ANT 351 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Lithic Reduction, Richter Magnitude Scale, Frank Hamilton Cushing
The Hohokam: Classic and Post-Classic
Environmental Context for the Classic and Post-Classic
- The Classic period began with a period of below-normal stream flows
oMay have caused food shortages
oEncouraged a storage of food
-The late Classic period was a time of extreme fluctuations in river flow that would have
had severe impacts on the Hohokam irrigation canals and agricultural system in general
Hohokam Classic Period Lifeway and Material Culture Pattern
-No new ball courts are built after the beginning of the Classic period
-In the Soho Phase
o ball courts that do exist are abandoned and many are used as trash dumps
o shift in location of houses
o precincts around the ball courts are abandoned and new areas of settlement are
established in locations away from the ball courts
-At the beginning of the Classic period, the small, circular platform mounds
oNow are replaced by a new form of mound, rectangular, vertical-walled platform
mound
start as relatively small constructions but they are continually expanded
and enlarged
retaining wall
post-reinforced adobe
(upright posts with adobe packed around them)
To make adobe, the Hohokam excavate into the subsoil to obtain soil that
is rich in caliche. Caliche is a rock-hard, white material that lies just
underneath the soil.
It is a form of calcium carbonate
the same material used to make modern cement.
It is pulverized and mixed with water and soil to form adobe
oAs the mounds grew out they also grew higher
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surfaces of the mounds were covered with a thick coating of adobe,
which was coated with a mix of clay and caliche plaster
Structures were built atop the mounds
-In the Civano phase, the structures were rectangular rooms that were arranged in
“blocks” like pueblo rooms
- a lot of variation in the form and apparent use of platform mounds
-In some villages (like Casa Grande, along the Gila River, and Pueblo Grande, along the
Salt) the early mounds were built in pairs
-At some sites, the rooms at the tops of the platform mounds appear to have been used
as residences. At other sites (like Pueblo Grande), the rooms on the mounds appear not
to have been lived in
o Some mounds had large rooms/blocks of rooms that were used for storage
-All mounds had a use for ceremonies and rituals
oMany artifacts were found and known to be used by Native American shamans
and priests
oIncluding
quartz crystals
brightly colored and oddly-shaped water-worn stones
sheets of mica
asbestos cloths
large, polished stone cylinders
shell jewelry and intact shells
pigments like malachite and hematite
unusual pottery vessels such as effigies and legged trays or shallow
bowls
turquoise stones and ornaments, including turquoise-encrusted shells
whistles made from bird bones
bone awls and hairpins
unusually large and well-made stone axes
effigies of projectile points or shell jewelry made from clay
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carved stone effigies
palettes
censers
shell trumpets (trumpets made from large sea shells with a hole drilled
in one end)
-the platform mounds also featured unusual architecture
oadobe benches, shrines, and altars
opainted walls
orooms with unusually thick walls and high ceilings
orooms with unusual features like corner doorways and mitered (45-degree
angle) corners
o“bundle burials” (bundles of human bones that were apparently de-fleshed and
tied together in bundles before burial)
oshallow, clay-lined unburned pits of unknown function
omulti-story rooms built like “towers” atop the mounds
-Platform mounds were almost always surrounded by a compound wall
-designed to restrict access and make it difficult to either enter the area around the
mound or see into these areas
-the restricting wall was about 8 feet high
-This shows a very different approach to public architecture during the Classic period,
when compared to the Pre-Classic
-Hohokam platform mounds are sequestered and isolated from public view, with spatial,
visual, and audible access highly restricted
-presumed that platform mounds were a form of architecture used by an elite stratum of
Hohokam society, or by important ceremonial groups that also had political power
-Platform mounds were rather regularly spaced along the irrigation canal networks,
with small or medium mounds occurring at an average interval of perhaps every three
to five miles
-The two largest mounds (Mesa Grande, in modern Mesa, Arizona, and Pueblo Grande,
in Phoenix) were situated on opposite sides of the Salt River
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Document Summary
The classic period began with a period of below-normal stream flows: may have caused food shortages, encouraged a storage of food. The late classic period was a time of extreme fluctuations in river flow that would have had severe impacts on the hohokam irrigation canals and agricultural system in general. Hohokam classic period lifeway and material culture pattern. No new ball courts are built after the beginning of the classic period. To make adobe, the hohokam excavate into the subsoil to obtain soil that is rich in caliche. Caliche is a rock-hard, white material that lies just underneath the soil. It is a form of calcium carbonate the same material used to make modern cement. In the civano phase, the structures were rectangular rooms that were arranged in. Blocks like pueblo rooms a lot of variation in the form and apparent use of platform mounds. In some villages (like casa grande, along the gila river, and pueblo grande, along the.
