Hohokam Culture

  General Description  
The term ‘Hohokam’ was applied to the culture group by archaeologists, and is borrowed from the Uto-Aztecan language, O’odham. However it does not refer to a tribe or peoples, but rather a site where there are “earthen buildings, red on buff pottery, and extensive canals”. ^[1] Instead the peoples that created and lived in the Hohokam culture are now referred to as ancestral Sonoran Desert people. There is evidence of the Sonoran Desert people being active in the Hohokam sites from around 5,500 BCE, however the Hohokam culture period runs from c. 300-1500 CE. ^[2]
Hohokam sites and the people who lived there were based in the “Phoenix Basin along the Gila and Salt Rivers, in southern Arizona along the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers, and north on the Lower Verde River and along the New and Agua Fria Rivers.” ^[3] Their settlements can be traced to around 300 CE, and their society flourished for around one thousand years until around 1375 when sites became abandoned, and their sophisticated canal and irrigation systems fell into disrepair. The Sonoran Desert people gradually left their ancestral areas and by 1450, when the Spanish arrived, there were only a few small communities of their descendants remaining in the area. ^[4]
Though it is not known exactly what caused the dispersion of these people, speculations have included that there may have been drought, famine, other natural disasters, or internal warfare. ^[2] There is also evidence that their extensive canals and irrigation systems suffered widespread erosion from as early as 1020-1160 CE. ^[5]
The period of the Hohokam culture are usually divided up as follows: ^[6]
Pioneer Period: 150 – 725 CE
Colonial Period (Gila Butte phase): 725 – 825 CE
Colonial Period (Santa Cruz phase): 825 – 1000 CE
Sedentary Period (Sacaton phase): 1000-1100 CE
Classic Period (Soho phase): 1111 - 1300 CE
Classic Period (Civano phase): 1300 - 1450 CE

[1]: ”History & Culture - Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HJU2S97P

[2]: “The Ancestral Sonoran Desert People - Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (U.S. National Park Service),”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HZ95455H

[3]: “Hohokam Culture (U.S. National Park Service)”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/34YMDDCN

[4]: Barnhart 2018: 144. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VPVHH2HJ

[5]: Snow et al. 2020: 198. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5T4C9IQT

[6]: McGuire 2018: 5-6. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C9FB2IXT