The question of dates for the Hohokam is, unfortunately, far more complicated than in the case of the Basketmakers and Pueblos. The wood available for house construction was usually cottonwood or mesquite, woods which are not suitable for tree-ring dating. Through stratigraphic studies it has been possible to find the chronological place of various phases in relation to each other, but the establishment of an absolute chronology in terms of the Christian calendar is quite difficult, since it must be based almost entirely on cross-checking of pottery between Hohokam and Anasazi sites. There is a considerable divergence between the dates suggested by different archaeologists, or even by the same archaeologist at different times. There is nothing to criticize in the fact that an archaeologist may give one date at one time and an entirely different one at another. Archaeologists, like all scientists, are seeking for the truth, and as new evidence is uncovered old estimates must often be changed and new ones made. First estimates placed the beginning of the culture in Arizona at about 300 B. C.[27] Later this date was revised upward by 900 years.[28] According to the most recent publication on the Hohokam, which contains approximate dates which will be used throughout the following discussion, this culture in the Gila Basin is believed to date back to about the beginning of the Christian era.[57] There were several stages of development in the Hohokam, just as there were in the Anasazi culture with its six principal stages, ranging from Basketmaker to Historic-Pueblo times. The first is known as the _Pioneer_ for this was the formative stage of the culture. The _Colonial_ period which followed was, as the name implies, one in which colonies were established. During the next period, to which the name _Sedentary_ has been given, the culture was fully developed. The term _Classic_, which is applied to the following period, is really a misnomer, for the cultural peak of the Hohokam had passed. It was, however, a time of high cultural development during which Pueblo and Hohokam people lived side by side in the Desert Province. Little is known of the Hohokam following the end of the Classic period when, about 1400 A. D., the Pueblo people moved away, but it is possible that the present Pima Indians may be descendants of the ancient Hohokam or that at least some Hohokam blood flows in their veins. A people with a variant form of the Hohokam culture who lived farther south may have been the forerunners of the present Papago Indians. THE PIONEER HOHOKAM