Pottery Production and Ballcourt Ceremonialism: Remarkably Sophisticated Economics Among the Hohokam

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. David R. Abbott and his colleagues will conduct 21 months of archaeological research focused on the unusually complex economy and the regional ceremonial network of the ancient Hohokam people. The Hohokam were desert farmers and craftsmen who inhabited hundreds of villages with populations of 200 residents or more through out southern and central Arizona from ca. A.D. 300 until A.D. 1450. During previous NSF-funded research, it was shown that nearly all ceramic containers used during the Sedentary period (ca. A.D. 900-1100) were made by few hands and were widely distributed to households across a large territory. An efficient and dependable mechanism for supply was clearly extant at that time, but by the succeeding Classic period (ca. A.D. 1100-1375) ceramic production had reverted to local manufacturing for local consumption. Those results evoke questions about how far back into Hohokam prehistory large-scale pottery production was practiced and how so many pots were so widely distributed. One hypothesis explains the Sedentary period ceramic distributions with possible periodic marketplaces associated ritual ball games played in more than 225 ballcourts spread throughout the region. These ball games drew crowds from surrounding and probably distant villages and may have served as venues where specialist-made pots and other domestic necessities were regularly bartered beyond the limits of kinship networks. This idea implies far more sophisticated economic arrangements than any previously supposed for the Hohokam. To further investigate this idea, the vessel forms and production sources of ceramic assemblages from the Colonial (ca. A.D. 775-900), late Pioneer (ca. A.D. 700-775), and early Pioneer (pre-A.D. 700) periods will be analyzed to determine how ceramic production and distribution were organized during each time period and determine for how long the sophisticated division of labor for ceramic production was extant among the Hohokam. Did it precede, parallel, or succeed the development of the ballcourt network, which began during the late Pioneer period and greatly expanded during the Colonial and Sedentary periods? The new research will also use recent chronological refinements to determine if the shift to localized ceramic production was coeval with the collapse of the ballcourt ceremonialism near the end of the Sedentary period. This research is important because it contributes to building cultural evolutionary theory and highlights the remarkable accomplishments of ancient Native American peoples in the Southwest. Sophisticated economics without centrally controlled and hierarchical political institutions make the Hohokam a fascinating exception to evolutionary suppositions that link organizational complexity with hierarchical structures. As such, reconstructing how their large and intricate networks developed and worked may be pivotal for improving synthetic theories of culture change.