Ceramic Field Identification Manual Agua Fria National Monument Project

Jeddito Yellow Ware

TYPES:
Awatovi Black-on-yellow | Bidahochi Polychrome | Paayu Polychrome (see Remarks below) | Jeddito Stippled (see Picture)
Jeddito Engraved (see Picture) | Jeddito Black-on-yellow | Sikyatki Polychrome (Early and Late styles)
Kawaioku Polychrome (also called Kawaika-a Polychrome) | Jeddito Yellow Ware Variants

BACKGROUND

PERIOD: Pueblo IV to Historic

DATES: Approximately A.D. 1300 - Historic/Present

CULTURAL ASSOCIATION: Ancestral Pueblo/Hopi

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE: Produced in the Hopi villages, primarily on Antelope and Third Mesas during the Pueblo IV period. Large quantities found at the Homol'ovi group sites, which likely served as the central trade and distribution locus for trade nodes further removed, such as Tuzigoot (Adams 1991:116, 2004). Traded extensively across the Hopi area (its northern extent) into the Verde Valley and the Rio Grande Valley (Adams 1991, 2004; Colton 1956; Colton and Hargrave 1937; Dittert and Plog 1980; Hays 1991; Lyons and Hays-Gilpin 2001; Smith 1971).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Description of Jeddito Yellow Ware

Construction: Coil built.

Thinning: Scraped on both the inside and outside.

Finishing: Bowls are highly polished on both surfaces. Jars exteriors are highly polished, as are the inside of jar necks into the upper extremeties of the interior body, in most cases (Smith 1971:478). Polishing streaks usually barely visible. No slip or wash applied.

Firing: Coal firing was well-controlled and achieved higher temperatures than previously. Fired in an oxidizing atmosphere.

Temper: Has been characterized as an absence of temper (Colton and Hargrave 1937; Colton 1956; Shepard 1971), but usually includes either naturally occuring fine sand in the clay source or the addition of fine quartz sand, both of which are often not visible to the naked eye. Early in the ware sequence, temper may be slightly coarser and include fine crushed sherd and/or small reddish angular fragments (Smith 1971:479). Later types are primarily composed of very fine quartz sand or are devoid of inclusions at 10x magnification (Lyons and Hays-Gilpin 2001:151). Because temper was gradually phased out in yellow ware production, changes in temper and paste (Lyons and Hays-Gilpin 2001) and surface color and design style (Smith 1971) occur along a continuum between early and late types (Lyons and Hays-Gilpin 2001:151).

Core Color: Creamy yellow to tan or light brown to a light pinkish brown. Homogenous throughout, with no carbon streak.

Clay: Two kinds of clay are used (Hays 1991:25). Low iron gray clay that fires to a yellow color in an oxidizing atmosphere predominate, though various shades of light brown to light pinkish tones can occur. Less common, orange-firing pottery made from yellow clay is used, and can be seen in the Huckovi Series.

Core Texture: Fine, hard paste; becoming finer through time.

Fracture: Hard, shattering.

Surface Appearance: Very smooth and somehwhat shiny. Surfaces well-polished with some polishing streaks lightly apparent early in the ware series. Types are all unslipped, except for some of the variants.

Surface Color: Light to strong yellow and buff to lightly pinkish tones (range of orange colors in slipped type variants).

Firing Clouds: Absent.

Thickness: Bowls: walls range in thickness from 3 to 10 mm, averaging about 6.4 mm. Jars: walls range in thickness from 4.1 to 9.8 mm, averaging about 6.7 mm (Colton and Hargrave 1937:147).

Weathering: Weathering is usually minimal because of the hard, fine paste of these wares. Because of the soils on the Colorado Plateau, salt weathering is the most common problem, and sometimes eats away portions of vessel surface and designs.

Vessel Forms: Bowls and ladles predominate, jars less common. Bowls: commonly oblate hemisphere with incurved rims; about two times wider than depth; maximum diameter about 2 to 3 cm below the rim (Hays 1991:24). Jars: early on are globular and markedly oblate with later types more squat with greater curviture of shoulder; heigth is 1/2 to 2/3 the width of the vessel (Hays 1991:25).

Rims: Bowls: straight to incurving. Jars: straight to flaring (Colton and Hargrave 1937).

Paint Type: Black mineral paint on virtually every type (some of the plain variants are an exception) with white and/or red on some of the polychromes. Black paints composed of iron-manganese with iron-oxide pigments (Shepard 1971:182), varing in color from a thick or watery black to brown. White paints composed of kaolin (Colton and Hargrave 1937:147), sometimes fugitive, usually added to black designs (e.g. Bidahochi Polychrome). Red composed of hematite-based clays or other iron-rich clays (perhaps including limonite), sometimes differentially saturated to create dark yellow to orangish color contrasted with deeper reds, usually added to black designs (e.g. late Sikyatki Polychrome) or combined with black and white designs (e.g. Kawaioku Polychrome).

Decoration: Vary greatly in skill of execution of designs. Bowl interiors and jar exteriors always decorated; bowl exteriors decorated more often in later periods; and jar interiors somtimes painted on interior of flared lip and, rarely, spattered inside (Colton and Hargrave 1937:147). Some of the types include stippling and/or engraving, usually on Jeddito Black-on-yellow and Sikyatki Polychrome. Designs: Tight geometrical designs early on, which opened up during transitions in later types (Colton 1956; Lyons and Hays-Gilpin 2001; Smith 1971). Bowl exteriors commonly have isolated, asymmetical designs or figures (Hays 1991:24).

COMPARISON: Winslow Orange Ware is softer and more porous than Jeddito Yellow Ware. Winslow Orange Ware has a crumbling fracture, and was probably fired at lower temperatures. Although Jeddito Yellow Ware ranges from orange to tan, it most often has a bright yellow color. Winslow Orange Ware most often has orange to tan colors, including a sort of buff color, but is never bright yellow. Tusayan White Ware and Jeddito Yellow Ware were probably made from the same or similar clay sources. All but the very latest Tusayan White Ware types have organic paint and were fired in a neutral or reducing atmosphere, while Jeddito Yellow Ware has iron-manganese paint and was fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. Both have shattering fractures.

REMARKS
Continuum of temper variation, paste and surface color, paint colors, and design styles exhibited in Jeddito Yellow Ware types over time.

Jeddito Stippled and Jeddito Engraved are variant types that develop about the same time as Paayu Polychrome and some of the other variants, sometime after A.D. 1350. This period seems to be marked by an inventiveness or experimentation with new design techniques.

The Huckovi Series, Kwaituki Series, and Kokop Series are considered variants of Jeddito Yellow Ware with orange paste and/or red to orange slips, and are not discussed here, except for a very general overview of the types within the series and their technological attributes.

In addition to Awatovi Black-on-yellow, Smith (1971) also described another new type, Antelope Black-on-straw, which analysts argue “comes perilously close to describing the pink and dull yellow variants of the Winslow Orange Ware type Tuwuica Black-on-orange” and could, arguably, be an intergrade between the two types (Lyons & Hays-Gilpin 2001:153). Because of the vagueness and disagreement surrounding this type, it has not been included in the type list below.

Hays (1991:28) proposed a new type, Paayu Polychrome, in which paint density is purposefully manipulated to produce what looks like two different colors. Usually a watery paint, appearing light brown fills solid areas, outlined with a denser paint, appearing dark brown. The design style appears about the same time as other varieties, such as Stippled or Engraved, and employs early free-style designs (Hays 1991:28).

*For more Jeddito Yellow Ware information and images, see Beloit College's Logan Museum website.

Authored by: Elizabeth Nichols