What is the meaning of Hohokam?
Hohokam Culture. The word Hohokam is a Piman language term for “all used up” or “exhausted,” and the name given by archeologists to the ancient farming peoples of the southern deserts of Arizona.
Who were the ancestors of the Hohokam?
Archaeologists identified a culture and people that were ancestors of the Hohokam. Called the Early Agricultural Period, this early group grew corn, lived in sedentary villages all year round and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. This group might have occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BC!
How did Hohokam culture change over time?
During the subsequent Colonial Period, Hohokam culture expanded to influence all of what is now the southern half of Arizona. Village architecture changed little, except for the addition of ball courts similar to those of the Maya.
When did the Hohokam migrate to Arizona?
200 B.C. — 1450 A.D. The Hohokam peoples occupied a wide area of south-central Arizona from roughly Flagstaff south to the Mexican border. They are thought to have originally migrated north out of Mexico around 300 BC to become the most skillful irrigation farmers the Southwest ever knew.
What kind of food did the Hohokam eat?
Even the types of foods utilized by the Hohokam show a Mesoamerican connection. Corn (maize), beans and squash were the three major crops in the prehistoric American Southwest and were also the principle foods of the Hohokam. But the Hohokam also used other Mesoamerican food plants such as agave and amaranth.
When did the Hohokam culture start and end?
Most archaeologists agree that the Hohokam culture existed between 300 to 1500 AD, although cultural precursors may have been in the area as early as 300 BC. Whether Hohokam culture was unified politically remains under controversy.
How did the Hohokam come to live in Arizona?
To the first scientists who asked this question, the Hohokam seemed to appear in Arizona quite suddenly with the ability to build sophisticated irrigation system to water their crops. Early archaeologists proposed that Hohokam culture developed in Mexico and moved into what is now Arizona.