Linda at Amerind
Linda Shannon-Hills
People have been making a living in the Sonoran Desert for thousands of years. Evidence of their villages, farms, stone quarries, and sacred sites can be found almost everywhere. Less than an hour away from SaddleBrooke Ranch is the Casa Grande Ruins, west of Florence. In the Catalina State Park, you can hike up an easy loop trail which climbs about 80 steps to the hilltop to the Romero Ruins archaeological site, featuring remains from a Hohokam village dating back about 500 A.D. The Hohokam are one of the four major cultures of the American Southwest and northern Mexico, according to Southwestern archaeology.
The origin of Hohokam society is also under controversy. Most archaeologists support either an indigenous or Mesoamerican origin, but Pueblo influences from the northern culture are also present. Hohokam settlements were located on regional trade routes that extended past Hohokam range. It is believed the Hohokam may be the ancestors of the historic Pima and Tohono O’odham peoples in Southern Arizona.
Join us on Tuesday, March 24, at 2 p.m., in La Mesa Room located in La Hacienda Club with speaker Linda Gregonis, Prehistoric Archaeology. Find out how the Hohokam and their predecessors survived and thrived in our dry land.
Linda Gregonis has studied Hohokam archaeology for more than 40 years. In addition to analyzing pottery for archaeological companies in Tucson and Phoenix, she edits the University of Arizona Anthropological Papers, and prepares indexes for a variety of academic presses. Linda has also been a docent at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for 32 years. She is currently finishing a manuscript on Hohokam art and iconography.