Prehispanic human ecology of the Río Verde drainage basin, Mexico

Abstract

This article discusses the results of ten years of interdisciplinary archaeological research along the Río Verde drainage basin, Oaxaca, Mexico. In the highland valleys of the upper drainage basin we have documented six periods of significant geomorphic change. The first two were probably the result of climatic change during the mid-Holocene. The four subsequent periods of landscape change are correlated with major shifts in demographics and human land use; we argue that these factors may be causally related. Erosion in the highland valleys led to modification of stream channel dynamics, alluviation and expansion of the agriculturally rich floodplain in the lower Rio Verde Valley. Increasing agricultural productivity in the lowlands may explain in part the rapid increase in population and social complexity beginning in the Late Formative. However, increased flooding also created risks for people living on the floodplain. The research demonstrates the dynamic nature of prehispanic ecology in the Río Verde drainage basin of Oaxaca.

Recent Advances in Mixtec Archaeology

“…There have been paleoenvironmental and geomorphic studies done in the Coixtlahuaca Valley (Rincón Mautner 1999), the Nochixtlán Valley (Mueller et al 2012) and the area surrounding Cerro Jazmín (Kirkby 1972;Pérez Rodríguez et al 2011), and the lower Río Verde Valley (Goman et al 2005;Joyce and Mueller 1997). Joyce and Mueller (1997;Goman et al 2005) conducted a study of geomorphic transformations in the highlands and found chronological correspondence with demographic shifts and changes in land-use practices in the highlands that led to changes in alluvial deposition and river morphology in the lower Río Verde. Researchers identified six episodes of geomorphic transition.…”

Changing Rural Landscapes of the Last Three Millennia at Santiago Tlalpan, Tlaxcala, Mexico

“…Heine thus aligned himself with the earliest and still most common class of explanations of land degradation, which Blaikie and Brookfield (:28) referred to as PPR (pressure of population on resources) explanations. PPR has been invoked to explain environmental change elsewhere in Mexico, especially in early studies of broad geographical scope (Cook, , ) or based on large sediment sinks (O'Hara, Street, & Burt, ; Joyce & Mueller, ).…”

Polity and Ecology in Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca

“…Geomorphological research has continued in the lower Río Verde Valley (Joyce and Mueller 1997, Mueller et al, Chapter 3) as well as in the highland valleys of Oaxaca, Nochixtlán, and ejutla, which make up most of the Verde's upper drainage basin (Mueller and Pou 2008;Mueller et al 2012). The research suggests that human land use in the highlands triggered geomorphic changes that may have affected the entire drainage.…”

“…The data indicate that population growth and agricultural expansion in the highlands during the early Formative period accelerated anthropogenic erosion into the drainage basin. Sediment carried down the drainage system to the coast triggered major shifts in the geomorphology of the lower valley, including changes in river morphology and the expansion of the Río Verde's agriculturally productive floodplain (Joyce and Mueller 1997;Mueller et al, Chapter 3). Paleoecological studies by Michelle Goman and colleagues (Goman et al 2005 show that coastal environments were also affected by the increased sediment load carried down from the highlands.…”