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Archaeology Southwest Highlights: Homol'ovi - An Ancestral Hopi Place
| Homol'ovi - An Ancestral Hopi Place Posted By: Linda Pierce - September 1st, 2000
Category: Archaeology Southwest Highlights | 
Volume 14, Number 4
Center for Desert Archaeology
Fall 2000
online highlights...
Homol'ovi: An Ancestral Hopi Place
E. Charles Adams, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona
This mural, recovered from a kiva (an underground ceremonial structure) at Awat'ovi, is similar to wall paintings found in kivas at Homol'ovi I and Homol'ovi II. Plate E from Watson Smith, Kiva Mural Decorations at Awatovi and Kawaika-a with a Survey of Other Wall Paintings in the Pueblo Southwest, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 37. Reprinted courtesy of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. |
The Homol'ovi villages include at least eight ancient Hopi communities occupied from about A.D. 1250 to 1400 along the Little Colorado River near modern Winslow, Arizona. "Homol'ovi" is derived from a Hopi word translated literally as "be mounded up" and refers to Winslow and the many small buttes that dot the area. These villages play prominent roles in many Hopi oral traditions and are important points of migration for numerous Hopi clans still occupying villages on the Hopi Mesas.
The Homol'ovi Research Program (HRP) of the Arizona State Museum was created as part of a legislative budget package awarded to the University of Arizona in 1984. This package created a research program focused on state lands. The first priority was to conduct research on the Homol'ovi villages. Beginning in the late 1970s, archaeologists and Hopi people, including tribal Vice Chairman Stanley Honanie, became alarmed at the toll vandalism was exacting on these unique treasures of Arizona heritage and Hopi history. Not only was hand-excavation by amateur pothunters occurring, but in the 1970s professionals began using heavy equipment on the Homol'ovi villages. The very existence of the villageswas threatened. Then-Governor Bruce Babbitt assembled an advisory team to make recom-mendations for preserving these crucial elements of Arizona history. Their solution was the creation of Homolovi Ruins State Park, which came into being in 1986.
I took over direction of the research at Homol'ovi in 1985. My goals in those early years were to: 1) forge strong relationships with the Hopi government and Cultural Preservation Office (CPO) to encourage their involvement in all aspects of the research program; 2) evaluate the con-dition of the large ruins in terms of preservation, interpre-tation, and research value; 3) work with Arizona State Parks to develop a viable park and interpretive program; 4) conduct a systematic survey of potential park land to determine the location, nature, and condition of cultural resources; 5) develop long-range goals for research in the major pueblos including mapping, excavation, and publi-cation; and 6) enhance opportunities for participation by the public in archaeological research.
Our initial research goals were to develop a better understanding of the chronology of the area and the individual villages and to understand how and why villages grew in size so quickly in the Homol'ovi area and throughout the Southwest at this time. To this end, we focused on small villages and conducted an extensive archaeological survey of the area. We also expanded our volunteer program by partnering with Earthwatch Institute. Over the course of our eleven-year association with Earthwatch, nearly 400 volunteers have participated in the program. An early insight was that, although the villages have been substantially vandalized, all still contain information pertinent to learning about the people who built and occupied them.
Over time our research interests have been refined. We also moved to the large villages, Homol'ovi I and II, which had more than 1,000 rooms each. Substantial contributors to our knowledge base have been the dozens of students from the University of Arizona and elsewhere who have used Homol'ovi research as a springboard to honors papers, Master's theses, and doctoral dissertations. To date, nearly twenty theses and dissertations have been completed or are nearing completion.
Our research made it clear that no more than six of the eight villages were occupied at any one time. Through excavations and extensive mapping, we estimate that nearly 2,500 people lived in at least five villages in the late 1300s. We now know that cotton became a major crop at Homol'ovi, more so as the villages increased in size. In fact, much of it was almost certainly grown for exchange with surrounding communities, particularly Hopi where most of the occupants of Homol'ovi originated.
We have also made significant strides in identifying ritual behavior in the archaeological record and tying it to increasing village size. We have recognized how ritual diversification and intensification were apparently successful means of coping with the stress caused by the large size of the villages. The best known example is katsina ritual, which spread into the Homol'ovi area about 1350 in conjunction with the construction of large, enclosed plazas at all villages.
Our understanding of the role of the environment and the river has increased enormously. A conceptual leap occurred with the enormous floods along the Little Colorado in January and March 1993. These floods left enormous piles of driftwood. It seems the people of Homol'ovi used driftwood as their primary source of wood for fuel and construction. Tree-ring dates recovered from modern driftwood piles matched historic floods. Likewise, prehistoric dates from the ruins suggest a major flood between 1276 and 1290, just when tree-ring dated pottery suggests the major influx of population occurred at Homol'ovi. Our belief is that the driftwood-bringing flood encouraged large populations of people to move to the Homol'ovi area and enabled them to sustain their occupation there. Without driftwood, there would have been virtually no construction timber or fuel within twenty miles of Homol'ovi except for a few cottonwoods in the floodplain.
But resource availability may not be the only reason for occupation of the Homol'ovi area in the late 1200s. The entire Four Corners region was "abandoned" by Pueblo people in the late 1200s. The Homol'ovi area would have been prime real estate for these migrant populations, yet it was Hopi people who settled the Homol'ovi area. It is my belief that these settlements were partly strategic - to enable the Hopi to continue to control this area vital to sustaining the developing Hopi culture, an area where cotton could be produced, turtles could be acquired, and migratory birds could be captured.
Another interesting aspect of the ancient Hopi occu-pation of this area is that multiple villages were involved, just as at Hopi today. How did these villages get along? Did they trade? Was there a governing body above the level of the village? Certainly the Homol'ovi communities inter-acted. They may have even provided security to each other in case of external threat. If we use a modern Hopi model, we suspect the villages were primarily independent with occasional intermarriage, sporadic disputes, and probably only a weak governing body above the level of the village, if one existed at all. Future research by the Homol'ovi Research Program will explore these issues.
We have also explored use and occupation of the area prior to the founding of the large, late villages. Small groups evidently began using the area to grow corn as early as 2,800 years ago. The area was used regularly by small-scale farmers beginning in the A.D. 600s, but occupations always seemed small and short-term, probably due to regional climatic conditions and whether the river was more or less prone to flood.
Much of our research has been published and all of this information is shared with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office. Each summer we meet with visitors from the Hopi CPO and their Advisory Team of traditional leaders from the Hopi villages. Invariably, they reveal new information about Hopi relationships with Homol'ovi, past and present. We work with Arizona State Parks personnel to develop our research into exhibits at Homolovi Ruins State Park. An important aspect of com-municating with the public has been the stabilization and interpretation of rooms and a large kiva at Homol'ovi II, at 1,200 rooms, the largest of the Homol'ovi villages. A popular book intended for the visitor has been written about Homol'ovi and Winslow.
Other vital aspects of the research program have been public involvement and a broad perspective on education. In addition to having fifty or more volunteers working on the project each summer, we conduct daily guided tours of the ongoing excavations for visitors. At the end of each field season, we have an open house for people from all over the world to tour the open excava-tion areas and to share our summer's discoveries.
When the field season concludes, we fill in all our excavation units. Visitors think we are crazy. Why go to the trouble? First and foremost is the issue of preservation. If the areas are left open, they will erode and deteriorate, damaging what has been excavated and surrounding areas that have not been investigated. Second, the areas are deep, unstable, and unsafe.
Finally, HRP provides the essential training ground for future students of archaeology. Field methods are part art, part technique, and part science. The best way a student can learn how to properly excavate and record information is through hands-on experience. Each summer, about fifteen students (five graduate and ten undergraduate) participate in the excavations or survey. Many of these students return year after year. They manage the excavations, supervise the volunteers, and record information about their particular areas. They then write summaries of the summer's work. This enables HRP to advance knowledge, to accomplish the difficult task of getting all of the artifacts and information analyzed and published, and to help launch the careers of many exceptional young archaeologists.
From our humble beginnings over fifteen years ago, HRP has now excavated in six of the eight major Homol'ovi villages as well as a major community, occupied sporadically from A.D. 600-1225, adjacent to the park's visitor center. A systematic survey of thirty square miles recorded over 300 sites.
The Homol'ovi Research Program laboratory and offices are located in the Arizona State Museum just inside the west entrance to the University of Arizona. During the school year, ten to fifteen students intern, do analyses for credit, theses, or dissertations, or simply volunteer in the lab to gain experience. We always welcome visitors and can arrange for tours of our research lab by large groups.
Issue Editor: Patrick D. Lyons
Additional Contributions by:
- Raymond H Thomson, "The Hero of Homol'ovi."
- Karen Berggren, "Of Parks, People and Perceptions."
- Douglas W. Gann, "Archaeological Interpretation for the Public at Homol'ovi."
- William H. Walker, "Ancient Ritual"
- Jennifer G. Strand, "Ritual use of Fauna."
- Patrick D. Lyons, "Ancient Hopi Migrations."
- Lisa C. Young, "The Pithouse to Pueblo Transition from the Homol'ovi Perspective."
- Roberta Foster, "A Volunteer's Perspective"
- William H. Doelle, "Back Sight."
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