Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:30:10.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anthropogenic Soil Erosion around Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, during the Preclassic and Late Postclassic-Hispanic Periods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

F. A. Street-Perrott ,
R. A. Perrott  and
D. D. Harkness
F. A. Street-Perrott
Affiliation:
Tropical Palaeoenvironments Research Group, School of Geography, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX 1 3TB, U.K.
R. A. Perrott
Affiliation:
Tropical Palaeoenvironments Research Group, School of Geography, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX 1 3TB, U.K.
D. D. Harkness
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 OQU, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lake Pátzcuaro (2,035 m asl), situated in the temperate highland-forest region of central Mexico, was the focus of Postclassic Tarascan civilization. Today, the lake is bordered by wide, swampy flats, which can be interpreted as low-angle fans of colluvial material derived from the deeply eroded, lower-valley side slopes. A gully near the northwest shore exposed two colluvial units: The lower one was dated at 2,300 years B.P. (350 B.C.) at the base of the exposure, while the upper one yielded three 14C ages ranging from 270 years B.P. (A.D. 1680) to "modern." Both units contained abundant charcoal. Pollen studies by Watts and Bradbury (1982) suggest that the first phase was initiated by the widespread introduction of maize cultivation around 1550 B.C. The second, more intense, phase of forest clearance, although it may have begun during the Late Postclassic period, probably culminated during the great expansion of colonial plough agriculture and livestock rearing in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Résumé

Résumé

El Lago Pátzcuaro (2,035 metros sobre el nivel del mar), situado en la región forestal templada aha de México central, fue elfoco de la civilizatión poslclásica tarasca. Actualmente, el Lago está rodeado por planicies anchas y pantanosas que pueden ser interpretadas como abanicos poco inclinados de depositos coluviales, derivados de las fuertemente erosionadas faldas bajas del valle. Una barranca cerca de la costa noroeste reveló dos unidades coluviales: una bajafechado de 2300 l4C años a.P. (350 a. de J.C) en la base de la secctión, y una aha que arrojó tres fechas distintas, entre 270 años a.P. (1680 A.C) y "la epoca moderna." Ambas unidades contenían carbón vegetal en abundancia. Estudios de polen elaborados por Watts y Bradbury (1982) sugieren que la primera fase fue iniciada por el cultivo generalizado del maíz alrededor de 1550 a. de J.C. La segunda, intensificada, fase de deforestatión, aun cuando pudo haber comenzado en las postrimerías del período postclasico, probablemente cuminó con el expansivo uso del arado y la implantatión de actividades pecuarias de finales de los siglos decimosexto y decimoséptimo.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 759 - 765
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1989

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

Brown, R. B. 1984 The Paleoecology of the Northern Frontier of Mesoamerica. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Brown, R. B. 1985 A Summary of Late-Quaternary Pollen Records from Mexico West of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In Pollen Records of Late-Quaternary North American Sediments, edited by Bryant, V. M. Jr., and Holloway, R. G., pp. 71–93. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Dallas.Google Scholar
Chevalier, F. 1963 Land and Society in Colonial Mexico : The Great Hacienda. Translated by Eustis, A. and edited by Simpson, L. B.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Correa Perez, G., and Tentory, F. Vargas (editors) 1979 Atlas Geografico del Estado de Michoacan. El Gobierno del Estado de Michoacan, Ediciones y Distribuciones, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Craine, E. R., and Reindorp, R. C. (editors and translators) 1970 The Chronicles of Michoacan. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
DETENAL 1978 Carta Geologica. Sheets E14, A21-22. Direccion General de Estudios del Territorio Nacional, Mexico City.Google Scholar
DETENAL 1979 Carta Edafologica. Sheets E14, A21-22. Direccion General de Estudios del Territorio Nacional, Mexico City.Google Scholar
FAO-UNESCO 1974 Soil Map of the World : Legend. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris.Google Scholar
FAO-UNESCO 1975 Soil Map of the World : Mexico and Central America. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris.Google Scholar
Frank, A. G. 1979 Mexican Agriculture 1521-1630 : Transformation of the Mode of Production. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Gerhard, P. 1972 A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain. Cambridge Latin American Studies No. 14. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Gibson, C. 1964 The Aztecs under Spanish Rule : A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519-1810. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, S., and Pollard, H. P. 1983 The Tarascan Civilization : A Late Prehispanic Cultural System. Publications in Anthropology No. 28. Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Helms, M. W. 1975 Middle America : A Cultural History of Heartland and Frontiers. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E., Patrick, R., and Deevey, E. S. 1956 Sediments of Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 67 : Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E., Patrick, R., and Deevey, E. S. 1491-1504.Google Scholar
INEGI 1985 Sintesis Geogrdfica del Est ado de Michoacan. Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Leavenworth, W. C. 1946 A Preliminary Study of the Vegetation of the Region Between Cerro Tancitaro and the Rio Tepaltepec, Michoacan, Mexico. American Midland Naturalist 36 : 137–205.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S. E. 1985 Late Quaternary Environments of Central Mexico : A Diatom Record. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, School of Geography, University of Oxford, England.Google Scholar
Steininger, F. M. 1988 Environmental Change in the Hoya de San Nicolas de Parangueo Basin, Guanajuato, Mexico : A Palaeolimnological Study. Unpublished Master's dissertation, School of Geography, University of Oxford, England.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Pearson, G. W. 1986 High-Precision Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale, AD 1950-500 BC. Radiocarbon 28 : 805–838.Google Scholar
Watts, W. A., and Bradbury, J. P. 1982 Paleoecological Studies at Lake Patzcuaro on the West-Central Mexican Plateau and at Chalco in the Basin of Mexico. Quaternary Research 17 : 56–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R. C. 1948 Cultural Geography of the Modern Tarascan Area. Publication No. 7. Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Social Anthropology, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Young, A. 1976 Tropical Soils and Soil Survey. Cambridge Geographical Studies No. 9. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar