Ceramic Production and the Development of
Salado Identity
in the Upper Gila Region of the American Southwest
Ceramic Production and Distribution
Kayenta and Salado
Salado Identity
Perforated plates, used
by Kayenta potters and
their descendents (Lyons
and Lindsay 2006), are
found at many Upper
Gila sites.
Prepared by Deborah Huntley
Archaeology Southwest (formerly the Center for Desert Archaeology)
www.archaeologysouthwest.org
The study area includes the Upper Gila
River and its tributaries and the
Mimbres Valley.
The 3-Up site in Mule Creek is
a large, multi-component
village with Kayenta immigrant
and Salado occupations.
• Around AD 1300, another wave
of population arrived in the
Upper Gila.
• Salado, or Cliff Phase,
components are found
throughout SE Arizona and SW
New Mexico (Lekson 2002;
Wallace 1998).
• Cliff Phase sites have adobe
architecture and Salado
Polychrome pottery (also known
as Roosevelt Red Ware).
• “Salado” represents blending of
diverse local and immigrant
traditions.
Since 2008, Archaeology Southwest
has carried out test excavations in
the Mule Creek area, as well as
collections-based research at other
Upper Gila sites.
Photo by
Henry
D. Wallace
The Upper Gila Region
Maverick Mountain Polychrome
(Eastern AZ College collections)
• Patty Crown (1994) linked the popularity of Salado polychromes with the florescence of a Southwest regional
cult.
• This religious movement associated with rain, fertility, and community well being had deep roots among
Southwestern groups.
• Particular design motifs and icons that express this ideology are serpents (both with and without plumes or
horns), clouds, lightning, feathers, flowers, and birds.
• We have yet to identify strong regional patterning in design motifs or iconography among Upper Gila sites.
• Potters from individual villages appear to have had no clear local preference for particular suites of icons.
• This supports Crown’s interpretation of the integrative nature of Salado polychromes.
Dinwiddie Polychrome, a late,
regional Salado Polychrome
variant (Eastern AZ College
collections)
References Cited
Clark, Jeffery
2001 Tracking Prehistoric Migrations: Pueblo Settlers Among the Tonto
Basin Hohokam. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 65.
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Crown, Patricia L.
1994 Ceramics and Ideology: Salado Polychrome Pottery. University of
New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Lekson, Stephen H.
2002 Salado Archaeology of the Upper Gila, New Mexico. Anthropological
Papers of the University of Arizona No. 67. University of Arizona Press,
Tucson.
Lyons, Patrick D.
2004 Cliff Polychrome. Kiva 69(4):361-400.
2012 Ceramic Typology, Chronology, Production, and Circulation. In
Mounds and Migrants: Late Prehistoric Archaeology of the Lower San Pedro
River Valley, Arizona, edited by J. Clark and P. Lyons. Anthropological Papers
No. 45 (draft). Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson.
Lyons, Patrick, and Alexander Lindsay, Jr.
2006 Perforated Plates and the Salado Phenomenon. Kiva 72(1):5-54.
Neuzil, Anna
2008 In the Aftermath of Migration: Renegotiating Ancient Identity in
Southeastern Arizona. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona
No. 73, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Neuzil, Anna A., and Patrick D. Lyons
2006 An Analysis of Whole Vessels from the Mills Collection Curated at
Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher, Arizona. Center for Desert Archaeology
Technical Report 2005-001. Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson.
Wallace, Laurel T. (editor)
1998 The Ormand Village: Final Report on the 1965-1966 Excavation.
Office of Archaeological Studies Archaeology Notes 229. Museum of New
Mexico, Santa Fe.
This perforated plate
fragment was found with
late Salado Polychrome
types on a room floor at
the 3-Up site.
• Maverick Mountain
Series (MMS) pottery
made in 1200s
• Kayenta style using
local materials (Neuzil
and Lyons 2006)
• Not common (if at all)
in Mimbres Valley
• Beginning around AD 1250,
Kayenta groups moved to the
southern southwest.
• Immigrant enclaves have
“northern” architectural
characteristics and material culture
(Clark 2001; Neuzil 2008).
• In the Upper Gila region,
immigrant enclaves were built on
or near former Mimbres Classic
sites.
• Kayenta immigrants and their
descendants continued their
cultural traditions and maintained
social ties.
• Salado polychromes
made starting around
1300
• Widely distributed in
southern Southwest
(Crown 1994)
• Late variants (Lyons
2004) differentially
distributed by region
• Previous studies show widespread local production of Salado polychromes throughout the southern southwest (Crown 1994).
• In some areas, like the San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona, production was linked to descendents of Kayenta immigrants
(Lyons 2012).
Maverick Mountain Series and Salado Polychrome
• We completed NAA and binocular temper identifications for nearly 500 sherds from
Upper Gila region sites, including 3-Up in Mule Creek and other sites in the Cliff,
Redrock and Mimbres valleys.
• We found that all sites used volcanic sand temper, with drainage-level and possibly
site-level differences in the variety and size distributions of various sand constituents.
• Petrographic analysis to refine our temper classifications is in progress.
• NAA indicates MMS and Salado polychromes were made using the same range of
clays and tempers as local utility ware. A plot of principal components scores on three
dimensions shows overlap among all wares, with less compositional variability in
MMS and Salado polychromes (except for a few outliers).
• We argue that there were multiple production loci for MMS and Salado Polychrome
vessels in the study area.
• A closer examination of plots by region shows less overlap
between utility and decorated ware compositions for
Mimbres Valley sites compared with the Cliff, Redrock,
and Mule Creek valleys.
• As in the San Pedro, Salado Polychrome production may
have been concentrated at sites with 13
th
century
immigrant enclaves.
• MMS* and Salado polychromes found in the Mimbres
Valley may be largely non-local imports.
• Continuing analysis of NAA and petrographic data should
allow us to tie groups of samples to particular production
areas and trace exchange within the study area.
Mimbres Valley
Cliff, Redrock, and Mule
Creek valleys
Perforated plate
from 3-Up
*
*We identified MMS sherds only at Black Mountain,
located at the southern extreme of the Mimbres River.
• Our ceramic analyses provide evidence both of continuity and change during the 13
th
through 15
th
centuries AD.
• In the Upper Gila and elsewhere in the southern Southwest, mixing of cultural traditions created an ideology
that brought local and immigrant groups together and helped them think of themselves as one people.
Cliff White-on-red (Eastern AZ
College collections)
Tonto Polychrome (Eastern AZ College
collections)
Tonto Polychrome (Eastern AZ College
collections)
Cliff Polychrome (MIAC,
Santa Fe).
Sharlot Hall Museum collections;
Photo by Peter J. Pilles
This research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF Project No. 819657) and supported by generous donors to Archaeology
Southwest and Hendrix College. The students, staff, and volunteers of the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 MCAT/MCAP field seasons are to be
commended for their hard work in collecting the data on which this research is based. This project would have been impossible without the
enthusiastic cooperation of the community of Mule Creek, New Mexico.