Hohokam Roads at Snaketown, Arizona

Abstract

Earlier and newly gathered data suggest that a series of prehistoric roads radiated toward the north and east from the prehistoric Hohokam village of Snaketown, south of modern Phoenix, Arizona. Evidence from aerial photographs and subsequent ground-truthing strongly suggests that an eastern road once connected Snaketown with the contemporaneous Gila Butte Site, and supporting survey data indicate that at least one use for this road was for transporting micaceous schist ceramic temper to Snaketown from quarries at Gila Butte. Previously identified “trails” bearing north from Snaketown are reinterpreted as roads along which pottery from Snaketown workshops was transported to consumer villages along the Salt River. The roads may also have formalized sociopolitical ties among communities, in the absence of common irrigation systems.