Vegetal remains from the kiva represent two general categories: edible plant foods and fuel wood.
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Seven kinds of plant foods were apparently prepared and eaten by the Pueblo II people in the kiva. These plants are all represented by pollen grains recovered from soil samples taken in various locations throughout the kiva. Corn, prickly pear cactus, grass and cheno-am seeds were probably ground on the metate on the floor in the east side of the kiva. Corn, grass, beeweed, cheno-ams and a member of the wild parsley or carrot family were apparently processed in the hearth. Corn, cheno-ams, prickly pear and cholla cactus were probably used or processed in the west half of the kiva. |
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Both pinyon pine and sagebrush were used as fuel wood in the kiva. This is indicated by the presence of both pollen grains and charcoal from these plants in the hearth. The Pueblo II people may also have eaten pinyon nuts, although no direct evidence of this was found.
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