The Hohokam: The Land and the People, explores Hohokam agriculture, architecture and arts. Learn about the Hohokam canal system, which served as the blueprint for today's canal system. The exhibit includes the distinctive Hohokam Red-on-buff pottery, along with a variety of tools, and shell and stone jewelry.
Photomurals juxtaposed with natural desert materials help visitors experience desert and riparian landscapes as they might have looked when the Hohokam lived in the Salt River Valley. Large, wall-height artifact cases divide the gallery into theme areas: The Sonoran Desert, Canal Builders, Hohokam Harvests, Architects, Arts and Artisans, and Astronomers.
Explore elements from early Hohokam culture, like ballcourts and petroglyphs, as well as later Classic period features. Learn about Pueblo Grande's "Big House," used by the Hohokam for astronomical observation. Discover how the Hohokam built a thousand miles of canals so well engineered that some modern canals still parallel their paths.
The newly renovated gallery includes more artifacts and hands-on elements to enhance the visitors understanding of the Hohokam, and is an exciting new addition to Pueblo Grande. Two of the hands-on elements are entitled "making an impression," and focus on how archaeologists can study Hohokam materials, such as woven items, that do not preserve well in the archaeological record.
