ABSTRACT

Archaeologists working in the far western Southwest distinguish the Lowland Patayan tradition by virtue of a distinctive, typically undecorated, light-colored pottery found along the lower Gila and lower Colorado rivers and in surrounding deserts. Known generally as “Lower Colorado Buff Ware,” research into Lowland Patayan pottery has a convoluted history, including the formulation of multiple typologies that are incompatible and whose chronologies contradict each other. This article discusses this history and critically evaluates the prevailing typology to expose some of its shortcomings. It also presents some data amassed over the past 40 years to show that the chronology girding it is inaccurate. To overcome this problem, I suggest that researchers of Lowland Patayan pottery temporarily set aside the ceramic type concept and consider the importance of attributes in relation to well-defined research questions, with particular attention directed at chronological refinement and material sourcing.

摘要

在西南偏远西部工作的考古学家根据在吉拉河下游和科罗拉多河下游以及周围沙漠中发现的一种独特的、通常没有装饰的浅色陶器来区分低地帕塔延传统。通常被称为“下科罗拉多浅黄色陶器”，对 Lowland Patayan 陶器的研究有着复杂的历史，包括形成多种不相容且年代顺序相互矛盾的类型。本文讨论了这段历史，并批判性地评估了流行的类型学，以揭示其一些缺点。它还提供了过去 40 年积累的一些数据，以表明它的年表是不准确的。为了克服这个问题，