Seeds, Seasons, and Ecosystems: Sedentary Hohokam Groups in the Papaguería

ABSTRACT

Variability and seasonality in archaeobotanical and archaeological remains from three adjacent ecosystems in the Papaguería of south-central Arizona are examined in relation to settlement-subsistence hypotheses. A three ecosystem model is developed which indicates that the Hohokam in the Papaguería were able to maintain sedentary villages by utilizing, in different manners, three distinct ecosystems. It is suggested that the Hohokam in this desert region intermittently maintained agricultural field houses in the creosote plains, cacti gathering camps on mountain slopes, and permanent villages and fields on major wash flood plains. To some extent, sedentarism in the Papaguería depended upon exploitation of non-flood plain ecosystems.