A synthetic treatment of shell exchange among Hohokam groups utilizing excavated and private collections. The author also provides details of shell identification.

In the prehispanic Southwest, Pueblo Grande was the site of the largest platform mound in the Phoenix basin and the most politically prominent village in the region. It has long been held to represent the apex of Hohokam culture that designates the Classic period. New data from major excavations in Phoenix, however, suggest that little was "classic" about the Classic period at Pueblo Grande. These findings challenge views of Hohokam society that prevailed for most of the twentieth century, suggesting that for Pueblo Grande it was a time of decline rather than prosperity, a time marked by overpopulation, environmental degradation, resource shortage, poor health, and social disintegration. During this period, the Hohokam in the lower Salt River Valley began a precipitous slide toward the eventual abandonment of a homeland that they had occupied for more than one thousand years. This volume is a long-awaited summary of one of the most important data-recovery projects in Southwest archaeology, synthesizing thousands of pages of data and text published in seven volumes of contract reports. The authors—all leading authorities in Hohokam archaeology who played primary roles in this revolution of understanding—here craft a compelling argument for the eventual collapse of Hohokam society in the late fourteenth century as seen from one of the largest and seemingly most influential irrigation communities along the lower Salt River. Drawing on extremely large and well-preserved collections, the book reveals startling evidence of a society in decline as reflected in catchment analysis, archaeofaunal assemblage composition, skeletal studies, burial assemblages, artifact exchange, and ceramic production. The volume also includes a valuable new summary of the archival reconstruction of the architectural sequence for the Pueblo Grande platform mound. With its wealth of data, interpretation, and synthesis, Centuries of Decline represents a milestone in our understanding of Hohokam culture. It is a key reference for Southwest archaeologists who seek to understand the Hohokam collapse and a benchmark for anyone interested in the prehistory of Arizona.

Jim Ryan, a Harley-riding defense lawyer, has a new secretary, Jennie Bond, and a new Internet videophone. A glitch occurs that thrust both of them onto the grid of mysteries and murders that span a thousand years in Arizona. The year is 2002, but a dramatic shift opens a window to the past into the land of the River People, known today as the Hohokam of Central Arizona. Then, with historical insight, the reader returns to the present, where the building of the new Kamaho Casino on ancestral tribal land forges an amalgam of present and past. Soon after the casino's gambling operation begins, the son of the tribal leader is brutally murdered. The murdered man's sister is arrested for the crime, and when Jim Ryan is hired to defend her, he finds himself in the center of several mysteries, each leading in a different direction. One leads to an ancient treasure; another leads to the Reggio Family and their political toadies. And once the clues begin to pile up, he finds that the woman with whom he's been in a romatic relationship is in the middle of it all.

The result of nearly twenty years of interdisciplinary research, this volume contributes to the archaeological and paleoenvironmental knowledge of an important but lightly investigated hyperarid coastline at the heart of the Sonoran Desert. Focused on the coast near Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico, Coastal Foragers of the Gran Desierto examines the diverse groups occupying the coast for salt, abundant food sources, and shells for ornament manufacturing. The archaeological patterns demonstrated by the data gathered lead to the conclusion that, since ancient times, this coastal landscape was not a marginal zone but rather an important source of food and trade goods, and a pilgrimage destination that influenced broad and diverse communities across the Sonoran Desert and beyond. Contributors Jenny L. Adams Karen R. Adams Thomas Bowen Tessa L. Branyan Bill Broyles Richard C. Brusca David L. Dettman Michael S. Foster Gary Huckleberry Jonathan B. Mabry Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña Richard J. Martynec Douglas R. Mitchell Kirsten Rowell Melissa R. Schwan M. Steven Shackley R. J. Sliva Kayla B. Worthey

Prehistoric economic relationships are often presented as genderless, yet mounting research highlights the critical role gendered identities play in the division of work tasks and the development of specialized production in pre-modern economic systems. In Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies, contributors combine the study of gender in the archaeological record with the examination of intensified craft production in prehistory to reassess the connection between craft specialization and the types and amount of work that men and women performed in ancient communities. Chapters are organized by four interrelated themes crucial for understanding the implications of gender in the organization of craft production: craft specialization and the political economy, combined effort in specialized production, the organization of female and male specialists, and flexibility and rigidity in the gendered division of labor. Contributors consider how changes to the gendered division of labor in craft manufacture altered other types of production or resulted from modifications in the organization of production elsewhere in the economic system. Striking a balance between theoretical and methodological approaches and presenting case studies from sites around the world, Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies offers a guide to the major issues that will frame future research on how men’s and women’s work changes, predisposes, and structures the course of economic development in various societies. Contributors: Alejandra Alonso Olvera, Traci Ardren, Michael G. Callaghan, Nigel Chang, Cathy Lynne Costin, Pilar Margarita Hernández Escontrías, A. Halliwell, Sue Harrington, James M. Heidke, Sophia E. Kelly, Brigitte Kovacevich, T. Kam Manahan, Ann Brower Stahl, Laura Swantek, Rita Wright, Andrea Yankowski

Santa Fe, as a tourist destination and an international art market with its attraction of devotees to opera, flamenco, good food and romanticized cultures, is also a city of deep historical drama. Like its seemingly "adobe style-only" architecture, all one has to do is turn the corner and discover a miniature Alhambra, a Romanesque Cathedral, or a French-inspired chapel next to one of the oldest adobe chapels in the United States to realize its long historical diversity. This fusion of architectural styles is a mirror of its people, cultures and history. From its early origins, Native American presence in the area through the archaeological record is undeniable and has proved to be a force to be reckoned with as well as reconciled. It was, however, the desire of European arrivals, Spaniards, already mixed in Spain and Mexico, to create a new life, a new environment, different architecture, different government, culture and spiritual life that set the foundations for the creation of "La Villa de Santa Fe." Indeed, Santa Fe remained Spanish from its earliest Spanish presence of 1607 until 1821. But history is not just the time between dates but the human drama that creates the "City Different." The Mexican Period of 1821-1848, American occupation and the following Territorial Period into Statehood are no less defining and, in fact, are as traumatic for some citizens as the first European contact. This tapestry was all held together by the common belief that Santa Fe was different and after centuries of coexistence a city with its cultures, tolerance and beauty was worth preserving. Indeed, the existence and awareness of this oldest of North American capitals was to attract the famous as well as infamous: poets, writers, painters, philosophers, scientists and the sickly whose prayers were answered in the thin dry air of the city situated at the base of the Sangre de Cristos at 7,000 foot elevation. We hope readers will enjoy "All Trails Lead to Santa Fe" and in its pages discover facts not revealed before, or, in the sense of true adventure, enlighten and encourage the reader to continue the search for the evolution of "La Villa de Santa Fe."