Hohokam
The Hohokam were a Native American people, whose culture flourished from the third century BC. AD to about 1400 in the Southwest United States today ( Arizona ). They practiced irrigated agriculture, the size and stone sculpture. They cremated their dead. Their direct descendants are the Pima and Tohono O'odham. It is the archaeologist Harold S. Gladwin who used the word "Hohokam," during these excavations in the Lower Gila Valley. Hohokam means "those who have disappeared." Hohokam culture has similarities with that of the Anasazi and Mogollon , which existed at the same time and in the same region.
Summary |
Area of the Hohokam culture
It is believed that the Hohokam culture was born in the region of the Gila River and Salt River and has spread to the Sonoran Desert.
- There are indications that the Hohokam cultivated cotton , the tobacco , the agave , the Corn , beans and squash. They built irrigation canals south of the current Phoenix to alleviate water shortages in the arid environment they occupied.
- The Hohokam were in contact with the peoples of Central America through trade routes. Archaeologists have found some pyrite mirrors, copper bells and macaws from Mexico.
- The habitat (to write) to Casa Grande , homes multistory adobe village surrounded by walls and abandoned in the sixteenth century. We also discovered Pithouse, houses buried Periodization
The era of pioneers (200 BC / 775 ): corn and beans, small villages on the middle reaches of the Gila River: simple habitat. Between 300 and 500, the Hohokam improve their agriculture by adding new plants, probably transmitted by the people of Mexico: cotton, a new species of beans , more resistant to drought (Phaseolus acutifolius). Trade with the Gulf of California is growing as shown by the discovery of shells. They used clay figurines and the incense in ceremonies.
The Colonial Period ( 775 - 975 ): the villages become larger. The Mexican influence is growing and pottery are decorated in a more elaborate.
Sedentary period (975 - in 1150 ): Population growth requires expanding the Hohokam irrigation system, which implies a hierarchical social organization. The artisans produce fine jewelry, from shells; funerary sculpture develops.
The Classical Period (1150-1400/1450)
- Soho phase (1150-1300): early decline. Contacts with the Pueblo peoples intensified.
- Civano phase (1300-1400/1450): Many sites are abandoned probably due to climatic conditions. In the mid- fourteenth century , a series of floods disrupts the lives of Hohokam.
Hohokam archaeological sites
- Hohokam Pima National Monument , near Coolidge in the Arizona , preserves a Hohokam archaeological site about 6.9 km. But it is not open to the public.
- Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.
- Snaketown , located on the Gila River near Chandler.
References
See also
Bibliography
- Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and Hudson, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
- Crown, Patricia L. and Judge, James W, editors. Chaco & Hohokam: Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American Southwest. School of American Research Press, Sante Fe, New Mexico, 1991. ISBN 0-933452-76-4.
- Jerry Brody, The Anasazi: The first Indian American Southwest, Aix-en-Provence, Edisud, 1993
External Links
- (In) the National Park Service, Casa Grande Ruins
- (En) A student Projects with Information On The Hohokam
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