Like other Jeddito Yellow Ware types, production of Sikyatki Polychrome was centered on the Hopi Mesas, but distribution was widespread throughout the Southwest.

Archaeological Culture: Ancestral Puebloan, Hopi

Date Range: A.D. 1375 to 1625 (per Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Northern Arizona University).

Construction: By coiling.

Firing: In an oxidizing atmosphere.

Core Color: Cream to yellow, brownish, pinkish in some specimens.

Temper: Fine quartz sand rarely visible to naked eye; occasionally reddish angular fragments; sand temper rarely visible without a hand lens either in cross-section or on vessel surfaces.

Surface Finish: Compacted, highly polished; occasionally a few minute whitish or yellowish flakes visible on the surface.

Surface Color: Creamy yellow to bright yellow; yellow predominates; over-fired specimens usually orange; surface and core do not contrast, except in over-fired specimens.

Forms: Bowls, jars, dippers.

Vessel Thickness: 4.2 to 8.6 mm (bowls); 4.1 to 8.2 mm (jars).

Decoration:

• Paint: Thick to watery black or brown; red.
• Pigment: Mineral: black (iron-manganese with iron-oxides); red (hematite, possibly limonite).
• Design: Geometric (early and late), life forms (late); characterized by black and red and yellow (base); bowl interiors and jar exteriors always decorated, bowl exteriors usually decorated, jar rims sometimes painted if flaring.

Comparisons: Early Sikyatki Polychrome is like Awatovi and Jeddito black-on-yellows, but has the addition of red outlines. Bitahochi Polychrome has white outlines, not red. Kawaioku Polychrome has massed white paint in addition to red; Awatovi Polychrome is engraved through the black paint; Matsaki Polychrome has thicker walls, a crackled buff or tan slip, and sherd temper.

Other Names: Polished decorated ware, Yellow Ware, Sikyatki Ware

Compiled from the following sources:
Colton, Harold. (1956) Pottery Types of the Southwest. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series No. 3. Flagstaff, Arizona.

Nichols, Elizabeth. (2005) Jeddito Yellow Ware – Type: Sikyatki Polychrome, Ceramic Field Identification Manual: Agua Fria National Monument Project. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff

Compiled by:
April Peters, Northern Arizona University Anthropology Laboratories.