History

The ware was produced roughly from the San Juan River south to the upper Gila River

Gila River

The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...

 drainage, and from the White Mountains

White Mountains (Arizona)

The White Mountains of Arizona are a mountain range and mountainous region in the eastern part of the state, near the border with New Mexico; it is a continuation from the west of the Arizona transition zone–Mogollon Rim, with the Rim ending in western New Mexico...

 east to the Laguna Pueblo

Laguna Pueblo

Laguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...

 area (Goetze and Mills 1993:21)—and probably east into the Rio Grande drainage. Cibola White Ware shares its basic style (black designs painted on a white or light gray background) with a number of other regional wares, all produced by prehistoric Puebloan peoples. The various wares often shared stylistic ideas, and archaeologists make the various fine distinctions primarily to aid them in dating archaeological deposits and in tracing out prehistoric trade.

Classification

Most Cibola White Ware is distinguished from most other black-on-white wares by the use of crushed sherd temper in the preparation of clay for firing, along with the use of mineral-based black paint. If sherd temper is combined with black plant-based paint, the pottery is instead classified as Little Colorado White Ware (produced in the Little Colorado River

Little Colorado River

The Little Colorado River is a river in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico...

drainage), with one exception, Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white. Also, some early Cibola White Ware vessels have mixed sand and sherd temper or all sand temper. The following table may help the reader understand where archaeologists have drawn the lines between one prehistoric ware and the next (see Goetze and Mills 1993:27–29 for further assistance).

Temper Type	Mineral Paint	Carbon Paint
Sherd temper	Most Cibola White Ware	Little Colorado White Ware (usually)
Quartz sand temper	Some early Cibola White Ware	Tusayan White Ware