The region of Nogales during the Trincheras and Hohokam cultures

The region around Nogales was located in the border between the Hohokam and Trincheras cultures. Therefore, and as the archaeological research shows us, this region was an active participant in both cultures (click on the image at the right to see it larger).

The immediate problem to which the local inhabitants had was the lack or resources. Along the Santa Cruz River and it´s tributaries, where there was enough water, small rancherias were established, with smaller settlements nearby.

Unfortunately, the sites in Arizona have been better studied than those located in Sonora, and therefore there is more information from Arizona than Sonora.

During those times, there was a regional center in the Santa Cruz River, located near today´s Tucson. According to archaeological research, it had both elements, Trincheras as well as Hohokam.

Closer to Nogales, there were several smaller centers: Some 14 miles North of today´s Border, there was a town which

the Archaeologists have named Palo Parado Site, while in Sonora it seems that there was another one located between Agua Zarca and Cibuta.

Besides this, within today´s Nogales, there were small settlements which were occupied in different time periods. They were located in the hills near where they practice agriculture. They were formed by pithouses, which were fabricated with a skeleton made of branches, and covered with mud.

One of these settlements was erected in the hill located between today´s border and Crawford Ave, in Nogales, Arizona. Their inhabitants practiced agriculture in today´s center of Nogales. This is infered from the finding of some 75 "ollas" with burnt bones which were found there at the start of the XX century, as well as when the highway that starts west of the border was being built in the 1960´s, more "ollas" were found, also with human bones. We must remember that the incineration was a common practice of the Hohokam culture.

Another of these sites in Nogales, Arizona, which was located near the City repair shops, was occupied around 800 AC. According to an archaeological research undertaken by Felipe Jacome:

"This site seems to have had a small although stable population until around 1250 AC, when it was partially abandoned before it´s final abandonement, around 1350 AC"

The same author concludes that this site:

"was part of a regional interaction system which provided a great quantity of exchange goods to the Hohokam nuclear area in the form of shells from the California Gulf"

But this wasn´t the only place in Nogales participating in the interregional trade networks. In other sites that have been researched near Nogales, Arizona, imported ceramics from other regions have been also found, as from the Altar Valley, from Tucson, from the Gila River, and other places from the Papagueria, as well as from the San Pedro River and the San Simon. In these sites were also found worked seashell, of which a little over half of them had been transformed into bracelets.

View Larger Map

And even more recently, another archaeological research was undertaken in the hill where the Santa Cruz Courthouse is located (you can see a map of the site above) whose:

"occupation began at least by 750 AC (and possibly as early as 650 AC) and could have lasted at least until 1450 AC"

However, the most important finding in this site was the skeleton of:

"a young military macaw (Ara militaris) whose approximate age was 8 weeks... this specimen is certainly a very important discovery, as it is just the second documented military macaw in Southwest United States. The only other military macaw was found in the Galaz ruin. Even more, this specially young specimen is one of the few macaws [living] at the end of the 1100 AC or later... which makes this finding one of the earliest occurrences of macaws in Southwest United States... [Besides this] there have been found baby macaws only at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua"

All of which suggests that:

This specimen was born possibly in captivity in the site itself, or in a location not more than a few weeks away... which also suggests that those people certainly used to travel between central Sonora and the region of Nogales.

Considering all of the above, it confirms that the region where Nogales is located today was even then a border of trade.