When immigrants swarm an established neighborhood, the effect is both disruptive and enriching. Thats what happened over 700 years ago when thousands of people left homes in northeastern Arizonaand trekked south into a foreign country.
Archaeologist Jeffery Clark will share his discoveries at the Anasazi Heritage Center on Sunday, May 13 at 1 p.m. in a presentation called The Kayenta: A Powerful Immigrant Minority in the Hohokam World.
Clarks talk complements the museums special exhibit Pieces of the Puzzle: New Perspectives on the Hohokam. Admission to the entire museum will be free all day.
The Hohokam people were early farmers in the Phoenix and Tucson basins. They dug irrigation canals, made the first pottery in the Southwest, etched designs on bracelets cut from imported shell, burned incense in carved stone bowls, and played a Mexican-style ball game.
Sometime in the late 1200s, a new people arrived who maintained old customs and built distinctive enclaves, a community in diaspora. Over time, both conflict and cooperation led to a complicated cultural pattern that archaeologists call Salado.
Jeffery Clark is a preservation archaeologist with Archaeology Southwest, a nonprofit research foundation in Tucson, Arizona.
This event is part of the Four Corners Lecture Series, which is jointly sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, Fort Lewis College, the Cortez Cultural Center, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, and KSJD Public Radio. Lectures and events take place in variety of locations throughout the area, and all events are free.
The Anasazi Heritage Center, three miles west of Dolores on Highway 184, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit the museums web site at www.blm.gov/co/ahc www.blm.gov/co/ahc