Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest

by H. M. Wormington

Fig. 42—Hohokam figurines. a. Pioneer period. b. Colonial Period. c. Sedentary Period.

From the earliest times the Hohokam were skilled workers in stone. Two distinctive traits were: the manufacture of “palettes” and of stone jars. The palettes have been so called, although we are not sure of their actual function, because the center portions contain traces of ground pigment and there is usually a slight depression which might have resulted from grinding and mixing. They are the most common of Hohokam funerary offerings. In Pioneer times, they were much simpler than in later periods. At first they were plain stone slabs, but, by the close of the period, they were being made with raised borders. The polished stone vessels were sometimes plain, sometimes [incised], and in one case the incisions had been filled with paint. Late in the period carved life-forms appeared. One [effigy] represents the figure of a man squatting and holding a shallow basin. Other stone implements include manos and metates, mortars and pestles, and highly polished grooved axes with raised ridges on either side of the groove. As has been previously noted, there was a scarcity of projectile points. Most of those which have been found are light enough to suggest the possibility of the use of the bow and arrow. There are also some heavy, stemmed points which may have been dart-points or knives.

Some stone was used in the manufacture of ornaments, although shell was more abundantly utilized for this purpose. Beads and pendants were carved from stone, and there was some use of turquoise, particularly in mosaic work. No ear plugs have been found in levels earlier than those of the Sedentary period, but they are shown on Pioneer figurines, and it seems reasonable to suppose that they may have been worn at that time. Shells provided many ornaments. Whole shells were utilized as beads by grinding off the ends to make it possible to string them; some disc beads were made. Bracelets were made of shell. They were usually thin and rather fragile and were not carved until late in the period.

Bone was much less widely used by the Hohokam than by the Anasazi, but one distinctive type of object was made of this material. This is an [incised] bone tube, usually decorated with rectilinear designs but sometimes utilizing curvilinear patterns and occasionally life-forms. There are some indications that these tubes were painted. Their use has not been determined.

Pipes were not made by the Hohokam in any period. Since these people were not as dependent on the vagaries of the weather as were the Anasazi, who depended to a great extent on flood irrigation, it is entirely logical that cloud symbols should not have been as important to them.

THE COLONIAL HOHOKAM

The Colonial period, which lasted from perhaps 600 to about 900 A. D., is better known than the Pioneer, for it is represented at two other excavated sites in addition to Snaketown. These are Roosevelt 9:6, at Roosevelt Lake, Arizona,[48] and the Grewe Site which lies just east of Casa Grande National Monument.[120] By the end of Colonial times all of the distinctive traits which characterize the Hohokam were fully developed, and some had even begun to decline. The most spectacular accomplishment of this period, and for that matter of the whole [culture], was the construction of a great system of irrigation channels which diverted water to the fields from the rivers.[57] At their first appearance, the canals were so well developed that it seems impossible that this marks the first attempt at such a project. Possibly the system had been developed in Pioneer times, or, perhaps, it had been perfected elsewhere first, but evidence to bolster either theory is still lacking. By 700 A. D., the canal system was well established and became increasingly bigger and more [complex] until the peak was reached between 1200 and 1400 A. D.

The whole project is really amazing when one considers the tremendous amount of work which went into the construction and maintenance of the canals. The latter must have required almost as much effort as the original excavating, for silt was constantly being deposited. Canals were up to thirty feet wide and ten feet deep, and in the Salt River Valley they have been found to have an aggregate length of 150 miles. It staggers the imagination when one stops to think that this tremendous engineering feat was carried out with only the crudest of stone and wooden tools. The scope of such a project and the end toward which so much effort was directed tell us a great deal about the people who planned it. Undoubtedly such an undertaking indicates strong leadership and careful organization. Great numbers of people must have participated, and it undoubtedly took much careful planning to direct their labors. There must also have been some centralization of authority, since the canals served various settlements and these groups must have had some organization to direct their efforts toward the common good.

Here, as among the Anasazi, however, there is no evidence of a ruling class with a higher standard of living than that of their subordinates. The scope of the canal project suggests comparisons with the erection of the huge pyramids of Egypt or the great temples of the Maya. There is a tremendous difference, however, in the ends toward which all this vast human effort was directed. In Egypt, men slaved to construct tombs for despotic rulers, and, in the land of the Maya, they labored to erect temples, doubtless for the greater glory of the priesthood as much as for the gods who were worshipped. In the arid reaches of the Hohokam homeland, however, the canals, which were built and kept open with so much labor, were for the benefit of the people.