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Botanical Signatures of Water Storage Duration in a Hohokam Reservoir

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James M. Bayman ,
Manuel R. Palacios-Fest  and
Lisa W. Huckell
James M. Bayman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822
Manuel R. Palacios-Fest
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
Lisa W. Huckell
Affiliation:
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
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Abstract

Although large-scale canal irrigation technology is commonly associated with the prehistoric Hohokam (A.D. 200–1450) of south-central Arizona, earthen reservoirs were essential for domestic water storage in areas of the Sonoran Desert away from perennial streams. Interpretations of seasonal water storage in prehistoric Hohokam reservoirs are often based on direct analogy with the historic Tohono O'odham (formerly called the Papago). This assumption of seasonal water storage is a hypothesis that should be tested rather than uncritically accepted by archaeologists. Sediments recovered with a hand-driven bucket auger from an earthen reservoir at a large Classic-period (ca. A.D. 1200–1450) Hohokam site (AZ AA:3:32 [ASM]) yielded uncarbonized seeds of an aquatic plant belonging to the genus Lemna (duckweed). The high number of Lemna seeds indicates that water may have been stored on a long-term, perhaps perennial, basis. Analyses of sediments from other reservoirs should generate further discoveries of uncarbonized seeds or other biological remains (e.g., pollen, phytoliths, diatoms, snails) and refine our understanding of prehistoric water storage facilities throughout the world.

A pesar de que los sistemas de canales de irrigación a gran escala han sido asociados con la cultura prehistórica Hohokam (200–1450 d.C.) del centro-sur de Arizona, los estanques constituyeron unafuente esencial de almacenamiento de agua para uso doméstico en aqueilas zonas del Desierto de Sonora alejadas de arroyos о corrientes perennes. Frecuentemente, las interpretaciones sobre el almacenamiento de agua estacional de los Hohokam están basados en analogias con los indigenas Tohono O'odham (antes llamados Papagos). Esta suposición es aim una hipótesis que debe ser verificada y no simplemente aceptada sin el apropiado análisis critico. Recientemente, mediante el uso de un perforador manual tipo “auger,” recupe-ramos sedimentos de uno de estos estanques que data del période Clásico (ca. 1200–1450 d.C). El sitio Hohokam (AZ AA:3:32 [ASM]) contuvo semillas en buen estado (no carbonizadas) de una planta acuática del género Lemna. La abundancia de las semillas de Lemna indican que el agua debió haber sido almacenada por un largo periodo, posiblemente perenne. Es de esperar que los anälisis de los sedimentos de otros estanques generen nuevos descubrimientos de semillas u otros restos orgánicos (e.g., polen, fltolitos, diatomeas, gastéropodes) en buen estado y nos permitan refinar nuestro conocimiento sobre el almacenamientos prehistárico de agua alrededor del mundo.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 103 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1997

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