Hohokam Petroglyphs of the Sierra Pinacate, Sonora and the Hohokam Shell Expeditions

Abstract

The presence of an extensive and unique display of Hohokam petroglyphs at a waterhole (Tinaja Romero) on the southeast side of the Sierra Pinacate, Sonora, prompted examination of the designs therein and of the reason for their occurrence at this place. The tinaja is located on a major trail which leads from the Gila River in Arizona to the Gulf of California, whence came the shell used by the Hohokam. The display contains repeated examples of a figure, not seen heretofore among Hohokam petroglyphs, which resembles a cardium or pecten shell. A search for other examples of this “shell” figure located only one site containing it, at a pass far to the north, on a major Hohokam shell route. As a result of the search, a number of trails used by shell transporters were traced out, and an unexpected hypothesis was developed, that the Hohokam were solely responsible for the petroglyphs of Pimeria and Papagueria. Amargosans of northwestern Sonora and of southern Arizona, of the Sonoran Brownware tradition, other than the Trincheras folk, seem not to have made petroglyphs at any time. The shell gathering expeditions of the Hohokam may be analogous to the salt gathering journeys of the Papago, and Tinaja Romero seems to have been a watering place for the Hohokam, on sufferance of the unfriendly Pinacateños, as was Tinaja del Cuervo for the Papago in historic times.