Not Just Survival -- A Place for the Arts

Robert Ciaccio artwork, part of the wayside image

Commissioned art with restricted use

Imagine you were wandering this plaza 700 years ago. You would smell wood smoke, and hear dogs barking and children laughing. Beyond the 7-foot-tall outer compound wall, green, well-watered fields of corn, beans, squash, and cotton stretched along the canals for miles.

On any typical day, someone here would be grinding corn. Others might be making pots, weaving, or spinning cotton. Artisans carved shell jewelry or fashioned pendants out of rare stones such as turquoise and argillite. Other craftsmen made arrowheads, stone axes, and farm tools.

Casa Grande's wealth and security rested on the food and cotton coming from lush fields. These farmers had to devote considerable time, day after day, to tending their fields and canals. Yet they were not just farmers. Artifacts found at Casa Grande Ruins reveal that the people who once lived here were also highly skilled artisans.

So Far from the Sea

Trade and trips traditionally made to collect sea shells from the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean account for the beautiful shell jewelry found at Casa Grande Ruins. Artisans made shells into beads, bracelets, and pendants. A flourishing culture allows for craft specialization where highly skilled artisans can create intricately made items.

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A PDF of this wayside (19.473 KB) is available.

 

• Enduring Artistry

  
  

  Angela Garcia-Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community interprets the artistry of the pottery and baskets the ancestral people created.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS, movie outtakes, thanks to volunteer editor Jenise Cook

  Date created:

  10/14/2020

  Audio Transcript

  [Angela Garcia-Lewis] One of the statements, I think, that this profuse level of artistry shows is that the life that they led was not all about survival. There was a lot of thought about their surroundings. They wanted to express a lot of their contentment and happiness in living in this area. The Sonoran Desert was a harsh place to live in but the people that were here were able to use the resources to such a way they were able to live a comfortable life. How can you say they lived a comfortable life when you had so much that you had to worry about, had so much you had to do? No hour of the day was ever just your own The artwork actually speaks more to that comfort and that sense of contentment in that people actually had time and took the effort to produce these very intricate and difficult pieces of artwork.