Beyond Any One Scholar’s Expertise: The Story of the Safford Valley Grids Archaeology Project

Описание: By archaeological geographer William E. Doolittle, PhD and archaeologist James A. Neely, PhD

Expansive tracts of rock-bordered grids atop Pleistocene terraces north of the Gila River in the Safford Valley, Arizona mystified archaeologists and others for nearly a century. From 1994-1998 a team of multidisciplinary scholars sought to uncover their age and function.
Unlike most archaeological presentations, this one discusses that project from the perspectives of people involved. The findings of the Safford Grids project are interesting and important, but perhaps not as much as how this project was conceived and carried to fruition for what can only be described as bargain basement funding. 
BILL DOOLITTLE is the Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm. He was nominated for the Fryxell Award for interdisciplinary studies by the Society of American Archaeology and is a member of that association’s Geoarchaeology Awards Committee.
Bill has conducted archaeological and geographical research in the American Southwest and México, authoring four books and scores of journal articles and book chapters.
JIM NEELY is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin. Recognized worldwide for his research on ancient water management, he has conducted research on the Deh Luran Plain in Iraq, the Tehuacán Valley in México, and in the American Southwest.
Among Jim’s greatest discoveries were the Purron Dam caves containing the earliest evidence of maize cultivation, and miles of travertine-encrusted relict canals while working with archaeologist Richard S. MacNeish. Jim participated in the University of Arizona’s last archaeological field school at Point of Pines, and excavated canals with Richard Woodbury at the Park of Four Waters in Phoenix.
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