The Americas · Trade
c. 450-1475 CE for the archaeological traditions compared here; canal irrigation began much earlier · Sonoran Desert and northwest Mexico
Ancestral Sonoran Desert canal communities and later Paquime linked parts of the Southwest and northern Mexico through crops, ceramics, shell, copper and feathers. They were distinct societies, not one polity.
Irrigated river valleys, platform mounds, ballcourts and adobe compounds stood within desert settlements and long-distance trails.
Agent citation
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICASCIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICASCIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
Setting and material context · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Village households farmed and traded across political changes; Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham traditions maintain relationships to ancestral canal builders.
Agent citation
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICASCIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICASCIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
Lifeways and community · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Communities engineered large canals, cultivated maize, beans, squash and cotton, worked shell and ceramics, and raised macaws at Paquime.
Agent citation
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICASCIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICASCIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
Work, tools and exchange · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Ballcourts, platform mounds, cremation and other practices changed by region; one shared religion should not be assumed.
Agent citation
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICASCIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICASCIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
Belief, ritual and evidence limits · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Historical geography
The local map uses modern coastlines only for orientation. The marker identifies this record's geographic anchor, not the full reach of a community or polity.
Map geometry loads only when requested. Modern outlines are orientation only; historical geography and identities changed through time.
Agent citation
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICASCIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICASCIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
Historical-geography anchor and stated limits · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Evidence register
Each registered source ID is paired with its institutional URL for independent checking. Source count is transparent, and duplicate URLs count only once.
CIT-NPS-ANCESTRAL-SONORAN-AMERICAS
https://www.nps.gov/cagr/learn/historyculture/the-ancestral-sonoran-desert-people.htm
U.S. National Park Service
CIT-UNESCO-PAQUIME-AMERICAS
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/560
UNESCO World Heritage Centre
CIT-NMAI-SOUTHWEST
https://americanindian.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/southwest.html
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian