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Correcting an Error in “Early Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau near Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Glenna Dean
Glenna Dean*
Affiliation:
Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural Affairs, 228 E. Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (gdean@oca.state.nm.us)
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Abstract

Damp et al. (2002:667) quote me as stating “Old fields in New Mexico in the fertile Rio Grande Valley produced maize pollen, typically at levels of less than 2.0 grains per cc (Dean 1998)” (emphasis added). In actuality, my statement reads, “It is not uncommon for as few as five corn pollen grains/g of sample to be the only evidence of a prehistoric cornfield” (Dean 1998:55; emphasis added). There is no “standard correction factor” that will allow sediment weights to be transformed to volumes or vice versa. Pollen concentrations for cultigens in pre-Columbian New Mexico fields can be very small numbers and reproducibility of laboratory methods is crucial.

Resumen

Resumen

Damp et al. (2002:667) dicen que escribí que “los viejos campos agrícolas nuevo mexicanos en el valle fecundo del Río Grande produjeron granitos de polen de maíz en niveles tipicamente de menos de 2.0 granitos de polen por centímetro cúbico (Dean 1998).” En realidad, dije que “no es raro para tan poco como cinco granitos de polen de maíz por gramo de muestra el ser la única evidencia de un maizal prehistórico” (Dean 1998:55; énfasis adicional). No existe un “factor de correción universal” que permitirá pesos de sedimentos el ser transformados a volumen en bulto o vice versa. Concentraciones de granitos de pólen de plantas cultivadas en campos agrícolas del Nuevo Mexico pre-colombino pueden ser muy bajas y por eso la reproducibilidad de métodos laboratorios es de crucial importancia.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 149 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

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References

References Cited

Damp, Jonathan E., Stephen A., Hall, and Susan J., Smith 2002 Early Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau Near Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. American Antiquity 67:665–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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