Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T15:05:50.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Archaeological Pollen Studies of the Colorado Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James Schoenwetter
James Schoenwetter*
Affiliation:
Arizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The proposition is advanced that archaeologists are not justified in considering pollen analysis a technique of investigation restricted to the biological or earth scientist. This is shown not to be true in theory because of the nature of the technique itself. Comparison of pollen studies of samples from archaeological proveniences on the Colorado Plateau serves to illustrate the fact that research designs in pollen analysis do actually allow collection of cultural data and directly serve the purposes of cultural reconstruction. The comparison also serves to summarize the nature of the archaeological and nonarchaeological pollen research carried on to date in this region. A second portion of the paper synthesizes much of the available information for the presentation of a reconstruction of effective moisture variation on the Colorado Plateau over the past 1,500 years. This reconstruction was designed to serve the purposes of archaeological chronology and cultural ecology in the region. It also illustrates the flexibility of pollen analytic research as a technique of archaeology.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 1970 , pp. 35 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Roger Y. 1955 Pollen Analysis, a Research Tool for the Study of Cave Deposits. American Antiquity, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 84–5. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Antevs, Ernst 1952 Arroyo Cutting and Filling. Journal of Geology, Vol. 60, pp. 375–85. Chicago.Google Scholar
Antevs, Ernst 1955 Geologic-Climatic Dating in the West. American Antiquity, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 317–35. Salt Lake City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bannister, Bryant, Gell, E.A.M., and Hannah, J. W. 1966 Tree-ring Dates from Arizona N-Q: Verde-Show Low-St. Johns Area. Laboratory of Tree-ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bannister, Bryant, Hannah, J. W., and Robinson, W. J. 1966 Tree-ring Dates from Arizona K: Puerco-Wide Ruin-Ganado Area. Laboratory of Tree-ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bent, A. M. and Wright, H. E. Jr. 1963 Pollen Analyses of Surface Materials and Lake Sediments from the Chuska Mountains, New Mexico. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 74, pp. 491–500. New York.Google Scholar
Bohrer, Vorsilla L. 1966 Pollen Analysis of the Hay Hollow Site East of Snowflake, Arizona. Interim Research Report, No. 12. Geochronology Laboratories, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bohrer, Vorsilla L. 1968 Paleoecology of the Hay Hollow Site, East-Central Arizona. Paper delivered at the 1968 meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Breternitz, David A. 1966 An Appraisal of Tree-ring Dated Pottery in the Southwest. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, No. 10. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1940 Erosion in the Valleys of the Southwest. New Mexico Quarterly, Vol. 10, pp. 227–32. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Clisby, K. H. and Sears, P. B. 1956 San Augustine Plains-Pleistocene Climatic Changes. Science, Vol. 124, pp. 537–9. Washington.Google Scholar
Dittert, Alfred E. Jr., Hester, James J., and Eddy, Frank W. 1961 An Archaeological Survey of the Navajo Reservoir District, Northwestern New Mexico. Monographs of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico, No. 23. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Fritts, Harold C. 1965 Tree-ring Evidence for Climatic Changes in Western North America. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 93, No. 7, pp. 421–3. Washington.Google Scholar
Fritts, Harold C. 1966 Growth Rings of Trees: Their Correlation with Climate. Science, Vol. 154, No. 3752, pp. 973–9. Washington.Google Scholar
Hack, John T. 1942 The Changing Physical Environment of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 35, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Harris, Arthur H. 1963 Vertebrate Remains and Past Environmental Reconstruction in the Navajo Reservoir District. Museum of New Mexico Papers in Anthropology, No. 11. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1966 Geochronology of Late Quaternary Alluvium. Interim Research Report, No. 10. Geochronology Laboratories, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hevly, Richard H. 1964 Pollen Analysis of Quaternary Archaeological and Lacustrine Sediments on the Colorado Plateau. MS, doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hill, James N. and Hevly, R. H. 1968 Pollen at Broken K Pueblo: Some New Interpretations. American Antiquity, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 200–10. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Iverson, Johannes 1941 Land Occupation in Denmark’s Stone Age. Axel Sandal Company, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Iverson, Johannes 1949 The Influence of Prehistoric Man on Vegetation. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, Vol. 3, No. 6. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Kottlowski, Frank E., Cooley, M. E., and Ruhe, R. V. 1965 Quaternary Geology of the Southwest. In The Quaternary of the United States, edited by H. E. Wright and D. G. Frey, pp. 287–98. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Leopold, Luna B., Leopold, E. B., and Wendorf, F. 1963 Some Climatic Indicators in the Period A.D. 1200–1400, New Mexico. In “UNESCO and World Meteorological Organization Symposium on Changes of Climate with Special Reference to the Arid Zone,” Arid Zone Research Series, No. 20, pp. 265–70. UNESCO, Paris.Google Scholar
Longacre, William A. 1964 A Synthesis of Upper Little Colorado Pre-history. In “Chapters in the Prehistory of Eastern Arizona, II,” by Paul S. Martin and others, pp. 210–15. Fieldiana: Anthropology, Vol. 55. Chicago.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul Schultz 1963 The Last 10,000 Years: A Fossil Pollen Record of the American Southwest. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. and Byers, William 1965 Pollen and Archaeology at Wetherill Mesa. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 19, pp. 122–35. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. and Schoenwetter, J. 1960 Arizona’s Oldest Cornfield. Science, Vol. 132, No. 3418, pp. 33–4. Washington.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. and Sharrock, F. W. 1964 Pollen Analysis of Prehistoric Human Feces: A New Approach to Ethnobotany. American Antiquity, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 168–80. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Mahr, L. H. Jr. 1963 Pollen Analyses of Surface Materials from the Southern San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 74, pp. 1485–504. New York.Google Scholar
Oldfield, Frank 1963 Pollen Analysis and Man’s Role in the Ecology of the Southeast Lake District. Geografiska Annaler, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 23–40. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Peckham, Stewart L. and Wilson, John P. 1966 An Archaeological Survey of the Chuska Valley and the Chaco Plateau, Part II, The Archaeological Survey. MS, Museum of New Mexico, Division of Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1962 Pollen Analysis of Eighteen Archaeological Sites in Arizona and New Mexico. In “Chapters in the Prehistory of Eastern Arizona, I,” by Paul S. Martin and others, pp. 168–209. Fieldiana: Anthropology, Vol. 53. Chicago.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1964 Palynological Analysis of the Tohatchi-Crown-point Materials. Report to the Curator-in-Charge, Division of Research, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1965a Utah W:5:50: Palynological Analysis. Appendix to A. H. Schroeder, “Salvage Excavations at Natural Bridges National Monument.” Anthropological Papers of the University of Utah, No. 75, Miscellaneous Paper No. 10. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1965b Pollen Analysis of Arizona 1:15:18. Report submitted to Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1965c Pollen Studies at Picuris Pueblo: Preliminary Report. Report submitted to Department of Anthropology, Adams State College, Alamosa, Colorado.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1965d Pollen Studies at the Sapawe Site: Preliminary Report. Report submitted to Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1966 A Re-evaluation of the Navajo Reservoir Pollen Chronology. El Palacio, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 19–26. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James 1967 Pollen Survey of the Shiprock Area. In “An Archaeological Survey of the Chuska Valley and Chaco Plateau, New Mexico. Part I: Natural Science Studies,” by A. H. Harris, J. Schoen-wetter, and A. H. Warren, pp. 72–103. Museum of New Mexico Research Records, No. 4. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James and Dlttert, A. E. Jr. 1968 An Ecological Interpretation of Anasazi Settlement Patterns. In Anthropological Archaeology in the Americas, edited by B. J. Meggers, pp. 41–66. Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington.Google Scholar
Schoenwetter, James and Eddy, Frank W. 1964 Alluvial., and Palynological Reconstruction, Navajo Reservoir District. Museum of New Mexico Papers in Anthropology, No. 13. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Schulman, Edmond 1956 Dendroclimatic Changes in Semiarid America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sears, Paul B. 1937 Pollen Analysis as an Aid in Dating Cultural Deposits in the United States. In Early Man, edited by G. G. MacCurdy, pp. 61–6. J. B. Lippincott and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Smiley, Terah L., Stubbs, S. A., and Bannister, B. 1953 A Foundation for the Dating of Some Late Archaeological Sites in the Rio Grande Area, New Mexico. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Bulletin, No. 6. Tucson.Google Scholar
Van Zeist, W. 1967 Archaeology and Palynology in The Netherlands. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology, Vol. 4, pp. 45–65. Amsterdam.Google Scholar