8/6/2023 0 Comments Hohokam pit house![]() Hohokam Pima National Monument, which is under theownership of the Gila River Indian Reservation, preserves this significant pieceof American Indian cultural heritage. Within theselarge population centers, the making of Hohokam art, pottery, and jewelryflourished. The extensive irrigation systems and trade with otherlocal tribes permitted the Hohokam to have a more sedentary lifestyle andenabled them to settle in large population centers like Snaketown. In addition to growing crops,the Hohokam hunted wild game and traded locally for other food items tosupplement their diets. The Hohokam used woven mats as dams to channel and control theflow of water throughout the irrigation system. The irrigation canals were generally shallowand wide (on average 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide), and they reached up to tenmiles in length. The extensive irrigation canal systems throughout Snaketownfed water to the nearby fields where residents grew beans, maize, squash, corn,cotton, melons, and other fruits. The pit houses atSnaketown were situated around two oval shaped fields thought to be ball courts.The ball courts are each about 60 meters long, 33 meters apart, and 2.5 metershigh. Pit houseswere carefully dug, shallow and rectangular depressions in the earth that wereconstructed of logs covered in reeds, saplings, and mud. ![]() Most of the Hohokam population lived in pit housesconstructed in a manner similar to that of the Mogollon pit houses. Mexican cultural groups introduced patterns of “urban style” living tothe Hohokam people who earlier lived in scattered rancherias around the region.Snaketown provided evidence of the “urban style” of living the Hohokam cultureembraced with its central plaza, two oval shaped fields surrounded by pithouses, an elaborate irrigation system, crematoriums, and places for inhabitantsto produce pottery and jewelry. The site also contained information thatindicated that the Hohokam people were strongly influenced by cultural groups inMexico. Theexcavations revealed that the Hohokam of southern Arizona were one of the maincultural groups of the Southwest. After the 1960’s work, the site was backfilled toprotect it for future research, leaving nothing visible above ground. ![]() Snaketown was excavated in the 1930s by the Gila PuebloFoundation and again in the 1960s under the direction of Emil Haury, AssistantDirector of Gila Pueblo. Hohokam Pima National Monument recognizes the significanceof Snaketown, a Hohokam village inhabited from about 300 AD to around 1200 AD.This ancient village, which may have had as many as 2,000 inhabitants, is withinthe Gila River Indian Reservation near Sacaton, Arizona. Park Archives: Hohokam Pima National Monument
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