Abstract
Late pre-Classic Hohokam (A.D. 750–1150) upland desert adaptations of the middle Gila River Valley in southern Arizona are still rather poorly understood. Current site and feature distribution data from Florence Military Reservation indicate that late pre-Classic groups used the upland or bajada zone in a varied and complex manner. First, a variety of agricultural technology was employed, including floodwater farming, dry farming, and to a lesser degree, simple irrigation-based agriculture. Second, a wide range of occupation types have been encountered in these bajada zones, consisting of villages, farmsteads, field houses, agricultural field sites, and more specialized resource processing sites. And, third, a flexible mobility pattern existed, where primary habitations such as rancheria-like villages and small farmsteads were situated along alluvial fans of Cottonwood Canyon Wash. This habitation zone has produced a diversity of floodwater, dry, and irrigation-based farming practices associated with residential areas, trash mounds, and a ball court; the combination of farming technology and presumed ceremonial features may have contributed to group aggregation, at least on a seasonal basis. From this habitation zone, specialized task groups and domestic units repeatedly used field houses and large agricultural fields out on creosote flats, and smaller dry farming loci, on more elevated ridge tops.