Rock Art
The figures carved on the rocks were made by direct percussion -very similar to chiseling- and they represent animals, human figures, frets, mazes, geometric shapes, heavenly bodies, and probably waves of the sea or aquatic symbols. The possible interpretations of these artistic manifestations made by the Hohokam could be any of the following: ritual scenes or ceremonies, retelling of a hunt, desert plants and animals, names of groups or tribes, calendars or dates, indicators of routes, changes in seasons or weather, or just plain art for its own sake.
The Hohokam civilization probably declined because of illnesses or prolonged droughts that greatly reduced the tribal groups. But they definitely are the ancestors of the current inhabitants of the Tohono O'odham nation (people of the desert) more commonly known as pápagos. Although it is well known that they do not like being given that name.
Read more about this topic: La Proveedora
Famous quotes containing the words rock and/or art:
“Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring:
For I am every dead thing,
In whom love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness:
He ruined me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)