Arizona State University - Sun Devil Spark / Sahuaro Yearbook (Tempe, AZ)

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Until recently, pottery remnants, stone metates, and maize manos could be found lying on the site without digging. 10-Mesa Grande Site project at Mesa Grande, which began when the owner of the property, car dealer jack Ross, gave ASU his permission to dig the site. Ross purchased the property from Frank Midvale for 512,000 before the latter died two years ago. Midvale, a widely respected amateur archaeologist, had done some excavation in the southeast corner. The northeast corner digging is progressing rapidly now in order to clear the site for a visitors center which will soon be constructed. Until recently, pottery rem- nants, stone metates, and maize manos could be found lying on the site without digging, but souvenir hunters and amateur diggers tcalled pothunters by archaeolo- gistsi have stripped the site of such material. The University of Arizona completed an early topographical map of the site but without tying it into any permanent landmarks, so ASU students are making a new map. Professor K.M. Stewart of ASU published a paper on work done at Mesa Grande, but for the most part, little is known. The basis for initial spectula- tion about the people who built and occupied Mesa Grande is the nearby site of Snaketown, which the Uni- versity of Arizona has studied for about 30 years. Both Snake- town and Mesa Grande were Salt River villages built around 300 B.C. and occupied by people of the Hohokam culture until 500 A.D. The Hohokams were pottery-makers and grew maize, developing irrigation by the sixth century. Textbooks tell of evidence that Hohokam groups peace- fully co-existed in the Salt River Valley with Mogollon groups from the mountains. Cockrell believes, however, Mesa Grande may indicate that the same people were just doing things in different ways. A dirt trail leads straight from the hospital road to the top of the 30 foot mound. According to Cockrell, the height could indicate either a multistory structure or a case where the Indians filled in old structures and built new ones on top. At the highest point, the entire city of Mesa is visible, as well as the hazy Superstition Moun- tains tothe east and the Tempe Butte rising above the Arizona State campus to the west. Back under the Tempe Butte, Cockrell has a five-closet size office in Krause Hall on the campus where he coordinates the class and the digging. Krause Hall, an old building that looks as though it has been boarded up for years, has filing cabinets blocking some of the doors. Inside, there are rows of shelves that contain hundreds of small brown paper bags, identified by the course number and site code name. Dave Bachman, a junior archaeology major, often spends part of Sunday in Krause Hall washing and cate- gorizing whatever he finds on Saturday at Mesa Grande. His most interesting find so far was some material re- sembling peat moss which no one could identify and which he cynically theorizes to be rodent dung. Bachman describes the course as messy and meticulous, but obviously the best way to learn archaeo- logy. Irritated by the motorcyclists and minibikers who tear across the Mesa Grande ruins, he would prefer that the site did not receive publicity, or else the pothunters will be out here stripping it of every- thing they can carry away, they'll even use helicopters to carry away the walls. Some damage done during the week when the site is un- watched has marred the ex- cavation, but so far has been limited to the ropes being run over and some extracurricular digging. Cockrell, who is himself a dirt bike rider, often

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5 Some artifacts have been carried away by the kids who live nearby, who consider Mesa Grande mostly just as a nice playground, but who are vaguely aware of its history. 12-Mesa Grande Site 'i ' .s .mi , 1 W Ls 'Hi gathers a group of the bikers together at the top of the mound and tries to persuade them to ride elsewhere. Some artifacts have been carried away by the kids who live nearby, who consider Mesa Grande mostly just a nice playground, but who are vaguely aware of its history. The cowboys and Indians used to fight here, declares one ten-year-old boy, who adds that his parents don't know about the site. Clt is not in a very prominent position and is not well known, al- though it is within the city limits and easily accessible? Mesa Grande is now so dominated by' modern culture that it is hard to imagine Indians living there over 1500 . vw ' B .' 1 S H Q e years ago. Newspapers not even yellow adorn it now, with cigarette packages brand- ishing the latest government tar and nicotine figures. Modern farming and con- struction surround it, huge 747 jets soar above it on their way in and out of Sky Harbor Air- port. Such jets can take you nearly anywhere nowadays, they can't take you back in time. Only archaeologists can. So the students ignore the jets and the motorcycles and dig into the past, while pieces of their surveying equipment lean against the trucks like crutches for them to hobble away on after a back-breaking Saturday at Mesa Grande.