Leaders of the Field in Hohokam Research Today
David R. Abbott
Dr. David Abbott has revolutionized our understanding of Hohokam ceramics
and the organization of their production and distribution. By identifying
the geological sources of the raw materials used to make the ancient bowls
and jars, Abbott can pinpoint where pots were made and thereby trace their
movement between producers and consumers. Establishing these patterns of
trade among different villages reveals, in part, how the Hohokam people were
interconnected across the valley. Abbott’s dissertation received the award
for the best doctoral dissertation of the year by the Society for American
Archaeology. Dr. Abbott is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology
at Arizona State University.
Todd Bostwick
An archaeologist by training, Todd Bostwick crossed disciplinary lines
when he was awarded a Ph.D. in history at Arizona State University. Serving
as the Phoenix city archaeologist stationed at Pueblo Grande Museum,
Bostwick formed the most comprehensive city archaeology program in the
country. This program helped to recover information from sites that would
have otherwise been destroyed by construction. Having a fascination for rock
art, Bostwick was a pioneer in the recording and research into Hohokam rock
art, an endeavor that resulted in his book Landscape of the Spirits,
a study of rock art in South Mountain Park. He brought the study of rock art
into main stream Hohokam archaeology. As an historian he has published books
on the life and careers of several prominent archaeologists. A frequent
speaker at meetings and events, Todd also focused on educating the public on
local archaeology. Now retired from the city of Phoenix, Dr. Bostwick
currently serves as the executive director of the Verde Valley
Archaeological Center.
Patricia Crown
Currently serving as Professor of Anthropology at the University of New
Mexico, Patricia Crown began her graduate career at the University of
Arizona investigating the Hohokam. Patty played a key role directing
extensive excavations along the Salt-Gila Aqueduct, a portion of the Central
Arizona Project. Her book Ceramics and Ideology was a unique and
fascinating approach to understanding the spread of late Salado Polychromes
and provided new insights into the late prehistoric period and the movement
and collapse of groups at that time. Most recently, Dr. Crown made the
amazing discovery of chocolate residues in cylinder vessels from Chaco
Canyon, another area she has studied and published on. Finding evidence of
chocolate, a drink of the elites in Mexico and Central America, provides new
understanding of the connections between Mesoamerica (Maya, Aztecs and
others) and the prehistoric Southwest.
William Doelle
William (Bill) Doelle is perhaps the greatest institution builder of his
generation. An astute archaeologist, Bill Doelle completed his Ph.D. at the
University of Arizona and began working in the newly formed field of
Cultural Resource Management (CRM). Doelle built an outstanding
organization, the Center for Desert Archaeology, doing contract archaeology,
excavating sites in the path of freeways, housing developments and other
government sponsored projects. Through this process he has dramatically
advanced our knowledge of Tucson Basin archaeology and Arizona archaeology
in general. But he did not stop there. A major proponent of conservation
archaeology, Doelle formed a companion non-profit organization to preserve
archaeological sites for the future. Working with government and private
agencies he has been highly successful in preserving sites throughout the
state.
David Doyel
When David Doyel began his work, archaeologists knew little about the
Hohokam Classic Period. A student of Emil Haury at the University of
Arizona, he conducted excavations in the Escalante community on the Gila
River with a focus on the Escalante platform mound. His work laid the ground
work for our current understanding of the Hohokam Classic Period. He has
published extensively on the Hohokam with particular attention to the great
changes that occurred during the Sedentary to Classic period transition. As
a program director and archaeologist Dr. Doyel conducted excavations across
much of the American Southwest, and as a prolific writer published many
reports, papers, and edited volumes. He is a long-time supporter of
avocational societies and public archaeology. He spearheaded a major funding
program to rejuvenate Pueblo Grande park and is a driving force for the
development of a community park for the Gatlin platform mound in Gila Bend
as a monument to the Hohokam. Currently he is archaeologist for the Barry M.
Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona.
Paul and Suzanne Fish
Paul and Suzanne Fish have been leaders in Hohokam research for decades.
Working for the Arizona State Museum and the University of Arizona they have
published many books, articles and collected works. Their most recent
publication, The Hohokam Millennium brought together prominent
Hohokam researchers to summarize our current knowledge of this fascinating
group. Paul and Suzanne have conducted the only recent work on platform
mounds in the Tucson Basin, the Marana mound and the University Indian
Ruins, a site owned and preserved by the University of Arizona. Suzanne Fish
has been a leader in gender studies focused on the Hohokam, illuminating the
roles of women in Hohokam society. Together, they are a tour de force of
Hohokam archaeology making outstanding advances in our knowledge of the
Hohokam and pushing forward the field of archaeology. Teaching at the
University of Arizona, they have also trained a new generation of
archaeologists.
David Gregory
David Gregory (left) and Emil Haury at Las Colinas
In 1982 archaeologists initiated two large field projects to excavate the
sites of Las Colinas and La Ciudad, major Hohokam villages in the path of
the new segment of I-10 in the valley. David Gregory led the effort at the
site of Las Colinas. With a dynamic personality and quick mind, Gregory ably
led a diverse and talented crew through a project that presented many unique
and exciting demands. To study the prehistoric irrigation canals at the site
he brought in geologists, climatologists and others to create a superb and
highly successful multidisciplinary study. His later work focused on the
early beginnings of agriculture in Arizona. Hohokam archaeology lost one of
its great researchers with David’s untimely death in 2010.
T. Kathleen Henderson
Dr. Kathleen Henderson is one of the foremost field archaeologists in
Hohokam studies. Dr. Henderson has directed some of the largest and most
complex archaeological projects in the Salt River Valley. Her first project
on a massive scale was the excavations at the site of La Ciudad (The City),
an archaeological site in the path of I-10 in 1982. The research at La
Ciudad focused on understanding the layout of Hohokam villages, how they
were structured and what the structure tells us about the daily life of the
Hohokam. This research formed the basis of her doctoral dissertation at
Arizona State University. In advance of the 101 freeway, Kathy directed yet
another major archaeological project, one that focused on prehistoric
irrigation systems. This began a research interest in prehistoric
irrigation, a field to which she has made substantial and continuing
contributions. In a recent project in Phoenix, Dr. Henderson made a
significant discovery, finding the buried remains of a Hohokam field system.
She now serves as a Senior Research Archaeologist for Desert Archaeology,
Inc.
Jerry Howard
Jerry Howard serves as Curator of Anthropology at the Arizona Museum of
Natural History and began directing the Mesa Grande Archaeological Project
in the 1980s. Often called “the canal guy,” Jerry is known for his extensive
studies of the prehistoric Hohokam irrigation systems in the Salt River
Valley, a focus of his masters and Ph.D work at Arizona State University. An
early proponent of preservation archaeology, Jerry argued to preserve the
Mesa Grande platform mound before the Mesa City Council the early 1980s. A
supporter of public involvement in the field of archaeology, he was a
cofounder of the Southwest Archaeology Team (SWAT), a group that recovered
information from sites on land slated for construction prior to their
destruction. This group has played a key role in the preservation of the
Mesa Grande and the opening of the archaeological park. Dr. Howard has also
help raise a new generation of archaeologists as an adjunct faculty member
at Mesa Community College and directing the MCC archaeological field school
at Mesa Grande.
David Wilcox
A prolific writer and researcher, David Wilcox began his graduate career
in archaeology in New York State but quickly moved to the American Southwest
to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Arizona. His dissertation on
the great house at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument redefined this iconic
Hohokam structure. It also showed Dave’s ability to ask probing and
important general research questions. A teaching position at Arizona State
University led to Dave’s directing a very large scale excavation at the site
of Los Hornos (The Ovens) in Tempe. A survey of the site of Snaketown soon
led to a reinterpretation of that site and the regional system of ballcourts
first studied there. Moving to Flagstaff at the Museum of Northern Arizona,
where he soon became Curator of Anthropology, Dave began to work
increasingly with cultures outside of the Hohokam area and to synthesize our
understanding of Southwestern archaeology at ever higher levels of
interpretation. Most recently he has been focusing on the archaeology of
West-Central Arizona and its relationship to Classic Period Hohokam
developments.