Migration and integration: The Salado in the Tonto Basin

Abstract

The term 'Salado' was employed in the 1930's to describe an intrusive Puebloan culture that appeared in the Tonto Basin during the A.D. 1100-1300 interval. Subsequent debate focused on whether the Salado horizon represented Puebloan migration or indigenous development from the pre-Classic Hohokam. After reviewing current views of migration and style in archaeology, the occurrence, scale, and impact of population movement is assessed in the eastern Tonto Basin using mundane and low visibility material culture from domestic contexts. This data set is rich in stylistic behavior that informs on the enculturative background of the producing groups, a social dimension that can be used to track population movement more accurately than overt displays of identity and ethnicity. An extensive survey of ethnoarchaeological case studies lends empirical support for this strategy. Variability in domestic spatial organization, residential construction and utilitarian ceramic manufacture indicate limited Puebloan immigration into the region during the late thirteenth century, with migrant households settling on the margins of an established irrigation community. Following reconstruction of this enculturative backdrop, material culture intentionally produced for exchange or to convey social messages is examined, including decorated ceramics, personal ornamentation, platform mounds, and local exchange goods. These data sets indicate that economic and social relations, though initially cooperative, favored indigenous groups. This asymmetry and further immigration may have resulted in the collapse of this community in the early fourteenth century.