What the Hohokam Left Behind
A Hohokam platform mound at Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. Archaeologists aren’t certain about the reason for its construction, but they believe it was used to see faraway objects or locations. Photo by Christina Van Otterloo.
PHOENIX — Sitting just a stone’s throw away from Sky Harbor International Airport is the “ancient heart of Phoenix" — the Pueblo Grande Museum.
The museum serves as the city’s archaeological repository and focuses on the Hohokam tribe who once inhabited the Phoenix Basin.
One of the most striking features of the site is the platform mound, an elevated structure that may have been used for astronomy or seeing other villages.
City Archaeologist Laurene Montero said that the museum takes steps to preserve the mound, but that they differ from what one might expect.
“We cover parts of the outside of the mound with dirt, to protect the walls, and then we leave some parts exposed so that we can educate people and teach,” Montero said.
The Hohokam did not leave a decipherable written language, so the physical evidence that has lasted proves invaluable.
Museum Curator Lindsey Vogel-Teeter deeply appreciates the surviving objects like potsherds, or broken pieces of pottery, for the insights they provide.
“All that we have are their material culture — the objects and the features and the places that they left behind, so it’s really all we have left of them to tell us how they lived,” Vogel-Teeter said.
Currently, much of the Hohokam’s traces are buried beneath modern infrastructure.
The Hohokam once had a vast civilization that spanned far beyond the platform mound. However, looking around at the modern-day Phoenix Basin, a prehistoric Hohokam tribe member might not recognize the land where they once grew up.