A monumental archaeological discovery has been uncovered, documenting ancient roots put down in the Arizona desert long ago by the ancestors of the Akimel O’Odham, whose homelands once encompassed all of Tempe.
As the city, in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highways Administration, has worked on a streetscaping and multiuse path project for Eighth Street between Rural Road and McClintock Drive, significant Native American archaeology was discovered.
“Phoenix is set up on a grid. In modern-day Tempe, you have this road that is not on the grid. There’s a reason why, and it has a very deep history going back 1,500 years,” said Travis Cureton, senior archaeologist for Logan Simpson Design.
