Hohokam, Arizona
AD 800 to 1200
Shell, stone, and mixed materials
Dimensions variable; housed in custom display case
Provenance: Private collection, Arizona; assembled over 40 years from private land; not found on federal or state land; custom display case by Matt Thomas
The Hohokam culture occupied the Sonoran Desert of present-day Arizona from approximately 300 BC to AD 1450, developing one of the most sophisticated irrigation-based agricultural systems in prehistoric North America and producing a distinctive tradition of shell and stone ornamental objects that circulated widely across Southwestern trade networks. Jewelry and fetish objects from the Hohokam tradition include carved shell bracelets, pendants, beads, and small figurative forms worked in shell, turquoise, and stone, many of which were exchanged over long distances with communities across the Southwest and into Mesoamerica. This collection represents a lifetime of surface recovery from private land in Arizona, assembled over four decades.
The collection has been assembled and presented in a custom display case by Matt Thomas, providing a coherent visual context for the individual pieces as a group. The private land provenance and the documented 40-year assembly period place the collection within the category of surface finds predating current federal and state land protection frameworks. Collections of this type, assembled from a single private landholding over an extended period, represent an increasingly uncommon category of Hohokam material with documented regional origin.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Hohokam, Arizona
AD 800 to 1200
Shell, stone, and mixed materials
Dimensions variable; housed in custom display case
Provenance: Private collection, Arizona; assembled over 40 years from private land; not found on federal or state land; custom display case by Matt Thomas
The Hohokam culture occupied the Sonoran Desert of present-day Arizona from approximately 300 BC to AD 1450, developing one of the most sophisticated irrigation-based agricultural systems in prehistoric North America and producing a distinctive tradition of shell and stone ornamental objects that circulated widely across Southwestern trade networks. Jewelry and fetish objects from the Hohokam tradition include carved shell bracelets, pendants, beads, and small figurative forms worked in shell, turquoise, and stone, many of which were exchanged over long distances with communities across the Southwest and into Mesoamerica. This collection represents a lifetime of surface recovery from private land in Arizona, assembled over four decades.
The collection has been assembled and presented in a custom display case by Matt Thomas, providing a coherent visual context for the individual pieces as a group. The private land provenance and the documented 40-year assembly period place the collection within the category of surface finds predating current federal and state land protection frameworks. Collections of this type, assembled from a single private landholding over an extended period, represent an increasingly uncommon category of Hohokam material with documented regional origin.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
