Patayan

Patayan. In the sixteenth century the Spaniards were came into the lower Colorado River, found it occupied by Yuman peoples who farmed on the alluvial flood plains of that great stream and during flood went into the surrounding desert mountains to hunt and forage in small parties.

These Yuman were very warlike. They fought constantly among themselves and farther afield with the Pima-Papago and the Athapascans. Although they had developed a complex and formal mythology expressed through songs and shamanistic dreams, their material culture was less impressive then of their southwestern neighbors.

The archaeological records found in this sub area are significantly different from the Mogollon, Anasazi or Hohokam.

The sub area lies along the Colorado River from its delta north to beyond Needles. On the east it extends into Arizona but stops at about Gila Bend, in the South.

Rogers have advanced a three period Yuman sequence. The beginning date of Patayan I is marked by the appearance of the first pottery. The pottery, as it is found along the lower Colorado River from the Delta up to the vicinity of the town of Blythe, has features, which set it apart from Pioneer Hohokam. These include basket molding of vessels, notched rims, and a peculiarly sharp-angled high shoulder on a large water jar, which is known as a “Colorado Shoulder”.

Throughout its history, however, both Hohokam and Anasazi influenced Patayan pottery. In the south this influence is particularly clear with reference to the Hohokam Papagueria phases, which are geographically adjacent. To the north,  Basketmaker III and the Pueblo I vessels have been found Patayan I sites. An the Patayan I wares – the small-mouthed olla, the crude incised and punctated decoration, the fugitive red wash covered vessels- are similar to Anasazi.

Patayan II (ca. A.D 1050 – 1500), as it identified by pottery, was much more widely distributed than Patayan I. From the delta it reached north to southern Nevada. To the east, up to Gila River almost as far as Gila Bend; and westerly, to as far as the southeastern California deserts. In Patayan II ceramics, the “Colorado Shoulder” water jar, notched rims, and burnished red wares had disappeared, to be replaced by hemispherical bowls with deeper and slightly collared bowls, large trays, stucco-finished pottery, and frequent red-on-buff painting. These changes were particularly evident in the south and probably reflect increased contact with the Hohokam. Farther north, in a belt running from northwest Arizona to Mojave Desert, the markers for the Patayan II horizon are a series of the characteristic brown wares.

Other Patayan II changes took the form of a more careful rectangular shaping of metates and manos and the use of Pacific, as well as Gulf of California, shells for jewelry. With Patayan II comes the first definite evidence of cremation. It may have been practiced earlier, in Patayan I, although there is no proof for it then. With the Patayan Peoples, unlike the Hohokam, the ashes were not collected after cremation and buried with grave goods, but instead were, apparently scattered.

After A.D 1500, Patayan culture, in its Period III, can be traced from ethnohistory as well as archaeology, and is at this time associated with Yuman peoples. Changes from II to III were relatively minor, the most significant being in the area occupied. The Mojave Basin was abandoned, but there was a more than compensatory expansion eastward into Arizona and west and south into southern California and Baja California.