Saline Soils and the Agricultural Failure of a Prehistoric Population

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Environmental problems severely affected some prehistoric populations. For example, the Hohokam, during their millennium (450–1450 CE) in the Lower Salt River valley of Arizona, USA, constructed hundreds of kilometers of canals and extensively irrigated farmlands using Salt River waters which carried a high salt content. A quantity of that salt‐laden irrigation water was evaporated in the hot‐arid Sonoran Desert, resulting in thousands of tonnes of salt being deposited onto farmed fields, conditions deleterious to agriculture. Hohokam farmers, limited in their ability to manage salinity in irrigated soils, benefited both from the periodic flooding of the Salt River that leached soil salts from some fields and the occasional movement of their agriculture to new arable soils. They eventually vacated the Lower Salt River valley, presumably because periods of low river flows and limited flooding reduced irrigation and soil leaching capabilities, resulting in conditions unfavorable for continued agriculture. Enhanced soil and water management allows modern agriculture to succeed by successfully managing the environmental factors that limited the Hohokam.Core Ideas Soil salinity adversely affected some civilizations in prehistory. Environmental factors constrained some prehistoric populations. Artifact production is a function of duration of occupancy. Hohokam agriculture was restricted by the production of saline soils.