HOHOKAM FIELD BUILDING

Abstract

Ongoing research in the Northern Phoenix Basin has determined that the soils of at least five Hohokam agricultural fields were deposited through the diversion of silt-laden floodwaters of Cave Creek onto areas of nonarable sand and cobble desert. The fields are the result of the conscious conversion of nonarable desert lands into agricultural fields. Evidence for the anthropogenic nature of these soils based on the soil, topographic, and pollen records is discussed. The largest of these artificial deposits covers 181,760 m2 and averages approximately 80 cm in depth. The creation of these fields represents a significant gain for prehistoric farmers who were able to create arable land in locations where none previously existed. Similar soil-building technologies have been reported in the ethnographic record, suggesting that there may be a long tradition of field building in the Sonoran Desert.