Relations Between Man and Environment in the Development of Precolonial Settlements in the Basin of Mexico*

Investigaciones Geográficas, Boletín del Instituto de Geografía, UNAM No. 50, 2003, pp. 166-172 Rubén López Recéndez, geomorfólogo formado en Francia, fue director del Instituto de Geografía entre 1977 y 1983. Estableció el primer laboratorio de muestras de suelo y agua en la dependencia para apoyar las investigaciones en geografía física. Relations between man and environment in the development of precolonial settlements in the basin of Mexico* Rubén López Recéndez For about 25,000 years, the basin of Mexico The analysis of this cultural evolution shows has been a scenary for human activities. us that the transition from savagery to Only the two last millenia of this period have barbarism, and from barbarism to civilization been trascendental in the form of clear traces was very slow, as a derivation from cultural of such activities. The balance of the time, practices from hunters to hunter-pickers, an which make up the proto and prehistory of finally, to picker-farmers. The latter paved the human settlements in the basin is not well way to the development of urban nucleuses. known. Thus, the temporary campings of the pickers and hunters from the Pleistocene, are The present breakthroughs of archaeological followed by the first permanent settlements, research prove the human presence since between the years 7,000 and 2,000 B.C. the late Pleistocene, that is to say, 20,000 These setlements were composed by groups years B.C. The findings of Tlapacoya belong that could cultivate several vegetal species to this cultural horizon, called "archaeolitic" such as amaranth, pumpkin, a small by J. L. Lorenzo. tomato (Physalis sp.), pulpy leaf plants of Portulacaceae family, e.g. teosinte (Zea These first testimonies exemplify cultural mexicana), very similar to maize. By studying remains of lithic industries and their related the pollen grains, it is assumed that they Pleistocene fauna. They contain chips, practiced certain degree of an incipient scrapers, and scalers, as well as knives that gardening activity with some of these plants. provide information on carving of hunted This fact gave a great boost to population animals and work performed on hides and and even so, and despite the importance of furs. this cultural stage, we have to acknowledge that it is the less known in the history of the The first settlements on the basin were small valley. temporary campings. They were followed, many thousands of years later, by more The traces collected in the beaches of permanent settlements, such as San Vicente Tlapacoya-Zohapilco date back to this stage, Chicoloapan, and fixed locations, such as and prove that human communities settled El Arbolillo, Zacatenco, Tlatilco, Ticoman, around the lakes somewhere in the year Cuicuilco, Chimalhuacan, Copilco, which, 5,000 B.C. during the Playa cultural phase, even with certain intermittence, left clear and with a sedentary life either pre o pro- signals to trace the history of the life in the toagricultural. The remains of these sites are basin since some 4,000 years ago. made up by bones of Cervidae, birds, dogs and fish scales. *Publicado en: "Interaction of the prehistoric man and his environment". V Symposium of the Commission on Environment Problems, International Geographical Union. Instituto de Geografía, UNAM, Mexico, 1981. Relations between man and environment in the development of precolonial settlements in the basin of Mexico The development of these first villages and fertile lowlands of San Juan river, but it the boom achieved by some of them, at the soon exceeded these limits and extended end of the first millenium B. C. allows us to troughout the valley on land with less agri- assume the consistency of a settlement cultural possibilities -little more than 700 mm system not only adapted to the ecologic of average anual rainfall, which meant a risk conditions of the valley, but also capable of for rain-fed crops. This resulted in the deve- rationally using and exploiting the agricultural lopment of elaborated irrigation patterns, and fishery resources that marked the which allowed the growth and evolution of transition from subsistence activities to the metropolitan area of the city of Teoti- production tasks. huacan. The phenomenon was also spurred by the domain and exploitation of the vast That is why this stage, known as Manantial deposits of obsidian in Otumba, which (spring water) phase, was characterized by allowed the urban center to handle strate- an outstanding development of agricultural gically the trade of such valuable raw production and population growth, as well as material in the pre-Spanish world. by the intensification of inter-regional trade and irreversible colonization in the central For about one thousand years, since 200- and southern parts of the basin. 100 B. C. to 650-700 A. D., Teotihuacan was the major metropolis, not only in the basin of The colonizing expansion placed itself within Mexico, but in all Central America. Its cultural a corridor located in Lake Chalco, and the spread reached the high lands of Guatemala, lower slope of the Sierra Nevada range, as the Gulf coast, Oaxaca, and the west, center well as in the valleys pouring to San Juan and north of Mexico. Teotihuacan river. Important settlements were also established on the river-lacustrian Since year 0 of our age, with the erection of plains of Azcapotzalco and the lower slopes its largest monuments: the pyramid of the of Sierra de Guadalupe. Cuicuilco belongs to Sun and the pyramid of the Moon, this stage; this city is located to the Teotihuacan was the core of a great urban southwest of the basin, and reached an and ceremonial center. The population esti- exceptional development towards the year mated for this stage amount 30,000 inhabi- 300 B. C. We may still see its remains, in tants throughout a suface of 17 km2. During spite of the layer of lava that destroyed the the following years and up to 650 A. D., old city around the years 100 or 200 B.C. Teotihuacan kept a salient population due to the eruption of the Xitle volcano. growth: for the late classic, 450-650 A. D. the population is calculated in 100,000 inhabi- The first expressions of the monumental tants, and the urban extension in more than architecture took place in Cuicuilco. The trun- 25 km2. The existence of a city with such cated cone pyramid represents the remains dimensions proves the strength of the socio- of a ceremonial architecture complex, whose political and economic system that sustained shapes were inspired and adapted within the this urban population, which brought about surrounding natural environment. the blossoming of Teotihuacan culture. Simultaneously with the end of Cuicuilco, the We may infer, then, that rural population, development of Teotihuacan started in whose work sustained the great urban the center-northeast section of the basin. center, must have amounted several hun- This city delimited the foundation for the dreds of inhabitants subject to a theocratic cultural development of Central America. In political system. Economy was then based its initial stage, the city was erected on the on intensive agriculture with irrigation and Investigaciones Geográficas, Boletín 50, 2003 167 Rubén López Recéndez terracing, and rain-fed extensive crops. The former crisis implied that during the early Besides, the city counted upon handcraft post-classic no centers were established specialization and an important commercial outside the limits of the basin of Mexico. The system. flourish of two cities: Tula in the northwest and Cholula in the southeast, rescue the As the settlement network became more importance of the basin's urban and cere- dense and complex, population growth exer- monial centers, and they would exercise an cised a strong pressure on the environment, outstanding influence within the country. In only bearable and explicable by the adap- this way, though Tula was smaller than tation of a rational and consistent technology Teotihuacan, either in population and in of appropiation and exploitation of the natural surface, its cultural influence spread to the environment. center of the country and reached the Yucatan peninsula, on the east, as well as to Thus, the population growth meant the the southwest of United States towards the intensification of food production, which in north. Cholula on the other hand was less turn, brought about labor division among the important than Tula and its influence sphere population and favored the selection of only reached the villages settled in the settlements on those sites with larger center-south of the national territory. potential resources. Again, during the Xllth and Xlllth centuries, Nevertheless, in the late classic, this growth the erratic rainfalls and the progressive overcame the optimum capacity of support of sequence of the climatic change to more arid the environment, and thus generated its slow phases, curb the development of Tula and progressive degradation, worsened by and take it to a crisis. Tula is gradually the aridity created by minor climatic changes. abandoned and later occupied and destroyed This critical factor put too much stress on the by new Barbarian groups that came through stability of the productive systems and as a the central section of the plateau from the consequence, the political stability collapsed. north. Otomis, Culhuaques, Cuitlahuacas, Xochimilcas, Chalcas, Mixquicas, Tepane- The food crisis was the bone of contention cas, Acolhuacas, and finally, Mexicas, among social classes, who struggled to occupied the basin, dominated local peoples treasure more food and to own more and and settled around the great lake. Some better productive spaces. With the loss of years later, the development or decline of the political authority, community production these peoples and their towns and cities was forms were often abandoned and most of the conditioned to the military triumph or defeat.

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