Ancestral Pueblo: Southern Colorado Plateau (Anasazi)Western Anasazi

Branch Name: Western Anasazi

First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2014

Pottery assigned to traditions of the Western Anasazi are largely limited to northeast and east central Arizona, although that assigned to the Tusayan tradition do occur in low frequencies in some areas of northwestern New Mexico. The various traditions associated with western the Anasazi are distinguished from those associated with traditions to the east by a very long-sequence of organic painted types exhibiting similar stylistic change across much of northern half of Arizona. Pottery types assigned to the Tusayan, Little Colorado, Shinarump, and Moapa traditions tend to be very similar but are distinguished by differences in clay paste and temper (Colton 1953). Of these only those associated with the Tusayan tradition, which seems to have developed into the modern Hopi, appears to occur in sites in New Mexico, and are described here. Pottery types assigned to this tradition include both Tusayan gray, white, and red ware types as well as widely traded yellow ware types produced in proto-historic and historic periods.



Related Traditions