NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES Hohokam Water Technology https://arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org/plan-a-visit/mesa-grande/the-hohokam ; Earlier I distributed an item on Nabatean Water Techology at Petra. You can find the Nabatean link here: https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/sophisticated-water-technologies-ancient-nabataeans-002193 ; There was such interest in the Nabatean item that I located another similar one in America. This is the Hohoham Water Technology in what is now Arizona, located in the Gila and Salt River Valleys. Where did Hohokam culture come from? To the first scientists who asked this question, the Hohokam seemed to appear in Arizona quite suddenly with the ability to build sophisticated irrigation system to water their crops. Early archaeologists proposed that Hohokam culture developed in Mexico and moved into what is now Arizona. In the 1990s, a major archaeological dig along the Santa Cruz River in Tucson resulted in a startling discovery. Archaeologists identified a culture and people that were ancestors of the Hohokam. Called the Early Agricultural Period, this early group grew corn, lived in sedentary villages all year round and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. This group might have occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BC! Originating as archaic hunters and gatherers who lived on wild plants and animals, these peoples settled in permanent communities and produced their own food instead of living a more mobile life and gathering what nature provided. The Hohokam were the only culture in North America to rely on irrigation canals to supply water to their crops. In the arid desert environment of the Salt and Gila River Valleys, the homeland of the Hohokam, there was not enough rainfall to grow crops. To meet their needs, the Hohokam engineered the largest and most sophisticated irrigation system in the Americas. The canals were perfectly laid out on the landscape to achieve a downhill drop (or gradient) of 1 to 2 feet per mile. Many of the canals were massive in size. The Arizona Museum of Natural History discovered a prehistoric canal at the north end of Dobson Road that measured 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide. Irrigating up to 110,000 acres by AD 1300, the Hohokam irrigation systems supported the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest. This article is not the usual technical information I distribute, so it will not be placed on the Sustainable Water Resources Web Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ; Tim SmithSustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ;