Simonton Ranch to Display Prehistoric Cultural Resources Unearthed by EnviroSystems

Prior to developing in the Finney Flat area of Camp Verde, Arizona, Mr. Scott Simonton of Verde River Properties contracted with EnviroSystems to perform burial investigations and limited archaeological data recovery excavations at the future master-planned community known as Simonton Ranch. In EnviroSystems’ effort to help Verde River Properties achieve proactive compliance with the Arizona State Burial Statute, two Sinagua pithouse village sites were excavated and many interesting artifacts were recovered. In an effort to connect the past and present residents of the area, Mr. Simonton again contracted with EnviroSystems to put together an interpretive display showcasing some of the more noteworthy and complete artifacts recovered during the excavations.

EnviroSystems is proud to partner with Verde River Properties to create the interpretive displays for the Simonton Ranch development. Mr. Simonton had EnviroSystems create a public exhibit, an infrequent yet fun change-of-pace for our staff archaeologists. Please take a moment and enjoy a “sneak peek” of the prehistoric materials to be displayed at Simonton Ranch — preserving the area’s history for future generations to enjoy.

Photograph 1: Complete Simonton Ranch artifact exhibit created by EnviroSystems. A variety of items illustrating various aspects of ancient Southern Sinagua material culture were chosen for display and interpretation. On display are items used for hunting; stone, shell, and ceramic jewelry; a ceramic figurine; pieces of an assortment of pots used for storage and cooking (some made locally by the Sinagua, others imported from the Hohokam to the south and Ancestral Puebloans to the north); reworked pieces of pottery used as spindle whorls (i.e., flywheels) in hand-spinning cotton; an animal bone awl, plant parts used in house construction, stone food-grinding tools, and a stone axe.



Photograph 2: Close-up of two stone tools in the Simonton Ranch artifact exhibit. On the top is a granite axe head that would have been hafted on to a wooden handle and used for chopping wood. On the bottom is a sandstone mano–a hand-held tool usually used to grind maize and other seeds on a larger bottom stone called a metate. Together the mano and metate served as a human-powered food processor to crush and grind food in preparation for cooking.



Photograph 3: Close-up of one of three display cases containing smaller artifacts created for the Simonton Ranch artifact exhibit. This case contains both spear points (some dating to as early as 1500 B.C.) and arrowheads used for hunting both large and small animals; stone and shell beads; shell bracelet fragments (made from shell traded north from the Gulf of California); and turquoise jewelry in various stages of production (this is evidence that the local people were manufacturing turquoise jewelry, either for their own use or possibly for trade).

( News Archive )