A special exhibit about the Hohokam culture of Arizona is now open at the Bureau of Land Management Anasazi Heritage Center, and will continue through October 2012. The Heritage Center will host a public opening reception for the exhibit at 1 p.m. on December 11.
The exhibit Pieces of the Puzzle, New Perspectives on the Hohokam was produced by the Tucson-based Center for Desert Archaeology (CDARC) to highlight recent discoveries about this early, influential Native American group. National Science Foundation-funded research by CDARC has focused on phenomena such as long-distance migration, cultural blending, and population decline in the American Southwest prior to Spanish contact.
Hohokam is an archaeologists name for the people who farmed parts of central and southern Arizona between AD 1 and AD 1450. Artifacts to enhance the exhibit have been loaned from the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, a National Historic Landmark managed by the City of Phoenix, as well as from the Arizona State Museum in Tucson.
The BLMs Anasazi Heritage Center is three miles west of Dolores on State Highway 184. Admission is free, and the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call the Center at (970) 882-5600 or visit the web site at www.co.blm.gov/ahc.