Under the direction of Dr. Katherine Spielmann, Mr. James Bayman will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological excavation at the site of Marana in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. This site, constructed and occupied by Hohokan peoples, dates from approximately AD 1100-11350 and consists, in effect of a vast multi-site community which spans a 146 km square area and cross-cuts three environmental zones. To date, research has been conducted in two of these zones and with National Science Foundation support Mr. Bayman will excavate in the third of these to collect comparative data. He will place 1 x 2 meter test pits in four of the largest refuse middens which appear the represent the remains of separate households. He will then analyze the materials recovered both to determine the kinds of production activities which characterized this zone and nature and frequency of "exotic" materials. With these data he will attempt to reconstruct the social, political and economic organization of Marana. By early in the first millennium A.D. Hohocam peoples had developed a complex society which knit together large numbers of peoples in a harsh and unpredictable desert environment. Archaeologists wish to understand how Hohocam groups organized themselves to exist successfully in this seemingly difficult situation. In many areas groups developed large scale irrigation systems and archaeologists believe that the need both to build and then maintain canals led to the growth and continual reinforcement of political centralization. The Marana community is interesting because this group appears to have depended on rainfall agriculture and a canal system is not present. Mr. Bayman believes that a combination of economic specialization by subregion and control of exotic materials by elites served the same social function as canals and his research will evaluate this hypothesis. This work is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of an only partially understood period in American prehistory. It will shed new light on how societies at a simple level of technology adapted to harsh and unpredictable environments and finally it will contribute to the training of a promising young scientist.
