Title: The Burning Sky
Description: I read this in the 1970s while in grad school in anthropology at the University of Arizona.  As I recall, the plot involves an archaeologist/professor who discovers a "lost tribe" of prehistoric Hohokam people living in an isolated canyon in the southern Arizona desert.  At the time, the scoop was that the author had studied anthropology at UA and the two main characters in the book were based on faculty members Dr. Emil Haury and Clara Lee Tanner.
Subjects: prehistory, archaeology
Places: Arizona