City of Tempe, AZ
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Loma del Rio Ruins - Hours 6 a.m. - 10 p.m.
- Address:715 N. Mill Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85281 - Phone:(480) 350-4311
Categories:- Parks
- Tempe Town Lake
- Address:715 N. Mill Avenue
Loma del Rio (hill by the river) is an archaeological site occupied by the Hohokam during the late Classic Period. Ceramic and lithic evidence recovered from the site indicates occupation between A.D. 1300 and A.D. 1450.
This 650 year old archaeological site has been stabilized and is easily accessible to the public. A shade ramada and a wheelchair accessible path add to the comfort of visitors who explore the ruin along an interpretive trail. Special plaques inform visitors of the unique characteristics of the site.
Loma del Rio was probably the residence of 15 to 20 people, perhaps an extended family including cousins, aunts and uncles, and several generations of parents. The site contains remains of a block of six connected rooms and one isolated room on the east side thought to have been used for cooking and food processing. Room walls were constructed from stone masonry set in adobe mortar on trenches excavated to bedrock. At some point during occupation, doorways in three of the rooms on the north and west sides were sealed and the rooms were likely used for storage. A cobble bounded, caliche-paved, activity surface or patio separates the roomblock from the single room at the east by 6 to 7 meters.
Crescent-shaped agricultural terraces on the hillside southwest of the roomblock complete the inventory of structures at the site. The crescent-shaped agricultural terraces built into the hillside were ideal for growing agave (aka the Century Plant), which requires no irrigation. Agave grown at Loma del Rio may have been consumed on site and traded with local villages. Besides local agave trading, evidence of trade between Loma del Rio and people as far as 300 miles away was found at the site. Archaeologists determined this by distinctive pottery and stone tool fragments found at the site which appear to have come from such places as Casas Grandes, Mexico; Mule Creek, New Mexico; and Flagstaff, Arizona. In fields below the terraces, crops such as corn, beans, and squash could have been grown in the floodplain of the Salt River, and certainly flora and fauna native to this riverine habitat were exploited by the occupants of Loma del Rio.
In 1887, Frank Hamilton Cushing led the first archaeological expedition to the Salt River Valley. He established a base camp on the north bank of the river near where the ASU Community Service Building is now located. In 1887, Cushing identified the Loma del Rio site as “Los Pueblos Arriba” (Haury 1945:189) and reported evidence of use as an Akimel Au-Authm shrine during the protohistoric period. Cushing collected Casa Grande Red-on-buff sherds, Gila Polychrome sherds, projectile points and other artifacts from Loma del Rio. He reported the presence of “a little Pima shrine, not very recent, nor yet exceedingly ancient, consisting of a terraced alter built up of loose stones that had fallen from the walls, on a step of which were numerously displayed a bunch of arrows with hard-wood, sharpened foreshafts, all neatly laid, somewhat fan-shaped, and held in place by two large flattened stones. In the midst of these were a few scattered beads, mostly of blue glass, but some white and two or three red.”
In 1928, Gila Pueblo archaeological staff (possibly including Frank Midvale; a member of this group who was living in Phoenix at this time) surveyed the Loma del Rio site. Established by Harold S. Gladwin and Winifred Jones MacCurdy (Gladwin) in 1928 as a private archeological research institute, the Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation first defined and then detailed the Hohokam archaeological tradition. In 1928, Gila Pueblo identified the Loma del Rio site as Mesa 1-6 (GP) and plotted it on Gila Pueblo map 023709. The site was described as a seven room stone pueblo, possibly of two stories, covering about 150 by 150 yards. The walls were noted to average 18 inches thick composed of horizontal stone with adobe in the cracks. Although past efforts to locate documents pertaining to Gila Pueblo activities at the site have not succeeded, evidence indicates Gila Pueblo conducted excavations within two or more rooms at Loma del Rio. Book 6 of the Midvale collections at the ASU Department of Anthropology provides a site plan map and photographs the Loma del Rio site identified as “El Pueblito” or the “Stone Ruin”. Midvale’s notes indicate circa 1931, he collected 100 sherds from the site; 62 redware (36 with burnished interiors and the remainder with plain interiors), 38 plainware, and 2 Gila Polychrome.
In 1939, prominent archaeologists Odd S. Halseth, Albert H. Schroeder and Julian T. Hayden recorded the Loma del Rio archaeological site together as part of Schroeder’s survey #22. Halseth and Hayden had worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps and Schroeder with the Works Progress Administration. The 1930s witnessed a new kind of large-scale archeological project as part of federal unemployment relief projects and programs funded by the Works Progress Administration and other public employment programs of the New Deal. In order to employ large numbers of people affected by the depressed economy, archeological projects of this decade focused on fieldwork and on keeping large crews fruitfully employed in excavating archeological sites. Unfortunate consequences of many of these projects were delays in the production of descriptive reports, delays in data analysis, and little publication of project results. Despite these drawbacks, the programs resulted in a substantial increase in knowledge about American archaeology, especially in the Southeast. In 1939, Schroeder, Halseth, and Hayden identified the Loma del Rio site as AZ U:9:14 (PG) and estimated that Civano sherds accounted for 68% of the ceramic assemblage with the remainder dating to the Soho phase. Field notes indicate the site was still in a good state of preservation at this point and relatively free from post-occupational disturbance.
In the 1960s, after prolonged neglect and vandalism, the Loma del Rio site again became the focus of scientific interest. In 1961, the site was visited by Dr. Donald H. Morris and Frank Midvale. Although no collections were made in 1961, Morris and Midvale identified the site as Loma del Rio, completed and ASU Archaeological Survey Form with a sketch map, and noted the site had been heavily impacted by pot hunters. Soon after, 59 sherds were collected from the site and recorded on an ASU Cultural Inventory Methods class specimen log sheet. In 1964, Arizona State Museum personnel surveyed Loma del Rio and identified the site as AZ U:9:10 (ASM). They also reported the site was badly pot hunted with some rooms excavated to a depth of 1.5 meters. ASM collected one box of materials including Classic period redwares.
By the 1970s, Loma del Rio had come to the attention of ASU. In 1973, Betina Rosenberg and Donald E. Weaver, Jr. surveyed the site, and identified the Loma del Rio site as AZ U:9:24 (ASU), the designation used for all subsequent site activities. In 1977, Dr. Alfred E. Dittert, Jr. and ten graduate students from his ASU Cultural Inventory Methods class assessed archaeological resources within the Rio Salado Developmental District and identified interpretive opportunities at Loma del Rio.
From 1984 to 1986, Arizona State University archaeology students under the supervision of Dr. Dittert carried out various excavations at the site. In 1988, Loma del Rio was part of an archaeological survey of a 40-acre area of Tempe Papago Park. Commissioned by the City of Tempe, ASU produced a document titled “A Plan for the Management of Archaeological Sites in the Tempe Papago Park Area” prepared for the city by Linda Williams and Karen Atwell, Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University.
In 1991, the Arizona Parks Board awarded a Heritage Fund historic preservation grant to the City of Tempe for stabilization of the Loma del Rio site. From 1993 through 1995, the site was stabilized by the City of Tempe in partnership with Arizona State Parks; Dr. Amy Douglass Tempe Historical Museum Administrator (project conception and realization), Dr. Glen Rice and the ASU Office of Cultural Resource Management (field work), National Park Service (technical assistance with stabilization), Dr. Dittert (expertise on the Hohokam and information regarding prior excavation of the site), Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendoff (HNTB), Architects, Arizona State Parks and the State Historic Preservation Office (Heritage Fund grant).
On October 14, 1995, the Loma del Rio Archaeological Site was dedicated by the City of Tempe as part of the Rio Salado Expo that included dedication of Papago Park Trails and Rio Salado Project Update presentations.
Return to full list >>This 650 year old archaeological site has been stabilized and is easily accessible to the public. A shade ramada and a wheelchair accessible path add to the comfort of visitors who explore the ruin along an interpretive trail. Special plaques inform visitors of the unique characteristics of the site.
Loma del Rio was probably the residence of 15 to 20 people, perhaps an extended family including cousins, aunts and uncles, and several generations of parents. The site contains remains of a block of six connected rooms and one isolated room on the east side thought to have been used for cooking and food processing. Room walls were constructed from stone masonry set in adobe mortar on trenches excavated to bedrock. At some point during occupation, doorways in three of the rooms on the north and west sides were sealed and the rooms were likely used for storage. A cobble bounded, caliche-paved, activity surface or patio separates the roomblock from the single room at the east by 6 to 7 meters.
Crescent-shaped agricultural terraces on the hillside southwest of the roomblock complete the inventory of structures at the site. The crescent-shaped agricultural terraces built into the hillside were ideal for growing agave (aka the Century Plant), which requires no irrigation. Agave grown at Loma del Rio may have been consumed on site and traded with local villages. Besides local agave trading, evidence of trade between Loma del Rio and people as far as 300 miles away was found at the site. Archaeologists determined this by distinctive pottery and stone tool fragments found at the site which appear to have come from such places as Casas Grandes, Mexico; Mule Creek, New Mexico; and Flagstaff, Arizona. In fields below the terraces, crops such as corn, beans, and squash could have been grown in the floodplain of the Salt River, and certainly flora and fauna native to this riverine habitat were exploited by the occupants of Loma del Rio.
In 1887, Frank Hamilton Cushing led the first archaeological expedition to the Salt River Valley. He established a base camp on the north bank of the river near where the ASU Community Service Building is now located. In 1887, Cushing identified the Loma del Rio site as “Los Pueblos Arriba” (Haury 1945:189) and reported evidence of use as an Akimel Au-Authm shrine during the protohistoric period. Cushing collected Casa Grande Red-on-buff sherds, Gila Polychrome sherds, projectile points and other artifacts from Loma del Rio. He reported the presence of “a little Pima shrine, not very recent, nor yet exceedingly ancient, consisting of a terraced alter built up of loose stones that had fallen from the walls, on a step of which were numerously displayed a bunch of arrows with hard-wood, sharpened foreshafts, all neatly laid, somewhat fan-shaped, and held in place by two large flattened stones. In the midst of these were a few scattered beads, mostly of blue glass, but some white and two or three red.”
In 1928, Gila Pueblo archaeological staff (possibly including Frank Midvale; a member of this group who was living in Phoenix at this time) surveyed the Loma del Rio site. Established by Harold S. Gladwin and Winifred Jones MacCurdy (Gladwin) in 1928 as a private archeological research institute, the Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation first defined and then detailed the Hohokam archaeological tradition. In 1928, Gila Pueblo identified the Loma del Rio site as Mesa 1-6 (GP) and plotted it on Gila Pueblo map 023709. The site was described as a seven room stone pueblo, possibly of two stories, covering about 150 by 150 yards. The walls were noted to average 18 inches thick composed of horizontal stone with adobe in the cracks. Although past efforts to locate documents pertaining to Gila Pueblo activities at the site have not succeeded, evidence indicates Gila Pueblo conducted excavations within two or more rooms at Loma del Rio. Book 6 of the Midvale collections at the ASU Department of Anthropology provides a site plan map and photographs the Loma del Rio site identified as “El Pueblito” or the “Stone Ruin”. Midvale’s notes indicate circa 1931, he collected 100 sherds from the site; 62 redware (36 with burnished interiors and the remainder with plain interiors), 38 plainware, and 2 Gila Polychrome.
In 1939, prominent archaeologists Odd S. Halseth, Albert H. Schroeder and Julian T. Hayden recorded the Loma del Rio archaeological site together as part of Schroeder’s survey #22. Halseth and Hayden had worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps and Schroeder with the Works Progress Administration. The 1930s witnessed a new kind of large-scale archeological project as part of federal unemployment relief projects and programs funded by the Works Progress Administration and other public employment programs of the New Deal. In order to employ large numbers of people affected by the depressed economy, archeological projects of this decade focused on fieldwork and on keeping large crews fruitfully employed in excavating archeological sites. Unfortunate consequences of many of these projects were delays in the production of descriptive reports, delays in data analysis, and little publication of project results. Despite these drawbacks, the programs resulted in a substantial increase in knowledge about American archaeology, especially in the Southeast. In 1939, Schroeder, Halseth, and Hayden identified the Loma del Rio site as AZ U:9:14 (PG) and estimated that Civano sherds accounted for 68% of the ceramic assemblage with the remainder dating to the Soho phase. Field notes indicate the site was still in a good state of preservation at this point and relatively free from post-occupational disturbance.
In the 1960s, after prolonged neglect and vandalism, the Loma del Rio site again became the focus of scientific interest. In 1961, the site was visited by Dr. Donald H. Morris and Frank Midvale. Although no collections were made in 1961, Morris and Midvale identified the site as Loma del Rio, completed and ASU Archaeological Survey Form with a sketch map, and noted the site had been heavily impacted by pot hunters. Soon after, 59 sherds were collected from the site and recorded on an ASU Cultural Inventory Methods class specimen log sheet. In 1964, Arizona State Museum personnel surveyed Loma del Rio and identified the site as AZ U:9:10 (ASM). They also reported the site was badly pot hunted with some rooms excavated to a depth of 1.5 meters. ASM collected one box of materials including Classic period redwares.
By the 1970s, Loma del Rio had come to the attention of ASU. In 1973, Betina Rosenberg and Donald E. Weaver, Jr. surveyed the site, and identified the Loma del Rio site as AZ U:9:24 (ASU), the designation used for all subsequent site activities. In 1977, Dr. Alfred E. Dittert, Jr. and ten graduate students from his ASU Cultural Inventory Methods class assessed archaeological resources within the Rio Salado Developmental District and identified interpretive opportunities at Loma del Rio.
From 1984 to 1986, Arizona State University archaeology students under the supervision of Dr. Dittert carried out various excavations at the site. In 1988, Loma del Rio was part of an archaeological survey of a 40-acre area of Tempe Papago Park. Commissioned by the City of Tempe, ASU produced a document titled “A Plan for the Management of Archaeological Sites in the Tempe Papago Park Area” prepared for the city by Linda Williams and Karen Atwell, Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University.
In 1991, the Arizona Parks Board awarded a Heritage Fund historic preservation grant to the City of Tempe for stabilization of the Loma del Rio site. From 1993 through 1995, the site was stabilized by the City of Tempe in partnership with Arizona State Parks; Dr. Amy Douglass Tempe Historical Museum Administrator (project conception and realization), Dr. Glen Rice and the ASU Office of Cultural Resource Management (field work), National Park Service (technical assistance with stabilization), Dr. Dittert (expertise on the Hohokam and information regarding prior excavation of the site), Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendoff (HNTB), Architects, Arizona State Parks and the State Historic Preservation Office (Heritage Fund grant).
On October 14, 1995, the Loma del Rio Archaeological Site was dedicated by the City of Tempe as part of the Rio Salado Expo that included dedication of Papago Park Trails and Rio Salado Project Update presentations.