population levels. There is no evidence that there were more people at Los Morteros in the Tanque Verde phase than during the Middle Rincon subphase. If the Linda Vista trincheras represent the closing chapter in settlement of the region, and approximately two-thirds of the 80 possible habitation structures on the hillside (see Downum, Appendix L) were contemporaneous at any given point in time, then roughly 200 persons may have been in residence. This figure takes into account that the structures tended to be small and that some may have served spedal nonhabitation functions. This is at the lower end of the population estimate range proposed earlier for the Middle Rincon subphase at Los Morteros. Were there more people than this during tlle Classic period when the Marana sites are included? Probably, if the

Summary and Concluding Remarks 819

mound site were coeval with the trindleras; otherwise no. Probably, if the mound site or the Huntington Ruin were coeval with the trincheras; otherwise no. A population greater than that of the Middle Rincon subphase could have been sustained in the Marana-Los Morteros region during the Tanque Verde phase if additional land was cultivated and the agave field system is taken into account, but we need to accumulate better dating information to assess issues of contemporaneity between and within the sites before settling on the true demographic trajectory. Only 100 people were reported in the vicinity at the time of Kino's visit in November of 1694 (Burrus 1971:215).

Why was the Northern Tucson Basin abandoned? Presumably, the former occupants of the northern basin moved either southward into the large, newly developed aggregated settlements of the Tucson phase, or northward to the large, late communities near the Picacho Mountains and Picacho Peak. The abandonment of this region coincides with a process of aggregation that occurred over much of the U.s. Southwest at the end of the thirteenth century and many of the factors involved are likely related to a larger scale of analysis than attempted here. On the local level, deteriorating social conditions due to increasing hostilities could have been one preCipitating factor. There are other likely causes as well, and the author concurs with Fish and Fish (1992, 1993) that it was a social process; that is, it involved a consensual movement of large groups of people into areas already inhabited by other groups. New mechanisms of social interaction and leadership were undoubtedly emerging. A lack of late thirteenth­century imported ceramics on the sites in the northern Tucson Basin indicates that the abandonment process was substantially complete by A.D. 1275 to 1300.

ECONOMY, PRODUCTION, AND EXCHANGE

The inhabitants of Los Morteros benefitted by their location on a major pathway that extended from the Tucson area north to the Gila River and points west and northeast, and because extraordinary varieties of economically valuable resources were available on-site or nearby. Locally available mineral resources that figured prominently induded raw hematite, a fine-grained dacite commonly called Rillito Peak jasper used for chipped stone tools, and a vesicular dacite used extenSively for ground stone implements. The riparian resources of the Point of the Mountains region were perhaps the most valuable to the local inhabitants. These induded mesquite beans, abundant wildlife, and water for consumption and irrigation of croplands. Some items were imported into the site in notable quantities. These included a large percentage of the utilitarian and decorated pottery, shell jewelry, and basalt manos and metates. Rare items that were probably highly valued were also imported, including copper bells, scarlet macaws, obsidian, and turquoise jewelry. The Significance of these various aspects of the Los Morteros economy will be briefly summarized here.

Pottery

Ceramics were the focus of much of the analytical efforts on the project given the large quantities involved and potential information return. Investigations focused on stylistic and morphological traits that could be used to refine the chronolOgical sequence, but there was also a desire to characterize the temper present in the sherds and vessels. Along with data from the Lonetree and Redtail sites, a virtually unbroken sequence of ceramic occupation has been documented from the Tortolita phase into the Tanque Verde phase. Data on the production and distribution of ceramics at Los Morteros takes the form of artifactual evidence (or lack thereof) for pottery manufacturing, direct evidence of exchange or transport in the form of intrusive wares SUdl as Phoenix Basin buffware, and direct evidence in the form of petrological data for Tucson Basin wares. Only preliminary temper studies could be completed because a petrolOgist was unavailable during the course of the study. While accurate at the level presented here, refined sourcing such as that possible in 1995, could not be accomplished when the temper study was completed in 1990.

820 Chapter 16

Evidence for the production of pottery at Los Morteros is present, but not extensive. Only 66 burnishing or polishing stones were recovered and of these, only one was stained with hematite in a manner consistent with the burnishing of redware pottery. When compared with a site where the inhabitants are known to have been large-scale ceramic producers (West Branch), and a site where most pottery was imported (Tanque Verde Wash), Los Morteros falls somewhere in between. Expressed as a ratio of polishing stones multiplied by 100 (to make the figures easier to use) to total ceramics recovered, Los Morteros comes out at .17 compared to .30 at West Branch and .02 for Tanque Verde Wash (data from Wallace 1986a, 1986b). The scale of production appears to be nowhere near that evident from the work of various researchers at West Branch (Heidke 1993, 1995; Wallace and Heidke 1986; Karen Harry, personal communication 1995), but it is not inconsequential. For the northern Tucson Basin, the only evidence for substantial pottery production is from the sites excavated by ASU along the Marana canal system (Kisselburg 1987). The contexts at these sites, which date to the Rincon and Tanque Verde phases (most are probably Tanque Verde phase), induded 84 polishing stones in addition to unfired, tempered day coils, micaceous tempering material, anvil stones, and in one case, an unfired pot (Kisselburg 1987:143-144). By the polishing stone to total ceramic assemblage ratio cited earlier, the value for these sites lumped would be .44, the highest recorded for the region. This may be somewhat inflated due to the high percentage of burned structures and floor assemblages recovered (polishing stones are most often found in de facto floor contexts), but by all indications the inhabitants of these settlements were making a large number of pots.

The contrast between the Marana sites and Los Morteros for pottery production is striking. It is even more interesting when it is considered that the Marana sites have less than 3 percent decorated pottery (Henderson 1987c) compared with over 20 percent at Los Morteros and similar high values at the Marana platform mound site (Fish et al. 1992) and Cerro Prieto (Downum et al. 1993). The lack of hematite­stained polishing stones at the Marana sites and low decorated percentages suggest that pottery production at the sites focused on plainware.

Figure 16.6 provides an overview of the trends in plainware pottery temper sources in the pooled Los Morteros, Redtail, and Lonetree data set (raw data are provided in Table F.I0). The results are douded somewhat by the large percentages of vessels with high proportions of added micaceous rock temper (most of these were probably tempered with crushed Catalina gneiss). We know from surface observations and excavated floor assemblages that a series of settlements in the southern portion of the Tucson Basin were adding crushed gneiss to their vessels (Huntington 1986; Wallace and Heidke 1986) and it is likely that most of these vessels originated from the West Branch community for the Canada del Oro through Middle Rincon 3 portion of the sequence; however, instrumental day analyses will be required to demonstrate this proposition. From the Middle Rincon 3 subphase into the Tanque Verde phase, pots tempered with high percentages of crushed micaceous rock may have also originated from the sites along the Marana canal system, as this material has been documented in floor contexts with otller evidence of ceramic production at the ASU sites (Kisselburg 1987). Regardless, the trends are similar whether the micaceous temper is added to the volcanic temper category or not. The volcanic temper category lumps sand tempers that could have originated anywhere along the eastern face of the Tucson Mountains (induding Jl, J2, J3, and the Rillito Petrofacies as seen in Figure 16.7). Therefore, sands from the Los Morteros site and those from other localities along the Tucson Mountains such as the West Branch and St. Mary's sites are not differentiated (this study predated the refinements of sand sourcing now possible for this region). Notes and observations made by James Heidke, the ceramic analyst, have narrowed the possibilities somewhat, however, by noting key dues in the recorded pottery that accord with the mudl-refined current petrofacies descriptions and map (see Figure 16.7 for a map illustrating petrofacies and areas discussed here). These observations are taken into account in the following discussion.

The strong representation of vessels produced in the Tortolita Petrofacies for the Tortolita through the Rillito phases was anticipated given that the largest villages in the region dating to this portion of the sequence are thought to have been located on the Tortolita Mountains bajada along the Santa Cruz River

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Summary and Concluding Remarks 821

TIME

Tortolita Petrofacies

Volcanic (most are probably Tucson Mtns.)

_ Added micaceous temper (>250/0)

Figure 16.6. Trends in plainware temper sources identified in sherds from well-dated conte.xts at the Los Morteros, Lonetree, and Redtail sites. Indeterminate. high mica, and fine paste temper categories are e.xcluded.

across from Los Morteros and to the southeast. The Brickyard site, located across the river from Redtail and Lonetree, was probably one of the leading producers for plain ware pottery at that time. Increasing percentages of micaceous rock-tempered and volcanic tempered pottery from the Canada del Oro phase to the Rillito phase is thought to be a reflection of the increasing importance of the West Branch Community in the production of pottery that was distributed throughout the Tucson area. It cannot be definitively stated that the majority of pottery came from West Branch during this period due to the status of petrofacies identification possible when the study was performed, but the thin sections analyzed from volcanic tempered sherds at the site support such a claim (James Heidke, personal communication 1995; see Appendix M).

822 Chapter 16

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/

/ /

Figure 16.7. Map showing current petrofacies locations and designations, induding those discussed in the text. Data are taken from unpublished material provided by Elizabeth Miksa, Michael Willey, and James Heidke.

Summary and Concluding Remarks 823

It is interesting that plainware pottery produced at settlements across the river from Los Morteros in the Tortolita Petrofacies become a dominant component of the assemblage again during the Middle Rincon subphase, peaking in Middle Rincon 3. The largest settlement in the region for that portion of the sequence is Los Morteros and only minor sites are known across the river in the Tortolita petrofacies. Whether settlements along the Santa Cruz River across from or southeast of Los Morteros were producing the pottery, or whether the sites along the Marana canal system date earlier than suggested is unknown. Some of the early radiocarbon dates obtained from the ASU sites could argue for the latter, though supporting evidence in the form of decorated pottery is lacking. Another possibility might be the large Rincon phase settlements of Sleeping Snake (AZ BB:9:104) and Honeybee (AZ BB:9:88) at the southeast comer of the Tortolita Mountains. At first glance there appears to be a drastic decline in Tortolita Petrofacies tempered plainware at the transition between Middle Rincon 3 and the Late Rincon subphase. This may be misleading, however, if most of the micaceous rock-tempered pottery at this point in the sequence also came from the Tortolita Petrofacies as suggested by the ASU data. If true, only a minor decline would be noted. The relationship between Los Morteros and settlements in the Tortolita Petrofacies across the river might have included the acquisition of vessels and actual manufacturing of pottery by the occupants of Los Morteros while seasonally residing in this area during the late spring.

A notable percentage of the plainware vessels dating to the Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phases also came from a Tucson Mountains volcanic source. Most were probably not from Los Morteros given the paucity of ceramic production evidence there, but the origin of the pottery is currently unknown.

The temper in red-on-brown pottery in the pooled Los Morteros-Redtail-Lonetree data set is nowhere near as variable as the plainware pottery over time. As seen in Figure 16.8 (see Table F.ll for the raw data), throughout the sequence from the Canada del Oro to the Tanque Verde phases, the majority of red-on­brown pottery came from Tucson Mountains sources. Most are thought to have originated from the West Branch community for the Canada del Oro to Middle Rincon 2 portions of the sequence based on thin section analyses, tllOugh some are known to have been produced in the vicinity of Los Morteros (James Heidke, personal communication 1995). Those from the Middle Rincon 3 to Tanque Verde phase portions of the sequence could have come from the southern basin, but they might also have been produced at Huntington and to a minor degree, at Los Morteros. A small proportion of the pottery in the Canada del Oro phase was manufactured at a Tortolita Petrofacies site(s) (perhaps Brickyard?), as was the case for the early plainware in the region. Noticeable percentages of Tortolita Petrofacies pottery also show up in the transitional Middle Rincon 3/LR sample from Los Morteros and the Late Rincon samples from Los Morteros and Lonetree, perhaps marking the initiation of ceramic production at the sites along the Marana canal system that later focused their attention primarily on plain ware.

Also of interest among the Tanque Verde phase red-on-brown ceramics at Los Morteros is the large percentage (25 percent) of vessels tempered with very fine sand. It is presently unknown where the temper in these sherds originated. The temper does not match any known source in the Tucson or Avra Valley areas (James Heidke, personal communication 1995).

The most abundant imported ceramics at Los Morteros were the Phoenix Basin buffwares, which comprised up to 43 percent of the sherd assemblage early in the sequence and declined dramatically during Middle Rincon 2 times (Table 5.19). Buffware vessels were present in a number of the residential floor assemblages and were included as a mortuary offering in one case. A Sacaton Red-on-buff jar was used for storing shelled com in a dedicated storage structure in Locus 5 (Feature 3175). Other items probably imported from the Phoenix area at the same time as the buffware include carved stone palettes, and pOSSibly some of the carved stone bowls and censers. The high frequency of buffware ceramics at Los Morteros is consistent with other sites in the Tucson area other than in the zone along the Santa Cruz River from the St. Mary's Ruin to Boundary Village where higher relative frequencies of locally produced decorated wares were present (Wallace 1987:146; Doelle and Wallace 1991; Heidke 1995). Buffware ceramics were found to co-occur with red-on-brown pottery in all types of contexts. Though no doubt

824 Chapter 16

~ z w ~ w a..

TO SN RI ER MR1 MR3 LA ES COO RVER ERlMR1 MR2 MR3ILR TV

IIIIITIl ---

TIME

Fine sand (trunk stream or river terraces?) Tortolita Petrofacies Volcanic (most are probably Tucson Mtns.) Added micaceous temper (>25%)

Figure 16.8. Trends in red-on-bro\\"I1 temper sources identified in sherds from well-dated contexts at the Los Y1orteros, Lonetree, and Redtail sites. Indeterminate, high utica, and fine paste temper categories are e.xcluded.

valued more highly than their Tucson Basin counterparts, there were no indications that it was a high status or strictly mortuary item.

Imported ceramics from regions other than the Phoenix Basin were scarce at Los Morteros. Most of those present were from contexts post-dating Middle Rincon 2 times. Low frequencies of pottery from the lower San Pedro River Valley, Mimbres area, Cibola area, and Papagueria were present, none of which ever comprised more than 1 percent of the ceramic assemblage. Virtually all of these imported vessels could have originated from settlements in the San Pedro Valley and somewhere to tlle west or southwest of Los Morteros in the A vra Valley where all of the recorded types are commonly found. A down-the-line system of exchange was likely involved in getting ceramic types such as Snowflake Black-on-white and Mimbres Classic Black-on-white into the site. It is interesting that even though a wide variety of imported

Summary and Concluding Remarks 825

wares from northern and eastern Arizona occur on sites in the Phoenix area, they apparently were filtered out there and did not reach Los Morteros. Indeed, there are very few indications of commerce between the site and the Phoenix area after Middle Rincon 2 times; most of the pottery seems to have come from either the northern or southern Tucson Basin.

From all indications, Los Morteros residents were primarily consumers of ceramics, producing only a small to moderate portion of what was needed at the settlement and probably not producing much for distribution. Much of what was needed at the site appears to have been obtained from sites located along the Santa Cruz River drainage in the Tucson area.

Mineral Resources

Mineral resources that were locally available to the Los Morteros inhabitants included raw hematite, a fine-grained dacite, a vesicular dacite, and chalcedony. The hematite source, found on the lower west slope of the Linda Vista hill, appears to have been widely used at Los Morteros, and evidence of processing was found in many Rincon and Tanque Verde phase contexts in the form of debitage as well as processed pigment. It is possible that the residents of the site processed hematite for export as well as for local consumption. Hematite was a commodity that was in demand throughout the sequence and has been recovered at most excavated sites in the Tucson area. Sources are currently only known from Los Morteros, Picacho Pass, and in the Ragged Top area (Madsen 1993:63), although there are likely to be others in the Tucson area that have not been reported. Detailed mineralogical and chemical studies will be necessary to determine whether source areas can be distinguished and how widely the Linda Vista source hematite is distributed.

The two most important lithic raw material sources locally available at Los Morteros were a fine grain dacite and a porphyritic vesicular dacite. Source areas of fine-grain reddish-brown, maroon, and lavender dacite (incorrectly called andesite in Madsen [1993] and jasper by the author [1983]; see Chapter 7) in the northern Tucson Mountains are discussed by Madsen (1993:69). A talus quarry in a saddle atop Rillito Peak comprises one of the largest sources known to have been used in prehistory. The material comprises 38 percent of the chipped stone assemblage in the excavated sample from Los Morteros (Table 7.8; this material was called "rhyolite-andesite" during analysis). Other sources occur in the Tucson Mountains SOUtll as far as Contzen Pass (Madsen 1993:69), but it has not been reported farther north or west. The material is distributed throughout the Marana and Los Robles areas, though it comprises no more than 4 to 5 percent of the chipped stone assemblages in those regions (Madsen 1993:67). Interestingly, it is slightly more abundant at the Robles sites than at the closer sites near the Marana Mound on Tanque Verde phase sites, while the reverse is true for Rincon phase sites. This pattern may relate to other aspects of community interaction as will be seen later in this discussion. In general, fine grain dacite such as that found on Rillito Peak was used by residents living near the source. It is not known to be widely distributed beyond the zone extending from Cortaro to Marana to Cerro Prieto.

Vesicular dacite, used as a raw material for manos, metates, pestles, and mortars at Los Morteros, was quarried from the western slope of Rillito Peak adjacent to the Huntington Ruin. Tools were rough­shaped at the quarry site, and probably finished back in the habitation areas. Other quarries and sources are likely present that have not been documented. In general, most of the raw material used for ground stone tools at Los Morteros were probably obtained from the mountains adjacent to the site. That the dacite was particularly well-suited for mortars and pestles is attested to by the hundreds of bedrock and boulder mortars found at the site (Wallace and Holmlund 1983).

Chalcedony, an agate available in the northern Tucson Mountains, exhibited a marked decline over time in the cllipped stone assemblage at Los Morteros. As reported by Dart (Chapter 8), this probably relates to the depletion of the most suitable pieces of this material from the vicinity of the site. The material was probably never very important as an item of exchange although projectile points manufactured from it might have been exported.

826 Chapter 16

Vesicular basalt, used for manos and metates, was not abundant at Los Morteros, but noticeable frequencies were present nonetheless. There are no nearby sources of basalt. A series of sources in different directions are present at a distance of about 24 to 28 kilometers. These include AZ AA:ll:92 on the edge of the Silverbell Mountains to the west, the Samaniego Hills located slightly further to the northwest, Tumamoc Hill located to the southeast of the site along the Santa Cruz River, and the Owl's Head Butte-Huerfano Butte sources at the northern limits of the Tortolita Mountains. It is not known which sources supplied Los Morteros or what the mechanisms of importation might have been.

Very few of the artifacts from Los Morteros were made of argillite. The assemblage was limited to occasional beads and pendants, all of which are clearly imports. In Appendix J, Elson and Gunderson determine that the argillite in three out of four of the artifacts analyzed probably originated from the Tucson Mountain Redbed source from the west slope of the Tucson Mountains north of Gate's Pass in the Red Hills. The fourth could not be definitively traced to a source. Other exotic minerals found at Los Morteros have not been identified to source. These include items of obsidian and turquoise. Perhaps most interesting among these items is what is not present: there is no evidence of turquoise artifact manufacturing and there is only one piece of turquoise that is similar macroscopically to the material found in great abundance in Pioneer and early Colonial period contexts at the nearby Redtail and Lonetree sites (Bernard-Shaw and Hohmann 1989; Bernard-Shaw 1990a).

Shell

The Los Morteros shell assemblage reported on by Vokes in Chapter 9 was large and diverse. All major shell artifact forms associated with the Hohokam were recovered, induding some that are extremely rare. Most of the material recovered from the site represented finished artifacts, indicating that the inhabitants were consumers of the shell products, although a small amount of on-site processing did occur. General trends in the distribution and frequencies of shell species and artifact forms parallel those found in the Hohokam region as a whole. For example, bracelets or armbands were most common in deposits predating the Late Rincon subphase, whereas whole shell beads become very abundant in Tanque Verde phase contexts.

Several unusual aspects of the Los Morteros shell assemblage are worth reiterating here. One cache pit dating to the Middle Rincon subphase contained a large, complete Lyropecten subnodosus valve. This species has been previously found at only two sites outside of the Papaguerian shell-working-trade route sites, Snake town and Gatlin. The species may well have served a special function and it was likely a highly valued artifact. Another probably highly valued shell artifact was found in one of the unusually rich Tanque Verde phase cremation deposits (Feature 1532) in Cemetery C-4: fragments of a Melongena patula - probably a trumpet. Trumpets, as discussed by Nelson (1991:68-70, 81), are most often found at platform mound sites in Classic period settlements. The presence of this artifact at Los Morteros is intriguing: Could tllis indicate that a platform mound or edifice serving the same function was present at Los Morteros? Alternatively, perhaps the individual interred was associated in some way with the Marana platform mound.

Another seldom seen shell artifact from Los Morteros was a probable earspool manufactured from a thick-walled Glycymeris valve. It was recovered from the fill of pit structure 3054 which is thought to have been deposited as part of a ritual related to the deatll of the head of the household. Similar artifacts have been recovered at Las Colinas (Vokes 1988a:357-360) and at sites in the Tucson area. Earspools are interesting because they point to potential relationships with Mesoamerica.

Two genera of gastropods that originated from the Pacific Coast of California or from Baja California are represented in the Los Morteros assemblage. Three fragments of worked Haliotis sp. (abalone) shell were recovered from varied contexts at Los Morteros and site AZ AA:12:146. Other specimens were probably present but could not be separated from the nacreous portions of other shell species. Haliotis is

Summary and Concluding Remarks 827

consistently recovered on sites in southern Arizona and was specifically noted to be in use by the inhabitants of the region at the time of Father Kino's travels (Di Peso 1956:82). The other species from the Pacific coast, Megathura crel1ulata, is represented at Los Morteros by 27 ovate rings from secondary cremation Feature 1003 in Cemetery C-4. This species and artifact type is only known in Arizona from Tanque Verde phase primary cremation deposits at two other sites, both in the Tucson Basin: Rabid Ruin (AZ AA:12:46) and Dakota Wash (AZ AA:16:49). Vokes suggests that the shells from all three sites may have been brought into the Tucson area at one time. In each case, the shells were probably on necklaces worn by the individual that had been cremated. The individual in the Los Morteros cremation was in his teens at tlle time of his or her deatll. It is reasonable to suppose that the shells were highly valued given tlleir limited distribution in mortuary contexts and long distance transport. Vokes reports that local copies were also produced at Los Morteros and Dakota Wash and that the copies are also restricted to mortuary contexts.

Although a general lack of on-site processing was identified by Vokes, etched shell does appear to have been manufactured at Los Morteros based on the presence of a specimen with some of the resist remaining. This specimen was one of 4 etched fragments recovered during the present investigations and, together with the 8 specimens recovered by the ASM at the site, it brings the site total to 12. Another six specimens were recovered from Kelly's excavations at the Hodges site (AZ AA:12:18), induding one also covered with remnants of the resist material indicative of manufacturing (Pomeroy 1959). As noted by Urban (1989:295), this is an extraordinary number of pieces etched shell when compared to sites in otller regions and it points to the possibility that settlements like Los Morteros and Hodges in tlle Tucson Basin may have produced much of the etched shell found in southern and central Arizona. The remarkable etched and painted shell recovered from what was probably the Huntington Ruin seen in Cummings (1953: Plate 3), Sharer and Ashmore (1979:326, Figure 9.16), and Jernigan (1978:Plate 3) attests to the skill of the shell craftsperson(s) in the area.

Textiles and Subsistence Resources

The economics and distribution of foodstuffs are much more difficult to quantify and track archaeologically than the other durable goods discussed in this chapter. Most of what has been learned was obtained indirectly through macrobotanical and faunal analyses and the study of stone tools and regional settlement patterns. As a result, the wealth of data from Los Morteros is genuinely exciting. Most interesting from the data set are indications of specialization in tlle production of cotton and agave textiles, possible commerce in mesquite meal, and the evidence for seasonal mobility during the Tanque Verde phase.

Seasonal mobility during tlle Tanque Verde phase related to the harvesting and consumption of agave hearts has already been discussed. Not fully addressed is the evidence that fiber may have been processed during the Tanque Verde phase as well. There are two lines of evidence to be cited in this regard. The first lies in the macrobotanical record, which shows a dramatic increase in agave fiber from the Middle Rincon to the Tanque Verde phases. The second is the evidence for increasing numbers of perforated ceramic disks that may have been used as spindle whorls. More than three times as many of these artifacts were recovered from Late Rincon and Tanque Verde phase contexts than were found in contexts dating to the previous phases (when standardized against sherd counts). Supporting the significance of agave fiber for textiles is the notable increase in cotton in the Tanque Verde phase macrobotanical data set. Cotton seeds were found in a wide range of contexts and at a frequency high enough to indicate cultivation by the inhabitants of the site.

Undoubtedly the single most important subsistence resource to Los Morteros was water for domestic purposes and for floodwater and irrigation farming. Direct access to the Santa Cruz River, whether flowing or as a locality where one could dig for water, was a tremendous asset to the settlement. Aspects of water rights and potential changes in water availability and accessibility have been considered elsewhere and are not further addressed here.

828 Chapter 16

Mesquite beans are thought to have been an extremely important component of the diet for the inhabitan ts of Los Morteros, a supposition supported by the large numbers and arrangements of bedrock and boulder mortars (Wallace and Holmlund 1983), the presence of pestles in excavated contexts, the recovery of macrobotanical remains, and tile proximity of the site to a probable mesquite bosque. It is not known whether people from other villages came to the Point of tile Mountains mesquite bosque to harvest (and process?) mesquite beans, or whether the inhabitants of Los Morteros controlled this resource and produced excess meal for exchange. Both practices are documented in the ethnographic literature. Bell and Castetter (1937:22) report that mesquite pods and meal was traded by the Pima for "articles" from the Tohono O'Odham and Maricopa. The harvesting of mesquite for the Pima "was a tribal event, large parties constituting the expeditions, with the women the principal gatherers" (Bell and Castetter 1937:22). The social and economic implications of these events should not be underestimated. Both the harvesting and processing of mesquite pods at Los Morteros was probably a social activity involving familial or specific corporate groups (Wallace and Holmlund 1983:172). The consolidation of the Tanque Verde phase occupation in the northern portion of the site close to the mesquite bosque and the majority of bedrock and boulder mortars may be partly related to the utilization of mesquite. Had there been difficulties experienced in floodplain agriculture prior to this time that contributed to the shift in settlement layout, mesquite beans would have been a local resource that could have made the difference between survival and starvation.

Other subsistence resources such as the usual cultigens and wild and encouraged plants could have been important in aspects of commerce and interregional interaction, but evidence is lacking either for or against such a conclusion. We know that the inhabitants of Los Morteros had access to a wide range of plant products (see Chapters 11 and 12), but we can only speculate on their role in the regional economy. Historically, food was obtained by families in need over considerable distances (Doelle and Wallace 1990:251-252) and given the favorable location of Los Morteros and the evidence for dedicated storage facilities in the Middle Rincon subphase, it is reasonable to suppose that food surpluses were available for regional distribution during at least some portions of the sequence. Rabbits were also important in the local subsistence economy and they were apparently used in feasts as part of mortuary ceremonies (based on the data from Features 3251 and 3252 discussed later in this chapter). The data support the harvesting of lagomorphs using nets or snares and indicate that they may have been important in contexts other than just individual consumption.

Fuel wood would also have been an important resource available in abundance near Los Morteros. Whether it was ever important as an item of commerce is unknown. There are no indications from the archaeolOgical record at Los Morteros that fuel wood gathering or clearing for agriculture ever depleted the reserves of mesquite available for either fuel wood or the production of beans for consumption. However, clearing for agriculture east of the southern portion of Los Morteros may have exacerbated riverine flooding and promoted changes in the floodplain that ultimately led to the shifts in settlement and production observed in the period from Middle Rincon 3 to the Late Rincon subphases.

Bells, Mirrors, and Macaws

A handful of rare imported artifacts was recovered during previous and current studies at Los Morteros. Two copper bells have been found, one in a Tanque Verde phase disturbed context adjacent to the compound in the present study and one from a very small, special function structure located in the central portion of the site just south of the Los Morteros North study area (Richard Lange, personal communication 1983). Copper bells appear to be widespread in the northern Tucson Basin, but it is unknown by what mechanism they are imported. They are thought to originate a considerable distance to the south in Mexico.

Though none were recovered in the current excavations, two fragments of mirrors were recovered as part of the 1981 Continuing Education Oass excavations in the southeastern portion of the Los Morteros North

Summary and Concluding Remarks 829

study area. One was a portion of a sandstone plaque that served as the backing for a mirror, the other was a single pyrite tessera that had fallen from the surface of a mirror covered with a mosaic of pyrite pieces. Both appeared to have been in Tanque Verde phase trash contexts. Mirrors are known from only one other site in the Tucson Basin (Hodges; Kelly 1978:107-108). Their inspiration, if not the mirrors themselves are thought to have originated from Mesoamerica (Haury 1965:130-134).

Portions of two macaw skeletons (probably scarlet macaw according to Gillespie) were found in the floor fill of a structure (Feature 3315) that dated to the Middle Rincon 1 subphase at Los Morteros. Both were immature spedmens that may have been raised at the site. They represent the only macaws reported from the Tucson Basin in a prehistoric context, although macaws are known to have been raised at San Xavier in the late seventeenth century for their spectacular plumage (Bolton 1948:1:291-292; Karns 1954:238). Macaws were, at least originally, imported from Mexico, but they may have been bred and raised at villages in the Southwestern United States (Hargrave 1970). If people at Los Morteros were raising these birds, the feathers would undoubtedly have been considered a valuable trade commodity.

RITUAL AND MORTUARY PRACTICES

Ritual practices are often only speculatively identifiable in the archaeological record, but several relatively clear-cut cases may be cited from Los Morteros.

At the time of abandonment, Rincon phase structures at Los Morteros were often intentionally burned, sometimes with unusual artifacts or selected subsets of the household's inventory left inside. Although a tremendous number of structures were burned and have floor assemblages, very few of the assemblages were what one might expect for a typical household inventory in accidental catastrophic conflagrations (see Wallace 1995a). In some cases, what appear to be ritual artifacts such as censers and unusual vessels were specially positioned within the structures before they were intentionally burned. At site AZ AA:12:147, the abandonment process involved two structures at the same time, with artifacts ceremonially broken or separated, and portions placed in each structure. The ceremony was probably a mortuary ritual given that several of the artifacts had been burned twice, once in the structure and once prior to the final conflagration in the house (presumably in a crematory fire; see descriptions of Features 20 and 21 in Chapter 4).

In another case, a structure's (Feature 3251, Figure A.63) last use or use immediately after burning was as the repository for a large number of butchered rabbits, presumably relating to feasting behavior during a mortuary ceremony. Miniature vessels were left on the floor, and in the lower fill were found two badger penis bones (bacula), a tortoise shell fragment ground into a disk, and a portion of a bone hairpin. The hairpin is particularly significant because this artifact type is elsewhere found exclusively in mortuary contexts (see Chapter 13). In the case of Feature 3054 (Figure A.36), spedally arranged artifacts were left on the structure's floor, the house was burned, and a large number of decorated and plainware vessels were broken and scattered atop the ashes along with several very rare artifacts induding a badger mandible, a bone tube, and a shell ears pool. In addition, a secondary cremation was placed alongside the structure and cremated bone was scattered in the fill before the house pit was intentionally covered with 40 em of fill dirt.

Pit structure 3179 (Figures 4.12, A.51) is perhaps a more typical example of what is thought to be an intentionally burned structure. Centrally located within it was a large outcurved bowl with a spectacular and unique figurative design (see cover, Figure 5.38), and an animal censer was found, placed upright at the edge of the entry, fadng out the doorway. In this case, one cannot prove intentional burning and deliberate placement of artifacts, but the arrangement certainly is suspicious.

These examples from Los Morteros provide strong evidence in support of a correlation between house burning and the death of one or more of the occupants or users. This will not come as a surprise to local

830 Chapter 16

archaeologists; a wide range of ethnographic data support the possibility of a long-lasting tradition of pithouse burning upon the death of certain individuals (Allen 1891:615; Beals 1934:17; Buskirk 1986:107; Cas tetter and Bell 1942:130; Drucker 1941:146-147; Haury 1976:75; Spier 1928:234, 292; Underhill 1941:46). What is most significant from the Los Morteros cases is that some of the artifacts, and their condition and placement, provide strong evidence in support of what had been suspected for many years (Haury 1976:75; Huntington 1986:343-347). The data go one step further with the evidence from overlapping structures 3251 and 3252. Feature 3252 (Figure A.64) is clearly a replacement for 3251 as both are oriented in the same direction: directly toward Cemetery C-3. The unusual floor assemblage and fill artifacts have been noted for the lower Feature, 3251, and evidence of rabbit feasting observed. Perhaps most interesting is that the upper structure, Feature 3252, which had a much larger floor assemblage (also unusual), also contained large quantities of rabbit bone. The rabbit bone in this structure was not burned and it is possible that the bone was deposited after the structure burned. The orientation of these features towards the cemetery and evidence of feasting, taken with the unusual floor and fill assemblages suggests that they may have played an important role in ceremonies undertaken in the cemetery. Structures having functions related to mortuary rituals have been reported at Los Solares-La Ciudad (Henderson 1987a), but they bear little resemblance to Features 3251 and 3252 and the role they might have played. The presence of a hearth in each of the structures suggests occupation, perhaps by the shaman for the village segment or village. The possibility that Features 3251 and 3252 played a special role in mortuary ceremonies raises the question of whether there might be such structures related to the other Rincon phase cemeteries. None were identified, but our excavations were insufficient to determine whether they might have been present.

The practice of house and property destruction as a result of a death in a household is but one of several mortuary practices that left archaeological traces. For the Rillito through Middle Rincon 3 portion of the Los Morteros sequence, most individuals were cremated, apparently over very shallow pits or on the ground surface, perhaps on a large wooden pyre fueled by saltbush, mesquite, and other readily gathered firewood. A small percentage of the cremated bone was then placed in a small pit in the cemetery, sometimes with associated offerings and sometimes not. As discussed by Huntington (1986), the bone deposit itself was only one part of the mortuary process and the presence or absence of grave furniture is not necessarily indicative of the deceased's social personae or wealth. Indeed, the true wealth of an individual probably was reflected in the quality and quantity of agricultural land he or she controlled, in tlle house and goods left in the house, and possibly in aspects of kin relations such as numbers of wives or offspring. From an archaeological perspective, the size of the burned houses and the goods left in them were probably more indicative of status than the deposits of cremated bones.

TIlere were indications that the inhabitants of Los Morteros participated in a complex of mortuary rituals found throughout the region where ballcourts were present. This is evident from the use of figurines, palettes, and censers. Most of these artifacts were found either in cremation deposits, having passed through the crematory fire, or they were found in burned structures. Most date to the Early Rincon subphase when dates could be assigned.

TIle secondary cremation deposits recovered contain only a small portion of the deceased individual in most cases, and it can be inferred that the bones were deposited in more than one location. No direct evidence of serial cremation practices, that is, placing the cremated remains of an individual in more than one deposit, was recovered. However, the secondary cremation deposit adjacent to Feature 3054 and the bone recovered from the artificial fill in the structure are suggestive. This structure was not typical for the site and where most cremated bone ended up is unknown. The Feature 3054 case could be an indication that the bones were often scattered, rather than placed in discrete deposits and the many fragments and clusters of cremated bone that could not be associated with features in the cemeteries could be from this general "scatter."

Tanque Verde phase mortuary practices differed from those of the preceding phase in that the crematoria were actual pits that were used once and then sealed. There are some indications that the body was

Summary and Concluding Remarks 831

supported on a superstructure above the pit with thin wooden stakes held in place by plaster. Unlike the preceding phases, jewelry and foodstuffs induding com and saguaro fruit or seeds were burned with the body. Portions of the cremated bone were left in the crematorium and portions were removed. Sometimes the bone left in the crematorium was scooped together in a pile at the eastern side of the pit. A vessel or vessels were frequently added to the pit when it was covered and a bowl was sometimes placed inverted over the bone in the eastern portion of the pit. As secondary cremations were also commonplace in the Tanque Verde phase elements of the site, it is thought that the portions of bone removed from the crematory pits were interred in these separate deposits, generally in, or covered by one or more vessels. The crematoria-primary cremations and secondary interments were spatially separated at Los Morteros (Cemeteries C-4 and C-5), though they were found together at site AZ. AA:12:368, Locus D (Bostwick 1987) and may have been found together at Los Morteros had we been able to excavate larger areas and not had as much plow damage to contend with. It is probably too simplistic to think that there was a one-to-one relationship between primary cremations-crematoria and secondary cremations. The variability in secondary interments is ample evidence that this was probably not the case.

Though one cannot assume that the lack of artifacts in a secondary interment was indicative of low status, unusual suites of induded artifacts combined with a distinctive pit morphology suggest that the individuals interred in the set of five cylindrical pit secondary cremations in Cemetery C-4 either played a socially distinct and important role at the site or they were members of a family or social group that was socially distinct. Induded artifacts supporting such a contention induded among other more typical artifacts, portions of a probable shell trumpet, a shell necklace composed of a shell species (Melongena) from the Pacific Coast of California or Baja California as well as other shell jewelry (1,858 total shell artifacts), the bones of a raven, a brilliantly blue and red painted or inlaid artifact made with a wooden (reed) framework and covered with feathers pressed onto a day coating, bone hairpins, and 150 projectile points. The individuals interred in these pits indude two adults, one subadult, a fetus or neonate, and one individual that could not be aged. One of the adults was a male; all other individuals could not be sexed. The age range of these individuals indicate that these were not all individuals that had acquired special roles; rather, ascribed or associated status must have been involved. It is all the more curious when one considers that the fetus or neonate was interred witll the probable shell trumpet. Shell trumpets are generally associated with platform mound settlements and have been found directly assodated with mounds at Escalante (Doyel 1974:290), Casa Grande (Fewkes 1912:144), and Schoolhouse Point (Lindauer 1995). Was this child intended to be the next community shaman? Perhaps the mother or father of the infant was dosely affiliated with the sodal group at the Marana platform mound. The cemetery provides much food for thought and the potential significance of the deposits is only toudled on here.

Several other windows that have opened to us into the ritual and spiritual realm of the ancient inhabitants of Los Morteros indude the artifacts recovered from the compound or plaza atop Linda Vista Hill and the rock art present at the site. The artifacts from atop the Linda Vista village are a small carved stone bowl and an unusual, finely made 29-cm long phallic pestle. They are discussed by Downum in Appendix L and have been previously illustrated in Lange and Deaver (1989:314). As suggested by Downum (Appendix L), they may have been used for the preparation of special (non-pigment) substances for the use in certain ceremonies. The unusual artifacts and assodation with this mountaintop compound that had at least one adobe structure within it is potentially indicative of a spedal function for the facility. Downum's suggestion that it may have served as important a role as a platform mound may be on target.

The rock art, consisting of a large set of petroglyphs on the eastern slopes and summit of Rillito Peak (see Wallace 1983), as well as a smaller duster of designs in the central portion of the site on the massive mortar boulder and other smaller boulders nearby, are thought to relate to spedfic ceremonies and activities, the content of which are not known. This interpretation comes from recent investigations that have narrowed the potential interpretative context of rock art considerably for central and southern Arizona (Wallace 1991, 1995c; Wallace and Holmlund 1986). The reader is referred to Wallace (1995c) for a recent review of this literature. A small percentage of the rock art at the site is stylistically dated to the pre-A.D. 800 Western Archaic Style; the remainder was probably produced by the Rincon and particularly the Tanque Verde phase inhabitants of the area.

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There are strong correlations between aspects of the natural and cultural environment and the placement of petroglyphs at Los Morteros. In particular, there is an association of petroglyphs and bedrock mortars, perhaps indicating a role the rock art played in relationship to the mesquite harvest or the processing of mesquite beans. With most of the petroglyphs occurring along the eastern flank of Rillito Peak, there is also the association of the point where river meets rock and a dependable water supply was always accessible. The significance of this location is evident in the many historical accounts of the region that refer to this locality as the "Point of the Mountains." Other such locations in southern and central Arizona (and indeed in many other areas in the world) were also commonly used for the placement of rock art and the place was dearly important to the prehistoric occupants of the northern Tucson Basin. The Rillito Peak rock art is very similar in content and diversity to other very large multicomponent petroglyph sites in southern and central Arizona (Wallace and Holmlund 1986:118-129), implying that many different individuals, perhaps involved in a variety of ceremonies or activities, made the designs, and that it was not the work of a small group of shamans or a short term event or series of events.

LOOKING BACK AT THE EXCAVATIONS

The testing program at Los Morteros was ambitious: nearly 14 kilometers of trenches were excavated, a good percentage of which sliced through zones of prehistoric occupation. There was an intentional and unregreted trade-off here. By intensively trenching the site, an overview of the structure of the settlement was achieved in a way no other technique available could have provided. It also led us to what appeared to be the most productive loci and contexts for excavation. However, this level of trenching meant less effort could be placed on horizontal excavations and it meant that a larger percentage of the features overall were damaged through backhoe trenching. The trenching was conducted in multiple phases in each portion of Los Morteros, and the work of Desert Archaeology, Inc. (DAD followed on the heels of the previous ASM trenching program (Lange and Deaver 1989). The initial phases of trenching by ASM and DAI identified many areas where cultural features were located, but at 25- to 50-m spaced trenches, no concept of the settlement structure was discernible. With 10- to 20-m spaced trenches, most village segments were identified, but their separation and true structure remained obscured. It is only with 5-to 10-m spaced trenches that full delineation was achieved (see Figures 3.2-3.7).

There are always hindsight perspectives on excavations at a site like Los Morteros and hindsight is always dearer than foresight. The author presents some of these thoughts in the hope that others might consider them in the future. While data recovery excavations were underway at Locus 2 in Los Morteros South, we did not realize the potential significance of a set of gravel and sand-filled wash channels that cut through some features; the importance was only realized during later volunteer efforts. Some of these channels were exposed and important dues obtained, but most were not. These channels may well have marked an event that altered the environment of the settlement and at the very least resulted in the abandonment of a courtyard group in Locus 2 and provided important stratigraphic data. In hindsight we would have spent more time tracing their courses and excavated features they cut or were cut by.

Structures separated from village segments were not excavated at Los Morteros. In hindsight, this may have exduded possible fieldhouses dating to the Rillito and Tanque Verde phases in Los Morteros South from our sample and may have limited our understanding of these important portions of the sequence.

There are always features one wishes one could have excavated. In this study, had we known the artifact analysis results, or perhaps even the results of analyses from the control unit, we would have excavated Feature 20 at site AZ AA:12:147 completely, screening all fill. We also would have completely screened the fill in Features 3054, 3251, and 3252, all of which were unusual in one way or another. It was these cases that led to the development of the methodology applied to portions of the excavations on the Roosevelt Community Development Project (Doelle et al. 1992; Elson and Craig 1994). In Locus 13, we would have tested to be absolutely certain that no courtyard groups were present. In Locus 11, we would have sampled the fill from at least four or five of the Rincon phase structures to get flotation, faunal, and

Summary and Concluding RemJJrks 833

pollen data to compare to that obtained from the Tanque Verde phase contexts at the north end of the site. If budget had allowed, we would also have excavated at least one other full Middle Rincon subphase courtyard group other than that excavated in Locus 2. We were stymied in this respect because several of the courtyard groups excavated were found to have been partially destroyed by an historic drainage ditch.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON THE PREmSTORY OF LOS MORTEROS

Many surprises have emerged from the plowed fields and mountain slopes of Los Morteros in the past decade and a half. The ancient village of Los Morteros was pivotal to the settlement system in the region, given its location along the Santa Cruz River with ready access to critical agricultural land and floodplain riparian biota, and its immediate proximity to desert and mountain resources. The investigations reported here yielded glimpses into a settlement system that was much more dynamic than has been commonly attributed to riverine "sedentary" villages. The evidence from Los Morteros and neighboring sites opens a window into the changes that accompanied large-scale societal reorganization in the Tucson Basin.

The initiation of the ballcourt system in the Tucson area during the Canada del Oro phase, for example, was accompanied in the northern Tucson Basin by the establishment of routes of pottery distribution likely centered on the southern Tucson Basin. The enormous ballcourt at Los Morteros was probably constructed in the Rillito phase (though an earlier date cannot be ruled out) and a core village was established nearby on the Pleistocene terrace as the occupation of the Brickyard site across the river diminished. This is when Redtail was abandoned as well, and the occupants of that village may have settled at nearby Los Morteros. Perhaps best documented at Los Morteros is the initiation of the dispersed village segment form of settlement organization that jelled in Middle Rincon 1 times as the ballcourt system declined in importance.

The drastic reorganization of Los Morteros in the Late Rincon subphase has provoked considerable thought during the course of this investigation. It cannot be conclusively demonstrated that the inhabitants of Los Morteros North were one and the same as those who left Los Morteros South. Many lines of evidence point in that direction but all must be considered speculative. The complexities of Tanque Verde phase settlement in the region around Los Morteros have been discussed at length, because the present study led the author to very different interpretations from those presented by previous researchers. Though perhaps not a surprise to archaeologists who worked in the Tucson area a decade or more ago, the conclusion that there was warfare, or at least the serious threat of deadly conflict, reflected in the construction of the hillside village of Linda Vista and its related fortifications, is at odds with other more recent studies. The inclusion of large numbers of projectile points in several Tanque Verde phase cremations at Los Morteros and recovery of large numbers of similar artifacts in mounds at the Marana mound site (Bayman 1994), could be indicative of the development of war leaders in the society. Such leaders were present among the Gila River Pimas historically (Ezell 1961:119).

Who were the occupants of Los Morteros? There are enough differences between their material culture and that of the Phoenix Basin to readily differentiate them as Kelly (1978) noted long ago in regard to the Hodges site. The possibility has been raised that there was a social boundary just north of the St. Mary's Ruin. Based on ceramic production and importation data, this boundary was most pronounced in the Colonial and Sedentary periods. Such distinctions also separate areas such as the Canada del Oro and Sutherland Valleys, the eastern slope of the Tortolita Mountains, the Black Hills-Durham Hills region, and the eastern Tucson Basin. Whether ceramic material culture distinctions such as those separating these areas are indicative of ethnic or tribal boundaries is an open question that cannot be answered here.

What can be said is that after the northern Tucson Basin was abandoned at the start of the Tucson phase, there was a period of some 50 to 150 years of aggregated settlement in prime, well-watered, agricultural

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settings in the Tucson area. Large no-man's lands had opened up in the northern Tucson Basin, and in many other regions around southern and central Arizona. After that time there are only spotty records of artifacts dating to the 1500s and 1600s and the story is picked up again with the arrival of the Jesuits. The village Kino refers to as EI Valle de Correa was apparently near the Point of the Mountains or the modern town of Rillito (Bolton 1936:376). At that time, no running water was present in tlle nearby Santa Cruz River and the villagers used a deep well to obtain water. Crops were dependant on seasonal rainfall. No trace of this village was found in the excavations at Los Morteros; the location of the settlement was most likely at the nortll end of the site in the gravel pit area or across the river to the north.

SINCE 1850

During the course of the Los Morteros investigations and other research conducted in the northern Tucson Basin, much information has been gathered on the post-1850 history of the region. Several important archival resources have come to light in the past several decades of research at Los Morteros. One of the most interesting is the extensive collection of Ellsworth Huntington's work at Yale University Library in New Haven. Huntington's journal, typewritten notes, and photographic collection are a gold mine of useful archaeological and historical data on the Tucson area and the southwestern United States in general for the period from about 1909 to 1913. It was not possible to obtain the full photographic archives prior to the publication of this report, but it is expected that several of Huntington's photographs will provide valuable new data on what the region looked like in 1910 and perhaps how the Ruelas Ranch and Point of the Mountain Stage Station looked at that time.

Also important was the discovery of the Murdock collection by John Madsen at the Arizona State Museum. Matching Murdock's 1927 photograph of the Point of the Mountain stage station with the 1936 Soil Conservation Service aerial photograph of the area led to the discovery of the structure's location in the northwest corner of the La Puerta del Norte trailer court subdivision. Most of the station was destroyed when the trailer court roads were bladed in the late 1960s, but some portions likely remain. The Murdock papers also led to the discovery of a Yaqui settlement that was present in 1927. Traces of that settlement are still present.

The area around Los Morteros has a colorful history with legends of stagecoach robberies and buried treasure. As the remaining vestiges of the region's past vanish beneath urban development, there is some consolation in the information recorded in diaries, personal collections, and newspaper accounts. Much of the story rests in the minds of long term Tucson and Marana residents, such as Otis Chidester, who dug with Cummings at Los Morteros, and George Welter, who moved to the area in 1919; but there are very few of the old timers left. Stein (1993) does an excellent job of pulling much of the historical data together; however, as seen from this study, much more remains to be uncovered and much could not be included in this investigation that focused primarily on the prehistoric resources of the region.

THE FUTURE OF LOS MORTEROS

It is with some relief that this report has been completed, given the many roadblocks along the way; but it also comes with a measure of sadness for this archaeologist because it will likely serve notice for the closing days of Los Morteros before it is finally laid to rest beneath modern Tucson. The present study provides archaeological clearance for the portions of the settlement excavated in Los Morteros North, Los Morteros South, and sites AZ AA:12:146 and AZ AA:12:147. It is expected that modem housing will soon be situated on the parcels. A parcel located immediately south of Los Morteros North consisting of 12 to 15 acres was Originally set aside as a school site. It has not been archaeologically investigated and if slated for development, it is hoped that it will be the subject of data recovery efforts. It is expected to have a high density of cultural remains dating through the full site sequence.

SumttUlry and Concluding Remarks 835

The central portion of Los Morteros, including the ballcourt, a series of mounds, and very dense artifact remains and indications of cultural features, is under the control of the University of Arizona Foundation. Unless it can ultimately be included as part of a public park or preserve, its future is uncertain and the Foundation could dispose of it. The lower portions of Linda Vista Hill are currently for sale and one can expect the hillside village to be partly destroyed by future development and increased vandalism. Overall, vandalism has risen sharply at Los Morteros and the Northern Tucson Basin region as a whole. The central portion of the site is expected to increasingly be the target of vandals and pot hunters unless a concerted effort is made to protect the site.

Various individuals over the years have fought to preserve portions of the site for future generations to study and appreciate. Whether or not these efforts are ultimately successful, it is hoped that this study will bring the rich heritage of Los Morteros into sharper focus and result in a greater appreciation of its hidden wealth.