![]() ![]() Pueblo Grande Museum is located on a 1,500 year old archaeological site left by the Hohokam culture located just minutes from downtown Phoenix next to Sky Harbor International Airport. Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park.The Hohokam’s farming community and “Great House” are preserved at Casa Grande Ruins. Today we can visit the ruins of some of the places the Hohokam once called home.Įxplore the mystery and complexity of an extended network of communities and irrigation canals. We will probably never know the reasons why the Hohokam left their home of nearly 1,500 years, but their descendants live on as part of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Or, perhaps, floods damaged the canal infrastructure, or maybe drought brought hardship. It has been speculated that war or disease threatened the population. The reason for this abandonment is still unknown. It means either “those who have vanished,” or “all used up,” or even “those who came before.” For three centuries leading up to the disappearance of the Hohokam there were several social and migration changes, with many settlements and structures being abandoned. The word Hohokam is a Pima word given to the civilization by archeologists. ![]() They would trade with the Indian nations of California and also those in Mexico. They would weave their cotton into textiles which were often used as a trade items. The Hohokam were the earliest cotton growers in the Southwest. Harvest and planting times would have required the efforts of their whole community. They also would have had to protect the crops from birds and rabbits and other intruders. The farmers would have to maintain their fields and make sure the irrigation gates were opened and closed the appropriate times. The canals would take a lot of organization and the labor of thousands of people to build, operate and maintain. However, life for them focused mainly on agriculture and the growing of their crops. They did have other food sources that came from dry farming agave, the gathering of wild plants and hunting deer and other small animals. ![]() The well-designed irrigation systems allowed the Hohokam to produce two harvests each year. They were skilled farmers and would manage the soil to replace lost nutrients. The canal systems allowed the Hohokam to farm corn, cotton, beans, tobacco and squash. ![]() “The only thing that rivals it is on the desert coast of Peru, and those canals aren’t as large.” “In its engineering and size, the canal system is bigger and more sophisticated than any irrigation in the prehistoric New World,” Howard says. These systems sustained the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest. By the year 1300 AD there were thousands of miles of canals that were used at different times, and irrigated nearly 110,000 acres of crops. The longest canal that has been found reached over 20 miles. It’s an extraordinary effort of engineering and social organization.” According to Jerry Howard, the curator of anthropology at the Museum of Natural History, “That’s monstrous. This canal was 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide. The Museum of Natural History in Mesa discovered one of the Hohokam canals at the north end of Dobson Road. Several of the canals were enormous in size. These canals were laid out over the landscape on a downhill drop of 1 to 2 feet per mile. In order to meet their needs, they created highly sophisticated and large irrigation systems. The Hohokam lived in the dry desert, which means there was not enough rainfall alone to grow crops. The Hohokam were Arizona’s first farmers.įor their time, the Hohokam were the only culture in North America that relied on irrigation canals to water their crops. They built a society around irrigated agriculture that was watered by elaborate canal systems they created. The Hohokam were one of the first tribes in Arizona to give up the hunting and foraging lifestyle. They inhabited parts of southern and central Arizona near the Salt, Gila, Verde, Santa Cruz, and San Pedro rivers from around the year 600 to around 1450 AD. The Hohokam were one of the United States’ first great Native American civilizations. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |