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Show dians who now occupy the same area are doubtless their descendants, just as the Pima may have been linked with the River Hohokam. Patayan Culture.- Patayan Culture, named after a Walapai Indian term signifying " the ancient ones," is a recently recognized and still somewhat poorly defined culture. It centers along the Colorado River Valley south of Hoover Dam, radiating out from there north to the Virgin and Muddy River areas, east to the vicinity of Flagstaff, and south to the Gulf of California. Just how far it extends westward into the desert areas of eastern California is not known, although present indications are that it penetrates into the Mohave Desert region. The existence of this culture was recently revealed through surface surveys yielding pottery types distinct from others in the Southwest. On meager archeological evidence, this culture has been divided into at least two branches, one centering on the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to Bill Williams River, and the second extending from the latter river south to the Gulf of California. To the east of the Colorado River are two other areas where Patayan influence was strong, including the region west of Flagstaff where Ana- sazi and Patayan Cultures met and mingled, and the area around Prescott where a number of complexes occur. Of these various branches the Cerbat group, that extending along the Colorado River north and south of Needles and eastward for 50 or more miles, is believed to represent the purest Patayan Culture. Although several related sites have been excavated to the eastward, so far no site in the Cerbat area has been excavated. Thus, our knowledge of this important basic culture is limited almost entirely to what information has been secured from surface surveys. These surveys have shown that occupation of this central area was relatively heavy in prehistoric times, as well over 300 Patayan sites have now been located. Due to our lack of adequate information, the reconstruction of the prehistory of this area is largely based on conjecture. However, it seems evident that about 1500 years ago groups of hunters and seed gatherers, possibly nomadic Yuman- speak- ing peoples, diffused into the Colorado River Valley from southern California. There they soon came in contact with outlying groups of the already established southwestern cultures, the Hohokam in the south and the Anasazi to the north. Within a short time these nomadic groups took up agriculture and pottery making and began to develop a distinctive culture of their own. From a study of the materials recovered from the surface surveys we can give a fairly accurate picture of the life of these peoples. In contrast to the Upper Colorado River, where narrow and deep canyons prevented large villages and agricultural fields, occupation here was heaviest along the Colorado River itself. About 20 miles below Hoover Dam the valley widens out, with extensive sandy flats where agriculture could be practiced by planting in areas left moist through the retreat of the annual spring floods. Due to these floods, however, evidences of habitations on the flood plains are infrequent, the houses having been either washed away or buried beneath layers of mud and sand. Houses probably consisted of circular brush and mud shelters or earth lodges, temporary shelters at best. Agriculture was extensively practiced, corn, beans, squash, and cotton being raised. The ceramic remains consist of sherds of pottery shaped by the use of paddle and anvil as contrasted to the coiled and scraped technique of the Anasazi. This paddle and anvil technique was probably derived from the Hohokam area. Patayan pottery is usually reddish, buff, brown, or greyish- brown, some types showing a glazed or crusted surface. Although much of the pottery is plain, simple decoration was sometimes applied in red or black. Stone implements included mortars and metates, arrow points, scrapers, choppers, knives, pottery anvils, and ham- merstones. It is quite likely that these Indians cremated their dead. Through the presence of intrusive black- on- white pottery types traded in from northern and northeastern Arizona, types that have been accurately dated by means of tree- ring studies, it is evident that this Patayan Culture flourished from about 700 to 1100 or 1200 A. D. Whether these Indians left the Colorado Valley after 1200 or whether they remained is not definitely known. We do know that when the first white explorers arrived in the area during the sixteenth century they found a number of closely related Indian tribes occupy- 89 |
