Pueblo Grande (S'edav Va'aki)
S’eḏav Va’aki (Central House) · Pueblo Grande · S'edav Va'aki · La Ciudad? no — separate
Hohokam Pre-Classic to Classic (450–1450 CE)·Hohokam (Salt River branch)·🇺🇸 Arizona, Maricopa County – Salt River middle terrace, Phoenix, United States
About
About Pueblo Grande (S'edav Va'aki)
Classic Hohokam great-house platform-mound town (c.450–1450 CE) at heart of modern Phoenix — largest Hohokam platform mound in Salt River valley, controlling 30 km Grand Canal system irrigating 70 square miles. Mound 30×12 m platform 8 m high (calcined adobe 50,000 m³) built in 6 stages (Soho → Civano phases), topped by great house with 40 rooms, surrounding 1000+ pit-house and compound village, ballcourt, and irrigation headgates. Frank Midvale/Odd Halseth/City of Phoenix 1929– museum. Phoenix canal network inspired city's name (Phoenician rebirth).
Why it mattersPhoenix's namesake — Hohokam Phoenix canal system still aligns with modern Grand Canal; largest Salt River mound.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01How Hohokam dug 22 km Grand Canal with digging sticks — 100,000 person-days?
- 02Great house — chief residence or priest-bureaucrat
Theories
- 01Phoenix Classic Hohokam centralized canal chiefdom — Doyel vs Cave creek decentralized
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Pre-Classic hamlet 450 CE; Platform mound 1150–1300 CE Civano
- Period
- Hohokam Pre-Classic to Classic (450–1450 CE)
- Culture
- Hohokam (Salt River branch)
- Builders
- Salt River Hohokam (Ancestral O'odham)
- Purpose
- Phoenix basin canal head and elite platform residence controlling Grand Canal
- Abandoned
- c.1450 CE Hohokam collapse — drought + canal silt
- Rediscovered
- 1890s Frank Cushing notes; 1929 city preserves as first Phoenix park
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1929
City of Phoenix creates Pueblo Grande Museum — first city archaeological park in US
c.1150 CE
Platform mound stage I — Soho phase
c.1300 CE
Civano stage — 40-room great house on summit
On the ground
Structures & features
33.4480° N · 111.9850° W · 340 m · 3 mapped features
Platform mound great house (summit 40 rooms)
moundClassic Civano mound 8 m with 40-room great house footprint
33.4481° N · 111.9851° WGrand Canal intake headgate (west)
canal11 m wide canal intake off Salt River
33.4479° N · 111.9849° WBallcourt depression
ballcourtPre-Classic oval ballcourt 50 m
33.4480° N · 111.9850° W