The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (US SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Though many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and traditional assemblages remained intact as the artifacts and ideas moved farther from their places of origin. The current study analyzes the distribution and deposition of blue-green stone mosaics, a craft technology that originated in greater Mesoamerica during the late Formative period (400 BCE – 200 CE) and spread to the US SW by the start of the Hohokam Pioneer Period (475 CE). We assess the spatial distribution, contextual deposition, and morphology of mosaics at sites within Hohokam Canal System 2, located in the Phoenix Basin of central Arizona. These data are used to infer mosaics’ social value and function within Hohokam social structure. Analysis suggests that, while the concept and technology of mosaics may have originated in Mesoamerica, the contexts and ways in which mosaics were used in the Hohokam region were decidedly Hohokam.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23247