Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:42:38.073Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Middle Formative Irrigation System near Santa Clara Coatitlan in the Basin of Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Deborah L. Nichols
Deborah L. Nichols*
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A major theoretical issue in studies of prehistoric societies in the Basin of Mexico concerns the relationship between irrigation and the development of prehistoric settlement systems. Locating and dating the remains of prehistoric water control systems, however, presents a major methodological problem. The discovery of a series of stratified prehistoric canals in the exposed profiles of contemporary borrow pits near Santa Clara Coatitlan provided an excellent opportunity for dating a prehistoric irrigation system. Results of recent excavations, reported on in this paper, demonstrate that these canals are part of a middle Formative floodwater irrigation system, which is the earliest confirmed evidence, to date, for the use of irrigation in the Basin of Mexico.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 133 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Armillas, P., Palerm, A., and Wolf, E. R. 1956 A small irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan. American Antiquity 21:396–399. Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo Google Scholar
Armillas, P., Palerm, A., and Wolf, E. R. 1974 The Puebla Project: seven years of experience. Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo, Mexico, D. F.Google Scholar
Charlton, T. H. 1970 Contemporary agriculture of the valley. In The natural environment, contemporary occupation and 16th century population of the valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, Vol. 1. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 3:253–284. Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, • University Park, PA.Google Scholar
Charlton, T. H. 1978 Investigaciones arqueológicas en ei Municipio de Outumba. Informe al consejo de Arqueología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. (editor) 1976 The early Mesoamerican village. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V., Kirkby, M. J., Kirkby, A. V. T., and Williams, A. 1967 Farming systems and political growth in ancient Oaxaca. Science 158:445–454.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. 1969 A preclassic water distribution system in Amalucan, Mexico. Archaeology 22:208–215.Google Scholar
Kirkby, A. 1973 The use of land and water resources in the past and present Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology No. 5. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
McBride, H. W. 1974 Formative ceramics and prehistoric settlement patterns in the Cuautitlan region, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Millon, R. 1957 Irrigation in the Valley of Teotihuacan. American Antiquity 14:49–61.Google Scholar
Neely, J. A. 1967 Organizatión hiáraulica y sistemas de irrigatión prehistóricas en Valle de Oaxaca. Boletin No. 27. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Nichols, D. L. 1980 Prehispanic settlement and land use in the northwestern Basin of Mexico, the Cuautitlan region. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Palerm, A. 1973 Obras hidráulicas prehispánicas en el sistema lacustre del Valle de México. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia México, D.F.Google Scholar
Rojas, T., Strauss, R., and Lamieras, J. 1974 Nuevas notas sobre las obras hidraulicas prehispdnicas y coioniales en el Valle de Mexico. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T. 1965 Cultural ecology of the Teotihuacan Valley. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T. 1976 Final Field report, Cuauhtitlan-Temescalapa survey project. Report to the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., Parsons, J. R., and Santley, R. S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: ecological processes in the evolution of a civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., and Santley, R. S. 1977 A prehispanic irrigation system near Santa Clara Xalostoc in the Basin of Mexico. American Antiquity 42:582–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, R. S. 1977 Infra-site settlement patterns at Loma Torremote and their relationship to Formative prehistory in the Cuautitlan region, state of Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Tolstoy, P., and Paradis, L. I. 1970 Early and Middle Preclassic culture in the Basin of Mexico. Science 167:344–351.Google Scholar
Woodbury, R. B., and Neely, J. A. 1972 Water control systems of the Tehuacan Valley, chronology and irrigation. In The prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley (Vol. 4), edited by McNeish, R. S., pp. 81–153. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar