New Roosevelt Red Ware Types
Sherds found in the different layers of a site in the San Pedro Valley showed that Cliff Polychrome was introduced after Gila Polychrome and Tonto Polychrome. Cliff Polychrome increased in frequency over time, and Nine Mile and Phoenix Polychrome appeared after Cliff Polychrome became abundant.
Work with archival materials and existing museum collections has also revealed that the newly-defined Roosevelt Red Ware types have been found with other types securely dating after A.D. 1375 and 1400. These tree-ring dated types include Sikyatki Polychrome, made on the Hope Mesas, and Matsaki Polychrome, made on the Zuni Reservation.
Sites with high frequencies of Los Muertos Polychrome, located in the Phoenix Basin and in the Santa Cruz Flats District south of Phoenix, have produced some of the latest radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dates in the southern Southwest, indicating occupation well into the 1400s.
Each of the Roosevelt Red Ware types is found in an area much smaller than that associated with Gila and Tonto Polychrome. This spatial pattern seems to reflect chronology, in that the more widespread types are earlier than those with much more restricted distributions.
