POLLEN ANALYSIS OF POSSIBLE AGRICULTURAL OR HORTICULTURAL TERRACES FOR THE CAVE CREEK RECREATION AREA ARCHEOLOGICAL MITIGATION PROJECT OF NORTHERN MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA

Seven pollen samples were examined from two sites in the Cave Creek Recreation Area of northern Maricopa County, Arizona. Rock alignments noted at AZ U:1:98 (ASM) and AZ U:1:100 (ASM) may have functioned as check dams, contour terraces or linear borders, retaining walls, diversions walls, rock piles, and/or rock-weighted brush berms. These areas exhibit no evidence of prehistoric canals, and are assumed to have been watered exclusively by hillslope runoff. Examination of pollen samples from these terraces was designed to address questions of subsistence, chronology, and demography.