Patayan Pottery from the Lower Gila River, Southwestern Arizona, AD 700–1830

Patayan pottery remains one of the least understood Indigenous ceramic traditions of the North American Southwest. Central to this sad state are unresolved discrepancies in the largely untested, and therefore still hypothetical chronological details girding competing typologies. To address this problem, this article presents an intensive, data-rich analysis of more than 9,500 pieces of Patayan pottery encountered on a recent survey along the lower Gila River. This study evaluates the presence, frequency, and co-occurrence of ceramic surface treatments, nonplastic recipes, and vessel morphologies across three phases, with chronological control established by association with diagnostic artifacts and a radiocarbon assay. The results show that Patayan pottery changed over time along the lower Gila, but in ways that diverge significantly from prevailing paradigms. These findings should afford researchers more reliable means for dating and interpreting Patayan sites and material culture more broadly.