The paddle-and-anvil technique employed a paddle and a stone or another ceramic surface to help shape the clay. The Hohokam peoples used the paddle-and-anvil method to create their red or buff colored ceramics.

A ceramic’s color and the method used to make it can indicate which culture produced the piece. The ceramics that were produced during this period are regionally differentiated. As the name suggests, this time period is distinguished by the mass production of pottery. Hohokam culture has been traced back to what archaeologists have named the Ceramic Period, which is believed to have begun circa 200 A.D. Regardless, the Tohono O’odham, Hia C’ed O’odham, and the Akimel O’odham tribes still claim the Hohokam as their ancestors. Some scholars favor the descendant theory, while others believe that a hiatus occurred in between the ancient Hohokam occupation of the region and that of the more recent tribes. There is disagreement among social scientists as to whether or not the modern Tohono O’odham, Hia C’ed O’odham, and the Akimel O’odham descend from the Hohokam culture. Developing a chronology for the Hohokam has proven quite a difficult task for scholars. Anthropologists and archaeologists use culture areas to differentiate geographical regions based on cultural similarities. Remnants of the Hohokam culture are found in the Southwest Culture Area. The Hohokam were a prehistoric people, who lived in the southern desert regions of what is now Arizona.

Where were the hohokam located