O’Odham Pottery: Prehistoric, Historic, and Contemporary Native American Ceramic Production in the Phoenix Basin of Southern Arizona

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative Archaeology: How Native American Knowledge Enhances Our Collective Understanding of the Past" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Phoenix Basin in southern Arizona has some the earliest evidence of utilitarian plain ware pottery use anywhere in the US Southwest, with associated radiocarbon dates as early as ca. 350 BC, and ceramic production has continued unabated since that time. Although researchers have extensively studied prehistoric pottery in the region, which has long been considered to be the heartland of the “Hohokam,” less attention has been devoted to Native American ceramics that were made there in the historic period, and modern Indigenous potters remain largely overlooked. This paper presents recent research by analysts from the Gila River Indian Community Cultural Resource Management Program. This work has shown that while there are temporal and regional differences in ceramic production, including the red-on-buff pottery that the region is most famous for, there are also strong similarities in ceramic production through time and across much of southern Arizona. These similarities in ceramic traditions, including the use of the paddle and anvil construction technique, demonstrate the long-term continuity in cultural traditions from prehistory through today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Collaborative Archaeology: How Native American Knowledge Enhances Our Collective Understanding of the Past   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39059.0