Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-kwt9d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T06:57:26.795Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Oriented Raised Fields in Central Veracruz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alfred H. Siemens
Alfred H. Siemens*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1W5 Canada
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the lowlands of Central Veracruz, as in various locations across the base of the Yucatan peninsula, Prehispanic agriculturalists sought out wetlands with a limited fluctuation in water level for adaptation to intensive cultivation. Vestiges of canals and raised fields show through the dry season pastures of many ranches. The rectilinear remains of the earlier incursion show considerable accordance, from wetland to wetland, in their astronomical orientation: about 15 degrees clockwise of our own cardinal directions. It may be hypothesized that this orientation was imposed from Teotihuacan and that the majority of the raised field vestiges seen in the wetlands of Central Veracruz date back at least to a time between A.D. 100 and 600.

Information

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 1983, pp. 85 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Adams, Richard E. W. 1977 Prehistoric Mesoamerica. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Adams, R. E. W., Brown, W. E. Jr., and Patrick Culbert, T. 1981 Radar mapping, archaeology and ancient Maya land use. Science 213:1457–1463.Google Scholar
Armillas, P. 1950 Teotihuacan, Tula y los Toltecas. RUNA 3:37–70.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Gibbs, Sharon L. 1976 On the orientation of Pre-Columbian Buildings in Central Mexico. American Antiquity 41:510.Google Scholar
Calcott, Wilfred Hardy 1936 Santa Ana. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1964 The chinampas of Mexico. Scientific American 211:90–98.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1969 Photogrammetry and the ecology of Olmec civilization. Mimeo, Yale University, New Haven.Google Scholar
Dahlin, Bruce N. 1979 Ecological inference and ancient Maya agricultural systems. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, Catholic University, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Darch, Janice P 1980 Soils. The Maya raised-field agriculture and settlement at Pulltrouser Swamp, Northern Belize.Unpublished report, University of Oklahoma-National Science Foundation Pulltrouser Swamp Project, Norman, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Domenech, Manuel 1922 Mexico tal cual es (1866). Demetrio Contreras, Queretaro, Mexico.TakakiGoogle Scholar
Flores Mata, G., Jiménez Lopez, J., Madrigal Sánchez, X., Moncayo Ruiz, F., and Takaki, F. 1971 Tipos de vegetación de la República Mexicana. Secretaria de Recursos Hidráulicos, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Garcia, Enriqueta 1970 Los climas del Estado de Veracruz. Anales del Instituto Biológico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma 41. Serie Botánica 1:3-42. México, D. F.Google Scholar
Chessman, Stephen R. 1979 Some ecological relationships of traditional agro-ecosystems in the lowland humid tropics of southernMexico. Paper presented at the XLIII International Congress of Americanists, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Gómez-Pompa, Arturo 1978 An old answer to the future. Mazingira 5. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Harris, David R. 1978 The agricultural foundations of Lowland Maya civilization: a critique. In Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture, edited by Harrison, Peter D. and Turner, B.L. II, pp. 301–323. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Harrison, Peter D. 1978 Bajos revisited: visual evidence for one system of agriculture. In Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture, edited by Harrison, Peter D. and Turner, B.L. II, pp. 247–253. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
INIREB (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos) 1976 Estudio ecológico de la region de Balancan-Tenosique. Mimeo, Xalapa, Veracruz.Google Scholar
Lambert, J. D. H., Siemens, A. H., and Arnason, J. T. 1981 Pre-Hispanic drained field agriculture on the New River, Belize. Ms. on file, Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Lundell, Cyrus L. 1937 The vegetation of the Petén. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 478, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Medellin Zenil, Alfonso 1978 Clásico tardío en el centro de Veracruz. Cuadernos Antropológicos 2:205–213.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 1979 Star Gods and astronomy of the Aztecs. Paper presented at the XLIII International Congress of Americanists, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Morales, H. L. 1979¿Hacia una economía del pantano? Mimeo. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre RecursosBióticos. Xalapa, Veracruz.Niederberger, ChristineGoogle Scholar
Morales, H. L. 1979 Early sedentary economy in the Basin of Mexico. Science 203:131–142.Google Scholar
Olson, Gerald W. 1977 The soil survey of Tikal. Cornell Agronomy Mimeo 77-13, Department of Agronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Google Scholar
Olson, Gerald W. 1978 Effects of activities of the ancient Maya upon some of the soils of Central America. Paper presentedat the Eleventh Congress of the International Society of Soil Science, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Orozco-Segovia, Alma D. L., and Gliessman, Stephen 1979 The Marceño in flood-prone regions of Tabasco, Mexico. Paper presented at the XLIII InternationalCongress of Americanists, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Palerm, Angel 1953 Etnografía antigua totonaca en el Oriente de México. In Huastecos, Totonacos y sus Vecinos, edited by Ignacio Bernal and Eusebio Davalos Hurtado. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropologícos XIII:163–173.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1976 The murals of Tepantitla. Garland, New York.Google Scholar
Puleston, Dennis E. 1978 Terracing, raised fields and tree cropping in the Maya Lowlands: a new perspective on the geographyof power. In Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture, edited by Harrison, Peter D. and Turner, B.L. II, pp.225–245. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Puleston, Dennis E., and Puleston, Olga Stavrakis 1971 An ecological approach to the origins of the Maya civilization. Archaeology 24:330–337.Google Scholar
Ruxton, George F. 1855 Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. Harper, New York.Google Scholar
Rzedowski, Jerzy 1978 Vegetación de México. Limusa, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1953 The anthropogeography of Central Veracruz. In Huastecos, Totonacos y sus Vecinos, edited by Bernal, Ignacio and Eusebio Dávalos|Hurtado. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos XIII:27–78.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The basin of Mexico: the ecological processes in the evolution of a civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sartorius, Carl 1961 Mexico about 1850. Brockhaus, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Peter J. 1977 Un sistema de cultivo intensivo en la cuenca del Río Nautla, Veracruz. Boletín de INAH 20:50-60.Secretaría de Recursos Hidráulicos, MexicoGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Peter J. 1971 Boletín Hidrológico 43:11-130.1.04-4.02, 11-210.1.01-4.02.Google Scholar
Siemens, Alfred H. 1978 Karst and the Pre-Hispanic Maya in the southern lowlands. In Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture, edited by Harrison, Peter D. and Turner, B.L. II, pp. 117–143. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Siemens, Alfred H. 1982 Pre-Hispanic agricultural use of the wetlands of northern Belize. In Maya subsistence, edited by Flannery, Kent V., pp. 205–225. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Siemens, Alfred H. (Editor) 1977 The Rio Hondo Project: an investigation of the Maya of Northern Belize. Journal of Belizian Affairs 5.Google Scholar
Siemens, Alfred H., and Puleston, Dennis E. 1972 Ridged fields and associated features in southern Campeche: new perspectives on the LowlandMaya. American Antiquity 37:228–239.Google Scholar
Tichy, Franz 1976 Orientación de las pirámides e iglesias en el Altiplano Mexicano. Comunicaciones IV: Suplemento.Fundacion Alemana para la Investigación Científica, Puebla, México.Google Scholar
Tichy, Franz 1979 Genetische Analyse eines Altsiedellandes im Hochland von Mexico: Das Becken von Puebla-Tlaxcala.Festschrift zum 42. Deutschen Geographentag: 339-373. Göttingen.Google Scholar
Turner II, B. L. 1974 Prehistoric intensive agriculture in the Mayan lowlands. Science 185:118–124.Google Scholar
Turner II, B. L., and Harrison, Peter D. 1982 Maya raised-field agriculture and settlement at Pulltrouser Swamp, northern Belize. University of Texas Press, Austin, in Press.Google Scholar
West, R. C., Psuty, N. P., and Thorn, B. G. 1969 The Tabasco lowlands of southeastern Mexico. Coastal Studies Series 27. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Wright, A. C. S., Romner, D. H., Arbuckle, R. H., and Vial, V. E. 1959 Land in British Honduras. Colonial Research Publications 24. London.Google Scholar
Young, Anthony 1976 Tropical soils and soil survey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Zolá, M. G., and Espinoza, J.M. 1981 Análisis morfológico de plataformas y canales en las zonas inundables de Nevería, Veracruz.Ms. on file, Instituto de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos, Xalapa, México.Google Scholar