Testing the provenance of Patayan pottery at Las Colinas: chemical and petrographic analyses of phyllite-temper fragments

摘要

Mobile Patayan foragers of the interior desert of southwestern Arizonawere makers of Lower Colorado BuffWare ceramics. These containers were sometimes traded to Hohokam irrigation agriculturalists at thewestern margin of the Hohokam territory. By A.D.1100, the distribution of Patayan BuffWares shifted to theeast, penetrating the Hohokam heartland. Some theorists have suggested the ceramic distribution impliesa migration of Patayan people, who joined agricultural communities in the Hohokam core area. One way toassess this idea is to identify the production of Patayan material culture within the Hohokam territory. Wetest for the local manufacture of Lower Colorado Buff Ware at the Hohokam village of Las Colinas, wherePatayan pottery was found in abundance, and a Patayan enclave has been inferred. Using petrographicanalysis and SEM-EDS assays of the phyllite temper fragments in the Patayan wares, we conclude that thePatayan pottery was made elsewhere and was not fabricated with local materials at Las Colinas.