ABSTRACT
Palynological investigations of the Oaxacan preceramic period were designed to address three specific problems: the relative chronological relationships existing among archaeological records of the horizon; the characteristics of changes that may have occurred in ecological conditions through this period in the Valley of Oaxaca; and the nature of palynological evidence bearing on the character, availability, and distributions of plant resources during this period. The reproductive and life cycles of plants and plant association assemblages are conditioned and controlled by a large number of genetic, climatic, edaphic, and biotic factors—and their interrelationships-collectively referred to as the ecology of the geographic space in which the plants exist. There were a number of cooperating scientists studying the ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca simultaneously from different perspectives and with different objectives in the 1966–1969 period. From a floristic perspective, the pollen records fall into two major groups: those collected from plots of cultivated land and those collected from uncultivated plots.
