![]() 4, the Hohokam living near the Salt River adapted brilliantly to this seemingly desolate environment, refining their agriculture and water management from one generation to the next. ![]() The land looks barren and utterly dry, yet it has fertile soils and lies near major river drainages. Only a few notable adobe structures still stand above ground, making it hard to believe that the Salt River Valley was the most populous and agriculturally productive valley in the Southwest before A.D. For the most part, the traces of their presence are inconspicuous, requiring careful dissection with spade and trowel. But the long-vanished farmers reappear with persistent frequency, under the foundations of modern buildings razed for new development, in the pathways of expanding interstates, even in backyard gardens. Phoenix and its surrounding communities have paved over much of the Hohokam world. In some ways the story of the Hohokam offers an example of how to live sustainably in this landscape, but it also reveals what a difficult balancing act it is. To archaeologists they are known as the Hohokam, an ancient people who faced the challenges of this dry and changeable environment for more than a thousand years and turned this inhospitable desert into a thriving urban and agricultural landscape. Once this was the land of the Huhugam, meaning "something that is all gone" in the O'odham language. We descended gradually, bumping gently in the late afternoon turbulence, and passed over the meandering Salt River, its waters yellow-brown in the hazy sunlight. Average temperatures exceed 100 degrees for three months a year, with peaks as high as 120 degrees. Each year the valley receives about seven inches of rainfall. The statistics are daunting: More than 1.8 million people live in Phoenix itself, and a further 22 cities surround it in the Valley of the Sun, forming the largest metropolitan landscape by area in the United States. Coming from a California in the midst of a multiyear drought, I wondered just how long it would be before promiscuously expanding Phoenix imploded in the face of chronic water shortages triggered in part by a culture of urban excess and waste. Over to the left, the long, straight line of an aqueduct ran to the distant horizon.Īll of this urban sprawl depends on finite water supplies pumped from deep beneath the earth or delivered from afar. Dozens of blue swimming pools adorned suburban yards. ![]() Everything was yellow or buff-colored except for occasional splashes of green-golf courses, parks, and irrigated farms seemed to have sprung up without notice from the dry landscape. High-rise office buildings towered incongruously over the desert. Broad streets led into the far distance, and huddled apartment buildings and carefully ordered subdivisions were scattered over arid terrain. The sun was setting behind us, casting long shadows, but Phoenix shimmered beneath us. The propjet's engine slowed and I woke abruptly, watching an almost surreal urban landscape come into view as we descended. This excerpt from Fagan's book centers on the Hohokam people, who used an elaborate network of canals to support a society that flourished in the area around Phoenix, Arizona, until about 550 years ago. It is no exaggeration to say that civilization itself is built on a foundation of water. For thousands of years, societies have found inventive ways to provide water for their fields and their people in spite of fickle climates. Brian Fagan's soon-to-be-released book Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind, provides an in-depth examination of the history of water control. The remains of a canal network are still visible near the airport.Īt a time when water is still relatively inexpensive and abundant, at least in the industrialized world, it is easy to forget that controlling water was a necessary first step to feed and quench the thirst of the people who built the first cities. The city of Phoenix was built on the ruins of a Hohokam settlement that is between 1,500 and 550 years old. Could the solution be under the city itself in the vast and ancient irrigation networks of the Hohokam people?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |