Ancient farmers in the lower Salt River Valley, Phoenix Basin, central Arizona, identified as the Hohokam by archaeologists, practiced large-scale irrigation for nearly a millennium. Despite operating the largest network of canals in the Americas, north of Peru, a lack of clear political hierarchy has confounded archaeologists for almost a century…
Ancient farmers in the lower Salt River Valley, Phoenix Basin, central Arizona, identified as the Hohokam by archaeologists, practiced large-scale irrigation for nearly a millennium. Despite operating the largest network of canals in the Americas, north of Peru, a lack of clear political hierarchy has confounded archaeologists for almost a century. In this talk, I will approach the supposed Hohokam anomaly through their canals. Beginning with the largest-scale and detailed reconstruction of lower Salt River Valley Hohokam irrigation, I will provide an updated narrative of ancient irrigation, which includes a previously underappreciated extremely large flood ca. A.D. 900 and a highly connected network of canals that I termed standardized irrigation units or SIUs. This refined narrative demonstrates that irrigation in the valley was well attuned to both environmental and social changes and difficulties for generations, and thus, challenging prevalent Hohokam collapse models. I will then turn to one of the major irrigation systems within the valley, Canal System 2, to challenge assumptions that political hierarchy is required to manage large-scale irrigation systems.
Chris Caseldine is the Curator of Collections and an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. In addition to the study of the social organization of ancient irrigation systems, Chris’ academic and research interests include the archaeology of central Arizona, travel in the past, Indigenous inclusion in collections management practices, and repatriation.
