THE HOHOKAM (p 2)
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Hohokam settlements varied in size from small, single family farmsteads to large villages of several hundred people. Larger villages were organized around a central plaza with ceremonial structures. At first, the houses were individual structures constructed within or around a shallow depression excavated into the earth. Archaeologists refer to these as “pit houses” or “houses in pit” depending on the nature of the construction. The superstructure was made of branches and brush that were anchored to a center framework of large timbers, and covered with adobe mud plaster. Around A.D. 1150 to 1200, there was a shift towards surface structures with freestanding adobe walls that were often enclosed within a walled compound. Initially, larger communities featured ritual or ceremonial architecture in the form of large, open, oval-shaped depressions excavated into the ground surface, with soil mounded along the sides to create berms. These are believed to have been courts for playing a ball game.

Excavated ball court at Snaketown [AZ U:13:1(ASM)] »Enlarge

The ball game tradition is well documented in Mesoamerica—the region of complex civilizations in central Mexico and further south into Guatemala and Honduras. While we do not know the specifics of the Hohokam ball game, there are descriptions of contests from central Mexico and Mayan regions, and variations of the game are played today throughout Central America. These ball games probably integrated communities into a larger social system that may have extended as far north as the Verde Valley and Flagstaff regions, and as far south as the Tucson area.

In some of the larger sites, there also developed a system of platform mounds that appear to have served in public ceremonies. The earliest of these were trash mounds that had a plaster coating applied over them to create a hard surface. No structures were built atop these mounds, so it seems that the activities were conducted in the open for all of the community to witness. Archaeologists have identified a change in this arrangement at about A.D. 1000, when fenced enclosures were built around the mounds. These enclosed mounds are distinctive in that they were not capped trash mounds, but specially constructed platforms with formal architectural features. The enclosing wall likely marks a significant change in the relationship between the community’s leaders and the general populace. Restricting access to the rituals conducted within the compound created a formal social distinction that was not apparent earlier.

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