essay

Pollen analysis of the Oaxaca archaic and modern environments

guilá naquitz : archaic foraging and early agriculture in oaxaca, mexicoOrlandoPublished In 1986 • Pages: 179-237

By: Schoenwetter, James, Smith, Landon Douglas.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Schoenwetter and Smiths task is to analyze modern pollen samples taken from throughout the Valley of Oaxaca to ascertain how closely they match patterns in the survey of modern flora, in order to better interpret the excavated samples from the El Fuerte cave group. Therefore, this chapter begins with a long technical discussion of the problems involved in pollen sampling and the comparison of modern pollen survey results to ancient pollen assemblages. (Overview of method and theory, and/or the organization and results of the modern survey are indexed for THEORETICAL ORIENTATION IN RESEARCH AND ITS RESULTS [121] and/or ORGANIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OF RESEARCH [128].) The authors then proceed to employ pollen spectra from the stratigraphic columns of the various sites as a means of cross-dating. Only stratigraphic zones C and B from Guilá Naquitz Cave and 20cm to 35cm depths from Martínez Rock Shelter (important for its ecofacts only) pertain to the Early Archaic (chronologically, Cueva Blanca and Gheo-Shih fall outside the scope of this file [Early Mesoamerican Archaic NY30]). From this data, the pattern of climate and vegetational change is reconstructed, with implications for human adaptation.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Recording and collecting in the field
Organization and analysis of results of research
Laboratory analysis of materials other than dating methods in archaeology
Climate
Flora
Chronologies and culture sequences
Cultural stratigraphy
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Early Mesoamerican Archaic
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Middle America and the Caribbean
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
General Middle America and the Caribbean
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Leon G. Doyon ; 2005
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1964-1977
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
25,000 BP-2000 BP
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
eastern Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
NotesAdditional notes
James Schoenwetter and Landon Douglas Smith
For bibliographical references see document 13:Flannery
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
85004051
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Excavations (Archaeology)--Mexico/Mexico--Antiquities