Prehistoric Hohokam Research Articles

A Look at Archaeological—Ethnobiological Collaboration in Hohokam Studies

This paper presents a brief evaluation of archaeologists and ethnobiologists collaborating to understand the prehistoric Hohokam. The development of ethnobiological studies in the context of Hohokam research is briefly examined. Then two major studies—the Salt-Gila Aqueduct project and the Marana Complex investigations—are highlighted to exemplify both the strengths and weaknesses of recent efforts.

Electron Microprobe and Petrographic Analyses of Prehistoric Hohokam Pottery to Deter. Mine Ceramic Exchange Within The Salt River Vallty, Arizona

AbstractCeramic analysis with an electron microprobe and thin-section petrography are used to investigate prehistoric exchange among the Hohokam of the Salt River valley, Arizona. These complimentary techniques can be useful for resolving the special problems that arise when studying ceramic exchange over short distances.

Water in New Mexico: A History of Its Management and Use by Ira G. Clark

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 491 The Southwestern Division, based in Dallas since the late years of the Depression, oversees district functions from western New Mexico to central Arkansas and from southern Missouri to the border with Mexico. This region has dramatic extremes of culture, topography, and history, and its modern development, like most of the Sun Belt in which it resides, is a function of federal spending to “prime the pump” for economic prosperity. But this book reflects little of this context as it shifts from chronology to projects to internal organiza­ tion. The relationship of the districts to the division is overlooked, as are the weaknesses of corps commander personnel changes every three years and the dependency of the agency on federal funding. The bibliography points up some of the shortcomings of the nar­ rative. More research needs to be done on the post—World War II era in the region. The most powerful national politicians of the last two generations have come from Texas, among them Lyndon B. Johnson, Sam Rayburn, and Jim Wright. Their influence on the corps was (and still is) significant. Perhaps the delicate nature of the division’s rela­ tionship to Congress precluded analysis of this factor. Even though the army engineers have produced several dozen vol­ umes on many aspects of their organizational existence, the problems outlined above endure. One hopes that the willingness of the corps to continue evaluating its environmental and engineering policies will echo down to its meritorious efforts to remember its past. Michael Welsh Dr. Welsh is a research assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico. Among his publications is U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Albuquerque District 1935—1985 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), nominated for the Robert G. Athearn Award of the Western History Association for the best volume on the 20th-century American West. Water in New Mexico: A History of Its Management and Use. By Ira G. Clark. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. Pp. xviii + 839; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $50.00. Ira Clark has written the definitive history of water policy and the evolution ofwater law for the state of New Mexico. Water in New Mexico is encyclopedic. Clark’s purpose was to write a “single, systematized narrative whose central theme was the management and use of so precious a natural resource” (p. xi). In this he has largely been suc­ cessful. He has written an institutional history of the New Mexico water establishment, with impressive bibliography and notes. Clark periodizes his massive work in three parts: territorial New Mexico, early statehood, and after World War II. His concluding chapter looks at prospects for the future. The major issues involved in water policy and litigation in the West—Native American water rights, interstate compacts, groundwater conservation, federal policy, 492 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE effective administration of state laws and court decrees—are all given some consideration. The technology of water development, however, is given short shrift. Clark briefly mentions the major reclamation projects in New Mexico at Carlsbad and Elephant Butte and even speaks to the failure at Rio Hondo. Yet he concentrates on legislative policy, and fails to discuss the significance of the design technology that made possible the suc­ cessful irrigation projects. Clark begins his story promisingly with a discussion of prehistoric Hohokam irrigation technologies, including deep canals of earthen construction with woven mats used as possible check gates. The physical capabilities of these Native Americans to move and direct the water flow guided the development of their farming practices. Archaeologists theorize that, when their available technology was not adequate to solve other hydraulic problems, such as alkalinity in the soil, they abandoned their fields and moved else­ where. Clearly, this is an example of the integral relationship between water technology and irrigation practice, one that does not end with the Hohokams. In addition, in his chapter on groundwater, Clark notes that “the technological problems were solved in time, but the cost of drilling and pumping was much greater than direct diversion from the streams” (p. 234). At no time, however, is the reader alerted to what those problems might be. The development...

False Causality in the Hohokam Collapse

ABSTRACTWater-logging and salinization of agricultural lands are often cited as factors contributing to the collapse of Hohokam society. The interaction of these two factors is reviewed and their impact on historic Anglo agricultural production is evaluated. Data indicate that water-logging and salinization begin to affect agricultural production within 50–100 years following the start of canal use. Assuming that analogous processes affected prehistoric Hohokam agricultural production, the rapid emergence of these factors is incompatible with their use as devices to explain the collapse of Hohokam systems using a gradualist model of irrigation development. However, water-logging and salinization have potential interpretive significance using a cyclical model of agricultural development.

The impact of fluvial processes and landscape evolution on archaeological sites and settlement patterns along the San Xavier reach of the Santa Cruz River, Arizona

AbstractThe Santa Cruz arroyo in the Tucson Basin, Arizona, has undergone major environmental changes over the last 8000 years. the Holocene stratigraphy along a 15 km segment of the arroyo, known as the San Xavier reach, which traverses the San Xavier Indian Reservation was investigated in detail. the Holocene alluvial sequence reveals that aggradation occurred until 8000 yr B.P. within a braided stream, was followed by a major period of channel erosion and widening from 8000 to 5500 yr B.P., which, in turn, was followed by vertical aggradation of the floodplain and five short periods of channel cutting. Broad climatic changes are correlated with major changes in the fluvial regime and landscape. However, the cycles of arroyo cutting and filling, during the semiarid climate of the last 2500 years, were probably the result of the creation of unstable internal geomorphic conditions, flooding, and human impacts on the floodplain. the alluvial history of the San Xavier reach has had a pronounced effect on the preservation and completeness of the archaeological record. Periods of erosion have created absences or gaps in the archaeological record and deep burial has removed some of the preserved archaeological remains from view. Environmental changes on the floodplain also influenced late prehistoric Hohokam settlement and subsistence patterns in the San Xavier region.

Provenance of sand temper in Hohokam Ceramics, Arizona

AbstractSand temper compositions of regionally distinct Hohokam pottery sherds were determined by detailed point counts using sedimentary petrographic methods. Different temper compositions from different sites were compared with maps of sand composition zones within the geographic range of the pottery in order to establish the probable provenance of each sherd. A number of probable instances of intraregional pottery exchange were identified. The larger number of sand sources in undecorated vs. decorated pottery at each site suggests that undecorated pottery was made in more places than decorated vessels, and may have been traded differently as well. Petrographic analysis of temper is a useful method for studying exchange of homogeneous pottery in geologically diverse areas, and for investigating prehistoric Hohokam interaction in the Tucson and Red Rock Basins on a scale not possible with traditional archaeological techniques.

Geomorphic analysis of Hohokam settlement patterns on alluvial fans along the western Flank of the Tortolita Mountains, Arizona

AbstractGeoarchaeological investigations of the alluvial piedmont or bajada emanating from the Tortolita Mountains, Arizona, show that the distribution of Hohokam sites apparent from the surface is complete and undisturbed by geological processes. Late Holocene geomorphic processes and their resultant deposits on the bajada affected the location of prehistoric Hohokam agricultural settlements. Hohokam settlements were commonly situated on small alluvial fans dominated by sheetwash processes and deposition of fine‐grained alluvium, where floodwater farming could be easily pursued with little modification of the natural surface. Large alluvial fans, dominated by channel processes and coarse‐grained alluvium were avoided by the Hohokam farmer because these areas were less suitable for floodwater farming.

Sediment Accumulation Along Hohokam Canals

ABSTRACTLow ridges of sediments that mark the courses of prehistoric Hohokam canal systems in the Queen Creek Delta of Arizona have been independently mapped by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service as discrete soil phases. To determine whether soil phase maps might be useful for identifying prehistoric canal systems elsewhere, previously mapped Hohokam canals in the Salt River Valley were compared with government soil phase maps. Long, narrow bands of sediments identified in the maps as discrete soil phases were found to be strongly associated with the first 10 km of individual canals, but the association diminishes as distance from the river increases. The study suggests that sediments associated with canals were transported by the water in those canals and deposited as the water velocity slowed. The high sediment build-up in the canal intake areas has implications for social structure of people using irrigation technology and may have been a problem serious enough to lead to changes in Hohokam society.

Morphology and Function of Hohokam Small Structures

ABSTRACTLarge numbers of prehistoric Hohokam structures less then 9 m2 in size have been excavated in the Salt-Gila Basin. These small structures occur both in isolated situations and within more substantial sites with large structures. Historic data for groups living in southern Arizona and northern Mexico reveal that small structures were constructed for a variety of uses, primarily for storage or temporary habitation. The function of historic small structures in the settlement-subsistence system included temporary restriction of personnel viewed as dangerous to the community and shelter for personnel temporarily separated from the community caring for crops or in pursuit of wild food resources. Given these historic data, it is possible to attempt an interpretation of the uses of prehistoric small structures.

Water for the Valley of the Sun

Water development in the Salt River Valley of south-central Arizona has progressed from the simple irrigation canals of prehistoric Hohokam Indians to a complex network of public and private facilities supplying agricultural and urban needs. In the modern era, several private canals were built prior to 1900, but construction of a dam to store spring runoff was beyond private financing capability. Federal financial assistance through the Reclamation Act pf 1902 made possible the construction of Theodore Roosevelt Dam and other needed facilities. The Salt River Valley Water Users Association, which took over operation of the project in 1917, has built five more dams, three of which have appurtenant hydroelectric powerplants, three steam-electric generating plants, and 250 ground-water wells. Local surface water supplies are essentially developed and the ground-water reservoir is being rapidly depleted. The Federal Central Arizona Project, now under construction, will bring water from the Colorado River to help relieve the imbalance between demand and supply.

Who Were the Hohokam? The Evidence from Pima-Papago Myths

A corpus of thirteen Pima-Papago myths is examined for historical evidence concerning the prehistoric Hohokam peoples in southern Arizona and concerning the origin of the Buzzard moiety among Pimans. It is suggested that most myths involving the Hohokam express a death and rebirth ideology which may have been influenced by any of four sources, including diffusion from central Mexico, an actual Hohokam conquest, Spanish expeditions in search of Cibola, and the ghost dance movement. This paper compares Pima and Papago myths on three issues: a flood, the fate of a people called the Hohokam, and the origin of moieties. The myths differ. For example, some say that the flood reached to within a few inches of the sky while others say it barely wet the ground; some say the Hohokam were conquered by the ancestors of today's Pimas and Papagos while in others the Hohokam were the ancestors and the conquerors were Spaniards; the moieties are said by some to have been present when the ancestors of today's Indians emerged from the underworld while other myths say the moieties originated in a conquest. It has recently been suggested that one version out of the several to be discussed here tells a story which really happened. This version states that the Hohokam were conquered by people who had been living to the east of them and that the conquerors incorporated the Hohokam as a moiety. Patrilineal descendants of the Hohokam are members of the Buzzard moiety among today's Pimas and Papagos and patrilineal descendants of the conquerors are members of the Coyote moiety. The events probably happened in the fifteenth century, or three hundred years before the first European settlement in the area (Hayden 1970). No archaeological evidence bearing on those specific events has been found.

An Archaeological Survey of the Lower Gila River, Arizona

ABSTRACTDuring January and February 1964, an archaeological survey of the Lower Gila River was undertaken by the Arizona State Museum to locate sites endangered by future Gila River channel alterations. The 85 sites located in the survey reflected occupation in the river valley by several culturally distinct groups. Anglo American, modern Papago, historic Western Yavapai, historic and prehistoric Yuman, and prehistoric Hohokam sites were represented.