February 19, 2011
Turn back the clock and enter the world of prehistoric people on the Colorado Plateau. On Saturday, March 5 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Museum of Northern Arizona will celebrate Archaeology Day. This annual event focuses on ancient people from this region and offers an opportunity for budding archaeologists of all ages to get close to professionals in that field.
Archaeology Day features kids’ activities, hands-on ancient artifact analysis, atlatl throwing, and a symposium titled “Hohokam Archaeology Yesterday and Today.”
From 10 a.m.–2 p.m., visitors will enjoy exploring four docent-led kids’ activities: a hunter’s kit, making split twig figurines, mano and metate corn grinding and learning what prehistoric people ate, and rock art. There will also be a scavenger hunt throughout the Museum’s Exhibit Building.
MNA Docent Jerry Bacon will present atlatl throwing. Bacon is rated fourth in Arizona atlatl competitions and will share his extensive knowledge of this prehistoric tool.
Also from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., the Northern Arizona Archaeological Society /Elden Pueblo Project will conduct an interactive introduction to prehistoric artifact analysis from excavated ceramics and ground stone (manos, hammerstones, axes, and mauls), a post-excavation process that provides archaeologists valuable data for analysis at Elden Pueblo. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn identification of pottery types and stone tools, and be able to see some of the latest artifacts found at the Elden Pueblo excavation site. The Elden Pueblo Project’s work helps us to understand the connection between local cultures of the past, their distinctive styles, and the role natural resources played in the development of pottery and tools.
From 2–4:30 p.m., MNA’s Senior Archaeologist David Wilcox will host “Hohokam Archaeology Yesterday and Today,” a symposium to discuss the history of Hohokam archaeology and provide modern syntheses of current work in Hohokam irrigation, ceramics, settlement systems, and religious ideology. The symposium presenters will be David E. Doyel (chair), David R. Wilcox, Jerry B. Howard, David R. Abbott, and Henry Wallace. An opportunity for audience discussion will follow the presentations.
David E. Doyel, US Air Force, Barry M. Goldwater Range East
Looking Back and Looking Ahead: Hohokam Archaeology since Snaketown
Emil Haury’s masterful volume “The Hohokam: Desert Farmers and Craftsmen.
Excavations at Snaketown, 1964–1965” (University of Arizona Press) was a capstone to his long career in the archaeology of the Sonoran Desert. His ambitious program at Snaketown exposed both the strengths and weaknesses of the “lone scholar” research tradition in American archaeology. His research addressed the origins of Hohokam culture, the absolute chronology and the internal divisions within the cultural sequence, the development of material culture and architecture, subsistence (including canal irrigation), and relationships with surrounding cultures. This talk will touch on these topics and will identify some contemporary issues such as social organization, settlement pattern, site structure, and exchange that have developed since Haury’s last excavation at Snaketown almost 50 years ago.
David R. Wilcox, Museum of Northern Arizona
Applications of Yesterdays Data to Today’s Problems in Hohokam Archaeology
Since Eusebio Kino first described the Casa Grande Ruin in the 1690s, scientific data about what a Southwest Archaeology Conference held at Gila Pueblo in 1931 agreed to call “Hohokam Archaeology” has been accumulating. Dr. Wilcox will talk about findings made at four sites, two in the Middle Gila Valley (Casa Grande and Snaketown) and two in the Lower Salt Valley (Pueblo Grande and Los Hornos), with an eye to how data collected from them are relevant to the considerations of contemporary problems in Hohokam archaeology.
Jerry B. Howard, Arizona Museum of Natural History
Reflections of Water: Evaluating Advances in the Study of Hohokam Irrigation Systems
Building on pioneer mapping studies begun in the late nineteenth century, a new series of scientific investigations of Hohokam irrigation began in the 1980s based on excavations and innovative analytical techniques that have transformed current knowledge. The suite of analytical techniques permits both the reconstruction of characteristics of individual canals and calculation of the amount of water they could carry, the acreage that they could irrigate, and the population they could support. Combined with new dating techniques, these findings allow us to examine how irrigation capacity changed through time and provide a measure of both agricultural success and population growth. This talk will explore past successes and future research directions of this approach.
David R. Abbott, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
Advances in Hohokam Ceramic Research: Studying the Meaning of Pottery Production and Distribution for Reconstructing the Hohokam Economy
Over the last 15 years, the composition of tens of thousands of Hohokam pottery pieces from the Phoenix basin have been examined to determine their production sources and monitor the organization of ceramic manufacture and distribution. These analyses have revealed an unusually sophisticated division of labor, which, in turn, implies a vibrant ancient economy organized at a regional scale during Preclassic times, but which suffered decline during the subsequent Classic period.
Henry D. Wallace, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
The Ballcourt Society and the Ritual Creation of Hohokam Culture
As a result of refined ceramic dating, we now know that a host of major changes in styles of decoration, and the appearance of new ceremonies, ritual architecture, and ballcourts with raised embankments, show up in what was likely an ethnically diverse range of populations all across southern and central Arizona within the span of a generation around A.D. 800. This talk will discuss how this came about through a revitalization movement and the creation of sodalities that bound the region together with a common ideology and ritual framework, fostering economic interrelationships and population growth.
The Museum of Northern Arizona is one of the great regional museums of our world, surrounded by tremendous geological, biological, and cultural resources in one of Earth’s most spectacular landscapes. With a long and illustrious 83-year history, MNA evokes the very spirit of the Colorado Plateau, inspiring a sense of love and responsibility for the beauty and diversity of the area.
MNA is located at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, just three miles north of historic downtown Flagstaff on Highway 180, on the way to the Grand Canyon. Admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors (65+), $5 students, and $4 children (7–17). Additional information about the Museum is available at 928/774-5213 or at musnaz.org.