Cliff Polychrome Pottery

Roosevelt Red Ware bowl type defined by distinctive recurved or semi-flaring rims and a lowered interior banding line, which creates a second design field between the rim and the main panel. Interior decoration typically places black-on-white designs in the area below the banding line, with red slip zones framing the patterns. Motifs are closely related to Gila and Tonto designs—scrolls, stepped triangles, hatching—but arranged to emphasize the double interior design fields. Only bowls are attributed to this type.

Bowls generally 18–30 cm in rim diameter, with recurved rims standing 8–16 cm high. The recurved profile and lowered banding line are key morphological traits that distinguish Cliff Polychrome from other Salado bowls.

Distributed from Petrified Forest and the Mogollon Rim region in Arizona south to Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, and from the Phoenix Basin eastward toward Alamogordo, New Mexico, with highest densities in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

Cliff Polychrome is important both stylistically and chronologically. Many sites contain Gila and Tonto Polychrome but lack Cliff Polychrome, suggesting that Cliff may signal specific communities or phases. Its recurved rim form and dual interior design fields make it one of the most easily recognized Roosevelt Red Ware subtypes.