page_title: Hohokam
section_title: Classic period (AD 1050/1150–1450)
hierarchical_section_title: Hohokam / Hohokam chronological sequence / Classic period (AD 1050/1150–1450)
caption_attribution_description: Pre-Columbian Hohokam culture art — turquoise mosaics. Found in 1925 in Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (Arizona).
context_page_description: Hohokam was a society in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. Hohokam practiced a specific culture, sometimes referred to as Hohokam culture, which has been distinguished by archeologists. People who practiced the culture can be called Hohokam as well, but more often, they are distinguished as Hohokam people to avoid confusion.
  Most archaeologists agree that the Hohokam culture existed between 300 and 1500 AD, but cultural precursors may have been in the area as early as 300 BC. Whether Hohokam culture was unified politically remains under controversy. Hohokam culture may have just given unrelated neighboring communities common ground to help them to work together to survive their harsh desert environment.
  According to the National Park Service website, the word Hohokam is borrowed from the O'odham language and is used by archaeologists to identify a group of people who lived in the Sonoran Desert. Other archaeologists prefer to identify ancient Arizona as part of the Oasisamerica tradition and instead call Hohokam the Oasisamericans.
context_section_description: This period can generally be considered a time of both growth and social change.  The community of Snaketown, once central to the culture, was suddenly abandoned. Parts of this large village seem to have burned, and thereafter it was never reoccupied. This period also had the construction of large and prestigious structures in the Salt-Gila Basin. These included large, rectangular, adobe-walled compounds with platform mounds and great houses, such as the example found at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Additionally, evidence of Hohokam influence in a broader context decreased significantly.
caption: Hohokam turquoise mosaic jewelry
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