Linda Gregonis-What's in a Symbol? A Look at Hohokam Art and Imagery

This presentation is part of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society monthly lectures, offered June 17, 2024.
All cultures use symbols to convey ideas. In archaeological contexts those symbols have become ways to define and differentiate archaeological cultures. But what did the symbols mean to the artisans who created them? The art that Hohokam craftspeople produced embodied the world (seen and unseen) as they understood it. They were influenced by weather, animals they encountered, plants they grew and used, pilgrimages they made, other people they met, and their ancestors. They translated their experiences into art, creating iconic motifs that were shared across a wide region. Using objects, design elements, and motifs that were made and used during the Preclassic period (ca. A.D. 600 to 1150), Linda Gregonis will discuss how the Hohokam may have used symbols on different media including pottery, shell, stone, and rock art to define group identity and express their view of the world.
Linda Gregonis is an independent researcher with a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona. She has spent more than forty years researching various aspects of Hohokam culture while working primarily as a ceramics analyst for various cultural resource management companies in Tucson and Phoenix. Linda has published extensively in CRM literature, as well as other venues. She is interested in public education in archaeology and has taught for Elderhostel/Road Scholar and the archaeology program at the Cooper Environmental Center. She has also been the editor for Kiva and has prepared numerous indexes for archaeology, history, and environmental science books published by university presses. Linda is currently the editor of the University of Arizona Anthropological Papers.

[@raisingarizona2008]

I have seen other common symbols not talked about like ones that look like the letter "Z" in repeated patterns or the number "3" in repeated patters.

[@CmacKw]

One of the figurines has the setting-man pose which is common in Post-Classic period art that depicts deities.

[@highdesert-boy]

Have excavations recovered salt, particularly from that source near Rocky Point?