THE CULTURAL-ECOLOGY OF PUEBLOAN PEBBLE-MULCH GARDENS

Prehistoric Anasazi Pueblo Indians relied on a diverse set of agricult ural strategies, each uniquely suited to specific micro-environments, in their attempts to mitigate subsistence risk. One variant strategy u sed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries A.D. was pebble-mulc h gardening. The Rio Grande Anasazi of northern New Mexico occasionall y mulched some of their garden plots with pebbles in order to increase soil moisture, reduce erosion, moderate soil temperature, and increas e crop yields. This labor intensive technique was primarily employed a s a drought-evasive measure. And while pebble mulching is an effective agricultural adaptation to the constraints of a dryland environment, construction was limited to sites with natural gravel deposits and it never replaced more traditional food stress-coping mechanisms. In spit e of their potential, pebble-mulch gardens were used for only a short period of time, never contributed much to the total food yield of pueb los, and remained always a peripheral innovation outside of the Anasaz i cultural core.