PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF POLLEN ANALYSIS OF SHELL MIDDEN PROFILE AND SHELTERED MATRICES AT THE SALEM NECK SEWAGE PLANT PREHISTORIC SITE (19-ES-471), SALEM MASSACHUSETTS

The objectives of this preliminary analysis of Salem Neck shell midden profile samples and samples from under shells was to ascertain if :pollen was preserved in the midden and whether the spectra, if recovered, had the :potential to yield environmental, land-use and/or paleoethnobotanical data. An exploratory evaluation of the matrices preceding full analysis was desirable because certain natural processes tend to destroy and replace the pollen spectra of archaeological sites that are exposed at the surface to the natural elements.