“A Hohokam Pottery Bell”

Abstract

����� Although the clapper was not recovered, construction details for the bell were obvious from impressions on the interior of the sherds. Using these construction inferences, Ethel had no trouble making and firing a beautiful replica. Norton noted that other pottery bells had been found, but did not emphasize that, although a few from Pecos Pueblo are larger than the bell from the Twelve Mile Site, the photographs and description make it clear that all are rather crudely modeled in comparison (Kidder 1932:138–40). What the Pecos bells lack in sophistication, however, they make up for in number: 189 were recovered from trash deposits. This leads one to suspect that Pecos might even be the source of the other, individual finds of very similar-looking pottery bells known from Awatovi (Fewkes 1898:628–29), Grasshopper Pueblo (Jernigan 1978:fig. 43), near Camp Verde (Barnett 1991:33), and the FF Ranch Site near Dragoon (Fulton 1934:19, pl. X-d), all in Arizona, and from sites near Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico (Tanner 1976:194). Nevertheless, in spite of the passage of more than fifty years since its discovery, this bell from the Twelve Mile Site remains unique in its craftsmanship. The copper bells found in the Southwest were imported from Mexico, primarily during the Hohokam Colonial and Sedentary Periods, circa Ad 600 to 1100 (Sprague 1964; Sprague and Signori 1963; Vargas 1995). This is also the tightest age range for the Twelve Mile Site and Norton’s bell, suggesting that the Mexican bells are its source of inspi