San Pedro Phase Subsistence Practices from Southern Arizona: Another View from Las Capas

Excavations conducted at Las Capas, a large, multi-component site located on the ancient floodplain of the Santa Cruz River in northwestern Tucson, have provided a wealth of significant new information. Using the combined zooarchaeological data collected by Desert Archaeology, Inc (DAI) and SWCA Environmental Consultants, we explore the transition from an Archaic hunting-gathering lifestyle to maize cultivation during the San Pedro phase (1200-800 BC). Using a number of faunal attributes, similarities and differences in the hunting practices and processing activities between contexts and over time are explored along with the effects of recurrent sedentism and other anthropogenic changes in the landscape. With this information, the Las Capas faunal record will be compared to data collected from other sites in southern Arizona that contained zooarchaeological remains dating to the same period. Through this study, a redefined picture of Early Agricultural animal procurement and subsistence emerges.