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Watering the Fields of Teotihuacan: Early Irrigation at the Ancient City

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Deborah L. Nichols ,
Michael W. Spence  and
Mark D. Borland
Deborah L. Nichols
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
Michael W. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada
Mark D. Borland
Affiliation:
Mayer, Poulton and Associates, London, Ontario N6K 1C9, Canada
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Abstract

Recent excavations in Tlailotlacan, the “Oaxaca barrio,” near the western periphery of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, revealed remains of irrigation features associated with the early history of the city. Small floodwater irrigation canals were found underneath a residential structure that had been occupied by Zapotec immigrants from Oaxaca. Radiocarbon dating, corroborated by ceramic evidence, places the earliest architecture in the Early Tlamimilolpa phase (ca. a.d. 200–300), thus providing a concrete terminal date for the hydraulic system, an advantage not enjoyed by previous canal explorations in the region. The hydraulic features consist of segments of two superimposed canal networks that, based on associated pottery, date to the Terminal Formative period (Tzacualli and Miccoatli phases), which represents the earliest well-documented date for the use of irrigation at Teotihuacan. Shortly after the canals were abandoned, control over this land passed from the original inhabitants to Zapotec immigrants. We suggest that this change in ownership and land use directly involved the Teotihuacan state and was part of a policy of maintaining control over the location of economically important “resources,” including foreign immigrants like the Zapotec, who had important trade connections.

Type
Special Section: Urban Archaeology at Teotihuacan
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Spring 1991 , pp. 119 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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