The Lowland Patayan in the southern U.S. Southwest: Tracking vessel movement through ceramic compositional analyses

We evaluate possible source areas for the ancestral Yuman (Lowland Patayan) ceramics at Las Colinas (AZ T:12:10 [ASM]) in Arizona's Phoenix Basin approximately 1000–1200 CE, using neutron activation analysis and other compositional data from southern California, the eastern Papagueria in Arizona, and Las Colinas. Our study finds no evidence of ceramic vessels moving long distances between these different regions occupied by the Lowland Patayan, although vessels may have been moved over shorter distances. The Patayan ceramics at Las Colinas were not made there, but could have been made within a several-days walk of Las Colinas using an undocumented source of phyllite for temper.