The unintended secrecy of these sites, though, has likely helped to preserve them for future generations. Through no fault of their own, a vast majority of the park's visitors seem to be "oblivious to what's under their feet," says Lange. Today, as he leads student and museum-member groups through Fort Lowell Park, he and his disciples pick handfuls of ancient pottery from the remaining natural area. Lange was a member of that excavation team as a graduate student at the UA. Army's "Apache Campaign," Fort Lowell was not excavated until 1973. The area in and around Fort Lowell Park is perhaps the best example of one of these barely hidden treasures. Though the historical artifacts from these sites are plentiful, they are so subtle that they often seem to be hiding in plain sight. Traces of settlements, though uninhabited by tribal peoples for the last five centuries, can still be found within the Tucson city limits. 17 mention that the rivers flowed year-round, that cottonwood and mesquite grew along their banks, and that, in some places, beavers built their dams." Crops such as corn, several types of beans, squash and even cotton were planted near the banks of the shallow river, where they were irrigated by seasonal flooding.Īccording to Desert Archaeology Inc., during the excavation of Los Morteros between 19, researchers identified nearly 800 sites of archaeological significance, including 349 structures such as pit houses. Reinhard, available online for free from the University of Arizona Press ( "reports of the Tucson basin written between A.D. According to Hohokam Indians of the Tucson Basin, by Linda M. Though the river has long since dried up, the landscape then was very different. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Los Morteros was a thriving Native American community built along the flood plain of the Santa Cruz River. The bits of broken clay in my hand are common examples of what you could expect to find in one of these areas. For the Hohokam people, they were part of daily life, where broken pottery, animal bones and ash were discarded. It does not take long for us to realize that the gently sloping hill of loosely packed, slightly darkened soil beneath us is not just another hill on the desert landscape, but a communal refuse mound left by the Hohokam people hundreds of years ago.Īccording to archaeologist Rich Lange, of the Arizona State Museum, mounds such as these are not uncommon in the Tucson basin. Our hands sweep carefully over the soil, tracing a path for our over-anxious eyes, and the effort pays off: Piece after piece of fired clay comes into view. Within seconds, another shard of clay pops into view, this one thicker and almost completely gray, with a touch of rust red. Though the ground looks barren-cracked with drought and flat for miles-our eyes are open, unblinking, as we look for subtle pattern variations in the soil.Īnd then we see it: a small shard of clay, about the size of a half-dollar, with a deliberate red stripe running down its center. Hohokam means "all used up," or "gone," in the language of the Akimel O'odham, or Pima peoples, and sometimes is translated as "those who came before." Grandparents, so to speak.The sun beats down on our backs, causing beads of sweat to form on our exposed skin. From 1350 to 1450 the population plunges and traces of the Hohokam disappear from the archaeological record. This stressed their most critical resource, water. In the 16's, early Spanish explorers found the modern Pima Indians on the nearby Gila River still using the Hohokam canal system to irrigate their crops.Īlso to know, how did the Hohokam disappear?Īt the beginning of this period, the Hohokam constructed their last large irrigation network on the river and used all of the available water to irrigate crops. Sometime around 1450, the Hohokam left the area. Subsequently, question is, how many centuries was the Hohokam irrigation system in use? The period between AD 1100 and AD 1450 is considered by archeologists to be the Hohokam's classic period. The term Hohokam is said to be Pima for “those who have vanished.” The culture is customarily divided into four developmental periods: Pioneer (200–775 ce), Colonial (775–975), Sedentary (975–1150), and Classic (from approximately 1150 to sometime between 13). Keeping this in consideration, when did the Hohokam start and end?
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