We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place: Formation and Resettlement of a Pre-Classic Hohokam Village

Summary

It has long been thought that large Hohokam villages, once established, were long-lived and fixed in a single location. La Villa, a pre-Classic Hohokam village on Canal System 2, was one of the largest in the area. It has roots that stretch as far back as the Red Mountain phase and had achieved village status by Vahki times. The village continued to grow through the Pioneer Period, and much of the Colonial Period. Toward the end of the Colonial however, we see a sharp drop-off in both ceramics and residential structures. It is clear that residents were moving away from this long-standing settlement and few were still living there by the beginning of the Sedentary Period. When did La Villa begin to shift from a village in florescence to one of diminishing importance, and where did its inhabitants go? One thought is that they moved downstream along the same main canal to Las Colinas, a Hohokam village thought to be established during the late Colonial Period – the same time that La Villa began to decline. Recent excavations by Desert Archaeology, Inc. provide data that can be used to address these important questions.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Society and Economy in the Hohokam World: New Evidence and Insights from Canal System 2, Phoenix, Arizona

Keywords

Spatial Coverage