Patrick D. Lyons

Prehistoric demography in the Southwest: Migration, coalescence, and Hohokam population decline

One of the most prominent but least understood demographic phenomena in the precontact Southwest is the disappearance of the Hohokam from the valleys of southern Arizona. Despite extensive research, no widely accepted explanation has been offered. We argue that the failure to identify a satisfactory cause is due to excessive focus on catastrophic phenomena and terminal occupations, and a lack of attention to gradual demographic processes. Based on a combination of macro-regional population studies and local research in the lower San Pedro River valley, we present an explanation for gradual population decline precipitated by social and economic coalescence beginning in the late A.D. 1200s. In the southern Southwest an influx of immigrants from the north led to a shift from a dispersed, extensive settlement/subsistence strategy to increased conflict, aggregation, and economic intensification. This shift resulted in diminished health and transformation from population growth to decline. Over approximately 150 years gradual population decline resulted in small remnant groups unable to maintain viable communities. Small, terminal populations were ultimately unable to continue identifiable Hohokam cultural traditions and consequently disappeared from the archaeological record of southern Arizona, either through migration or a shift in lifestyle that rendered them archaeologically invisible.

PERFORATED PLATES AND THE SALADO PHENOMENON

Abstract Perforated ceramic plates have intrigued southwestern archaeologists since the late 1800s, when they were first encountered at the Classic period platform-mound sites of the Phoenix Basin and the protohistoric villages of the Hopi Mesas. Residues, contextual clues, and usewear suggest that perforated plates were used as base-molds in pottery making, and/or as potters’ turntables. Updated information regarding the function, dating, and distribution of these objects is presented in this paper. These data, along with the results of recent research in the San Pedro River Valley (including compositional analyses), establish a strong connection between immigrant groups from northern Arizona and the origin and spread of the Salado phenomenon that linked populations in central and southern Arizona, western New Mexico, and northern Sonora and Chihuahua. Abstract Desde los finales de los años 1800, los platos perforados de cerámica han cautivado a los arqueólogos cuando primero fueron encontrados en los montículos plataforma del período Clásico en la Cuenca de Phoenix y en las aldeas protohistóricas de las mesas de los Hopi. Residuos y claves del contexto sugieren que se utilizaran los platos perforados como moldes para la alfarería y/o como ruedas giratorias de los alfareros. Se presenta en este trabajo información actualizada con respecto a la function, las fechas y la distribución de estos objetos. Estos datos, junto con los resultados de investigaciones recientes en el Valle del Río San Pedro (incluyendo análisis compositivos), establecen una relación fuerte entre los grupos inmigrantes del Arizona norteño y el origen y extensión del fenómeno de Salado que ligó a poblaciones en el Arizona central y meridional, New México occidental, y Sonora y Chihuahua norteños.

Ritual drinks in the pre-Hispanic US Southwest and Mexican Northwest

Significance This article presents the results of a large-scale National Science Foundation-funded study of organic residues from archaeological sites in the US Southwest/Mexican Northwest. It reveals widespread use of two different caffeinated plants, cacao and holly, as the basis for drinks used in communal, ritual gatherings. This is the largest study of its kind, both in terms of numbers of samples and in terms of temporal/spatial scope. It is the first to argue for holly beverage consumption in the US Southwest/Mexican Northwest. The combined evidence for cacao and holly beverage consumption has implications for our understanding of distant resource acquisition and shared cultural practices in North America. Chemical analyses of organic residues in fragments of pottery from 18 sites in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest reveal combinations of methylxanthines (caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline) indicative of stimulant drinks, probably concocted using either cacao or holly leaves and twigs. The results cover a time period from around A.D. 750–1400, and a spatial distribution from southern Colorado to northern Chihuahua. As with populations located throughout much of North and South America, groups in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest likely consumed stimulant drinks in communal, ritual gatherings. The results have implications for economic and social relations among North American populations.

The "Collapse" of Cooperative Hohokam Irrigation in the Lower Salt River Valley

Buried beneath Phoenix, Arizona, are the remains of a once prosperous irrigation society known to archaeologists as “Hohokam” and to local Native peoples (the Akimel O’odham [formerly Pima] and the Tohono O’odham [formerly Papago]) as “Huhugkam.”1 Phoenix is the largest American city north of Mexico underlain by such extensive remains predating European contact, and was so named in hopes that a new civilization would “rise from the ashes” of the ancient. Phoenix and its suburbs are rapidly growing cities with looming social and environmental concerns. These include the destruction of the archaeological record that holds clues to similar problems in the past. Despite generations of research, understanding the decline of Classic period (A.D. 1200–1450) Hohokam society remains a challenge for anthropologists. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed with varying levels of support, but all have been plagued by contradictions, or fail to offer adequate explanation of the broad phenomena at issue. The Hohokam case has been invoked in prominent discussions of collapse (Diamond 2005; Krech 2000; Lawler 2010; Redman 1999; Tainter 1988; Wilcox 2010), and our own research is mischaracterized

JOSÉ SOLAS RUIN

Abstract José Solas Ruin was investigated in 1951 by Charles C. Di Peso of the Amerind Foundation. Di Peso identified the site as the Protohistoric period Sobaipuri (Piman) settlement of San Salvador de Baicatcan, thereby, he argued, closing “the gap” between the archaeological and historical records in southeastern Arizona. Critics have long maintained that Di Peso’s dating of the site is erroneous. Recent research has revealed that the component excavated by Di Peso was actually built and inhabited by ancient immigrants from northern Arizona between A.D. 1300 and 1375, like the nearby Reeve Ruin and Davis Ranch site. The absence of a protohistoric occupation removes from consideration one of the few sites that might possibly have spanned the pre-Hispanic/Hispanic period transition in southern Arizona and has important implications for models of regional cultural continuity. Abstract Charles C. Di Peso de la Fundación Amerindio investigó el José Solas Ruin en 1951. Di Peso identificó el sitio como el establecimiento del período protohistórico Sobaipuri (Piman) de San Salvador de Baicatcan y así, según él, cerró la brecha entre los datos arqueológicos e históricos en el sureste de Arizona. Los críticos han mantenido que las fechas propuestas por Di Peso son erróneas. Investigaciones recientes han mostrado que el componente excavado por Di Peso fue en realidad construído y habitado por antiguos inmigrantes del norte de Arizona entre d.C. 1300 y 1375, así como los sitios cercanos Reeve Ruin y Rancho David. La ausencia de una ocupación protohistórica quita de la consideración uno de los pocos sitios que pudiera haber extendido durante la etapa de transición prehispánico/hispánico en el sur de Arizona y entonces tiene implicaciones importantes en cuanto a modelos de continuidad regional y cultural.

JEDDITO YELLOW WARE, MIGRATION, AND THE KAYENTA DIASPORA

Abstract In this paper, I explore the significance of Jeddito Yellow Ware found outside its production zone, the Hopi Mesas region. Using theory and method for identifying traces of migration, I evaluate case studies in which Jeddito Yellow Ware has played a role in inferences of population movement. Jeddito Yellow Ware is rare at or absent from the sites in southern Arizona that have yielded the most compelling evidence of immigrants from northern Arizona. I conclude by offering possible explanations for this pattern.