<P> Snaketown is an archaeological site 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Phoenix, Arizona that was inhabited by the Hohokam people . Definitive dates are not clear, but the site was generally thought to be inhabited between 300 BCE and 1200 CE . Hohokam is an O'odham word meaning "those who have gone ." Specifically who the Hohokam people were and when the site was inhabited is subject to debate . It was dedicated as Hohokam Pima National Monument in 1972 . Snaketown is governed by the Gila River Indian Community, which chose to preserve the site by reburying it after early excavations . The Monument is not open to the public . </P> <P> Snaketown in Arizona is dated by some scholars to around 300 BCE . Whether or not these were the Hohokam people is subject to debate . Martin and Plog maintain that these were the Ootam people, which was a subdivision of the Cochise Culture . According to these two, the Ootam were conquered and subsumed around 1000 CE by the Hohokam people from Mexico . Martin and Plog credit the Mexican Hohokam people with bringing extensive irrigation works, as well as other features attributed to what is thought of as Hohokam culture, from the south . Emil Haury, an established scholar on the subject, makes no mention of this apparently hostile takeover . Furthermore, he views the Hohokam as a harmonious people, particularly in the way they shared water . Archaeologist Brian Fagan dates Hohokam culture to 500 CE, and sums up the situation by stating that there are simply two separate schools of thought on the subject . Martin and Plog belong to the first group and Haury belongs to the second . The second group argues that these features the first group believes came from Mexico were developed locally . While there is much dispute on the origin of Snaketown, most scholars are able to agree that Hohokam culture peaked between 700 and 900 CE . Snaketown derives its name from another O'odham word meaning "place of snakes" and is considered to be one of the larger Hohokam settlements . A type of pottery (called red - on - buff) that is identified as distinctly Hohokam is found over ca . 30,000 square miles (78,000 km) of the southwest . This indicates the extent and prominence of the Hohokam people at their height . </P>

Snaketown was a large settlement of which culture