Pollen Analysis for Two Sediment Samples From Possible Agricultural Deposits on the Rio Gallina Floodplain, Northern New Mexico

Two sediment samples were collected from stratigraphic profiles on the floodplain on either side of Rio Gallina in northern New Mexico. Radiocarbon dates obtained from soil in both strata place the deposits within the Gallina occupation period. The goal of the analysis is to evaluate whether pollen evidence supports cultivation of domesticated plant species in the Rio Gallina floodplain during that period. Pollen analysis offers the opportunity to address questions of agricultural practice at archaeological sites. The Gallina Ancestral Puebloans occupied portions of the high-elevation terrain of northern New Mexico during the late prehistoric period, roughly A.D. 1100–1300. Their subsistence economy has been a subject of ongoing inquiry, particularly with respect to the degree to which agricultural production supplemented or anchored their diet in a challenging environmental setting. High-elevation environments impose constraints on growing seasons and the range of cultivable species, yet they also offer localized microenvironments—including river floodplains—where conditions for cultivation may have been more favorable than on surrounding uplands. Therefore, this study contributes to a better understanding of agriculture both at this site and for the Gallina Ancestral Puebloans in general.