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Randi Wolf 5 June 1999 |
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LLaguna Salada, with the Little Ortega Lake site, is one of two sites that occupied the ancient beaches of brackish lakes east of the ghost town of Floy, AZ. |
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Figure 1: Panormaic view of Laguna Salada, Floy, Arizona. Looking southeast towards Sierra Mountain. |
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Figure 2: Panoramic view of site 65 at Laguna Salada, 1957, with truck in middleground |
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Figure 3: Map showing the location of Laguna Salada |
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Laguna Salada is a non-pottery flint factory and a desert culture (e.g. archaic) campsite. Artifacts recovered included chipped stone tools, manos, metates, charcoal, and some bone. The chipped stone artifacts are evidence of a prehistoric campsite. The concentration of milling and hearth-stones indicates that several camps existed. A few metate fragments were found below the surface, and many metates were found near the hearths, in groups of two or three. The hearth areas averaged 130 cm in diameter, and some charcoal concentrations in the hearths continued as deep as 30 cm. EXCAVATION STRATEGY Three trenches were excavated at Laguna Salada: Locus A is in the middle of the ridge on which the site rests; Loci B and C were located on opposite ends of the ridge (Figure 4). Additional artifacts were surface collected in reference to a line of stakes located 25 meters apart along the spine of the ridge. |
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Figure 4: Laguna Salada site, 1957. Fire cracked stones of hearth, mano fragment and basin metate from Locus C. focusing card for scale is the size of a playing card. |
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NATURE AND INTEGRITY OF THE COLLECTIONS According to the site report in Fieldiana (Martin and Rinaldo 1960) 25 manos were collected from Laguna Salada. After cataloguing and reboxing all of the artifacts in the Field Museum's possession, only 11 manos were accounted for. Martin wrote that 19 metates were found, and the museum only has two. In the publication Martin separated the different types of stone tools, but for current purposes, they were combined into the category of chipped stone tools. Projectile points are still counted separately. In total, Martin collected 14 chipped stone tools and 7 projectile points. The museum curates 16 chipped stone tools, 3 pieces of chipped stone, and 8 projectile points. Martin also mentions a small amount of bone being recovered, and the museum notes 10 pieces. In addition, the museum curates quite a bit of charcoal, although no record of which charcoal came from the surface and which came from below the surface could be found. Excavation Records The Department of Anthropology Archives Box SW 10 Folders 3 (Archaeological Survey Cards 1956 Season) and Folder 4 (J.B. Rinaldo's Notes 1957 Season) contain the records relevant to Laguna Salada. Included in the folders are notes and a sketch map of the site and a list of the artifacts found there. Accession Files Accession file No. 2596 in the Department of Anthropology states the following: "20 restorable and 5 intact pottery vessels, 267 stone, bone and shell and baked clay artifacts, 3 fragmentary human skeletons." Unfortunately, the accession file applies to four sites in the Vernon area (Laguna Salada, Little Ortega Lake, Site 30, Site 31), all of which were excavated in 1957, and does not specify which artifacts came from which site. Catalog Files Items cataloged by the Field Museum staff between 1957 and 1960 include all 8 of the projectile points, 3 pieces of chipped stone, 16 chipped stone tools, 11 manos and 2 metates. Martin Project staff assigned 17 catalog numbers to 10 pieces of bone and more than 700 bits of charcoal. Catalog numbers 258180, 258208-258213, 258508-258530, 258581-258590, 320053-320056 and 335761-335773 apply to Laguna Salada. Photographic Record Photo Album 35Z in the Department of Anthropology photo archives contains photographs from Laguna Salada, Little Ortega Lake, Site 30 and Site 31, as well as camp scenes from 1956 and 1957. There are two panoramic photographs of the Laguna Salada site and one photo of fire cracked rock, mano fragments, and a basin metate from Locus C. PUBLICATION RECORD Details of the excavation and analysis of Laguna Salada are published in a report which also includes Little Ortega Lake site, Site 30 and Site 31. A map showing the location of the 4 sites is included in the article. Martin and Rinaldo published tabulations on the different types of chipped stone tools, projectile points, manos and metates. More chipped stone, bone and charcoal artifacts exist on the shelves at the museum than Martin spoke of in his publication in 1960. This discrepancy exists because some artifact types were not deemed worthy of cataloguing in 1957. DISCUSSION Most artifacts were recovered on the surface, and there were no significant differences between the surface and subsurface assemblages at Laguna Salada, though subsurface deposits and typological data indicate that Laguna Salada might represent some antiquity. Martin and Rinaldo found similarities between the chipped stone tools at Laguna Salada with those of the Concho Complex. The manos and metates were found to be more similar to Cochise assemblages of the Chiricahua stage in southeastern Arizona. Taken as a whole, however, the Laguna Salada assemblage most closely resembles those designated "San Jose Culture" by Byran and Toulouse (1943) at archaic sites near Grants, New Mexico. The Laguna Salada assemblage curated by the Field Museum is important in that it constitutes an example of archaic material culture in an area in which such manifestations have been poorly understood. Additional research is necessary on the collection, and it is possible that some of the many charcoal specimens might add chronometric rigor to an otherwise poorly dated site. REFERENCES CITED Bryan, Kirk and Joseph H. Toulouse, Jr. 1943 The San Jose Non-Ceramic Culture and its Relation to a Puebloan Culture in New Mexico. American Antiquity 8(3):269-280. Martin, Paul S., and J. B. Rinaldo 1960 Excavations in the Upper Little Colorado Drainage, Eastern Arizona, Fieldiana 51(1):1-127. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. |
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