1350: Hohokam Achieve Largest Population North of Mexico City Through Irrigation

Approximate location of the Hohokam Core Area (yellow) in the year 1350, at the climax of the Pueblo III Period (c. 1150-1350 AD). (source)

The Hohokam (/hoʊhoʊˈkɑːm/) were an ancient Native American culture centered in present-day Arizona, along the middle Gila and lower Salt River drainages in what is known as the Phoenix basin, from about 1 AD to about 1450 AD, when their culture disappeared.

In North America, the Hohokam were the only native culture to rely on irrigation canals to water their crops. They created roughly 135 miles of irrigation canals, and irrigation provided by these canals enabled the Hohokam culture to spread throughout the valley. This was the largest single body of land irrigated in prehistoric times in North or South America, perhaps in the world. They grew primarily beans, squash, tobacco, cotton and corn.

By 1300 AD, the Hohokam were the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest, and the largest native population north of Mexico City.

The Hohokam are considered one of the four major cultures in Southwestern archaeology, and also considered part of the Oasisamerica tradition. They established significant trading centers such as at Snaketown. They carried out extensive trade with the nearby Anasazi, Mogollon and Sinagua, as well as with the more distant Mesoamerican civilizations like the Aztecs.

At some point in the mid-15th century, the Hohokam culture simply disappeared from the area, speculation as to why as focused on periods of drought and severe floods during this period."

The term Hohokam (Hobokam, Huhugam and Huhukam) is borrowed from the O'odham language, meaning “those who have gone.”

"According to local oral tradition, the Hohokam may be the ancestors of the historic Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples in Southern Arizona. Recent academic research focused on the Sobaipuri, ancient ancestors of the modern Pima, indicates that Pima groups were present in the region at the end of the Hohokam sequence."

They are considered to be the builders of the original canal system around the Phoenix metropolitan area, which the Mormon pioneers rebuilt. Paths of these canals would later become used for the modern Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal, and the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct.

Hohokam turquoise mosaic jewelry. (source)

c. 1350 AD Climax of the Pueblo III period in the Southwest, including Hohokam settlement at Casa Grande. "also called the "Great Pueblo period" when Ancestral Puebloans lived in large cliff-dwelling, multi-storied pueblo, or cliff-side talus house communities. By the end of the period the ancient people of the Four Corners region migrated south into larger, centralized pueblos in central and southern Arizona and New Mexico."

c. 1150 AD Snaketown is abandoned (site 30 mi. SW of Phoenix). " Early in the Classic Period (1150 CE - 1400/1450) the community of Snaketown, once apparently central to the broader Hohokam culture, was suddenly abandoned. Parts of its structure were burned, and the site was not reoccupied. C. E. Haury cites over-irrigation leading to soil depletion as a possibility for its fall, but still contends that abandonment also occurred in nearby cultures that were less dependent on irrigation. Fagan notes that this time coincides with the Medieval Warm Period, which might have caused droughts. Fagan also suggests that the people continued farming in a much less organized manner or relocated according to remaining irrigation canals. Haury maintains that Snaketown was deserted around 1100 CE while Fagan uses the later dates of 1150-1450. Several texts  maintain that its population increased until the dispersal of its population. The dispersal could have occurred quickly and violently, as the archaeological record indicates the burning of many buildings at the same time. After Snaketown was abandoned, several minor settlements were founded within the general vicinity and continued to be occupied until the early 14th century AD. "

c. 1150 AD Hohokam Classic Period begins (Pueblo III Period). Number of villages begins to decline during this period, but the size of the remaining settlements increases.

c. 1100 AD Occupation of Mesa Grande begins.

Excavated ballcourt at Snaketown. "Most archaeological excavations have been backfilled to protect the site for future research. However, a scale model of the original Snaketown community is held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, while artifacts from excavations are housed in the Arizona State Museum.  The site is owned by the Gila River Indian Community, which has decided not to open the area to the public. The museum at the nearby Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, in Coolidge, Arizona, contains artifacts from Snaketown. There is no public access to the Hohokam Pima National Monument." (source)

c. 1000 AD Height of Snaketown. "At its height in the early 11th century, Snaketown was the center of both the Hohokam culture and the production of the distinctive Hohokam Buff Ware. Overall, Snaketown boasted two ball courts, numerous trash mounds, a small ceremonial mound, a large central plaza, several large community houses, hundreds of residential pithouses, and may have been home to at least several thousand people. Most of the population lived in pit houses, carefully dug rectangular depressions in the earth with branch and mud adobe walls supported by log sized corner posts.

c. 900 – 1150 AD Hohokam Sedentary Period (Period II Period). Expansion of the settlements and the canal system. Platform mounds begin to be built, and plazas and the ballcourts become more prevalent in the larger settlements.

c. 800 AD The Hohokam begin developing a system of canals in the Salt Valley, for purposes of irrigation of crops.  "The Hohokam were the only culture in North America to rely on irrigation canals to supply water to their crops...[They] engineered the largest and most sophisticated irrigation system in the Americas. The canals were perfectly laid out on the landscape to achieve a downhill drop (or gradient) of 1 to 2 feet per mile. Many of the canals were massive in size. The Arizona Museum of Natural History discovered a prehistoric canal at the north end of Dobson Road that measured 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide. Irrigating up to 110,000 acres by AD 1300, the Hohokam irrigation systems supported the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest.(source)."

c. 750 AD Ballcourt constructed at Snaketown.

c. 700 – 900 AD Hohokam Colonial Period (Pueblo I Period). The irrigation system is begun and expanded and the community sizes grow, as do the size of the dwellings. "Rock art and ballcourts began to appear, and cremations became the usual form of burial."

c. 500 AD Earliest occupation of White Tank Mountain area.

c. 100 AD Earliest occupation of Pueblo Grande.

c. 1 AD The Hohokam people begin settling in the Salt Valley

c. 300 BC Earliest habitation of the site at Snaketown. "Snaketown in Arizona is dated by some scholars to around 300 BC. Whether or not these were the Hohokam people is subject to debate."

c. 1000 BC The nomadic culture in the Salt Valley began to be accompanied by two other types of cultures, commonly called the farmers and the villagers. The cultivation of maize is introduced.

c. 7000 BC Evidence of human occupation (nomadic paleo-Indians) in the Salt Valley of present-day Arizona (Archaic culture).