hohokamsummary

The "Hohokam" translated as "the people who vanished", is the name given by the
modern Pima Indians to their prehistoric predecessors who built a complex
irrigation system in the Salt River Valley, Arizona. They first appeared on the
scene this thought, may have been as long ago as 300 BC, certainly not later
then 50 AD. And vanished soon after 1400 Ad. Some 300 miles of there main
canals, and 700 miles of distribution canals have been identified and mapped,
all built without the aid of metals or beast of burden. Their construction evidence
a high level of engineering skill, matching Los Angeles' Owens River Aqueduct
in cross-section. Altogether, as much as 100,00 acres may have been irrigated at
various times over the centuries. The reason for their disappearance is a mystery.
It may have been occasioned by prolonged drought, or by floods which scoured the
stream bed so deeply that the Indians' brush dams could not raise the river's
surface high enough to reach the intakes of their canals. There is no evidence of
warfare to explain their disappearance. They left no writing or inscriptions.

Why did the Hohokam vanish?

The Hohokam vanished from the salt river valley soon afterA.D. 1400.
The conventional wisdom is that they were done in by drought. There is
a contrary view, that their brush and rock diversion dams were
destroyed by floods that scoured the bed of Salt River so deeply that the
Indians were unable to build dams high enough to divert water into their
canals. Salt River is capable of generating huge floods.One , in 1891,
was measured at nearly 3000,000 cubic feet per second, equal to three
fourths of the capacity of the Hoover Dam spillways.

Three-rings and other sources of information indicate that although
there was a server thirty-three year drought on Salt River, From A.D.
1322 to A.D. 1355 this was followed, in the year 1357 A.D., by an
annual flow that had been squalled only once in the previous four
centuries. The Hohokam built no canals after that, and vanished from
the Salt River Valley a few years later.

There is no evidence that invaders killed them off. Indeed, it seems
extraordinary that the Hohokam survived for centuries without
apparently having to fight anyone ? ? ?

But the rock carvings seems to show people shooting arrows at
barbells over their heads.