Different Reasons for Irrigation Development in Mesoamerica

Home
 Hypotheses
 Irrigation Systems
 Testing/Further Research
 Annotated Websites
 Bibliography

Hypotheses for the Development of Irrigation

Ancient Mesoamerica gave way to many different and vibrant cultures. These civilizations began to domesticate a various amount of crops in order to sustain
themselves with food and have a source of income. With the growing of these crops, these civilizations needed a reliable irrigation system but they unfortunately lacked this.
There are two possible hypotheses/explanations as to why irrigation development occurred in Ancient Mesoamerica: the change in climate & the domestication of crops.


     Hypothesis/Explanation 1: Change in Climate

            Mesoamerican civilizations began to form near the end of a time period known as the Pleistocene where the climate was generally more cold and wet than today´s climate. During this time period, the earth´s temperature was a few degrees lower than the current temperature and rainfall occurred more often (Bettinger 2001:389). It was not until around 7500 BCE that the climate in Mesoamerica and other parts of the world began to change to a warmer and drier climate entering a time period known as the Holocene. This warmer and drier climate itself is referred to as the altithermal or thermal maximum (Scarre 2018:310). Having a warmer and drier climate was great at providing the perfect conditions for growing plants and other crops. The need for an irrigation system was important in sustaining the growth of these crops. These plants and crops would sustain these civilizations for years and would serve as an economic subsistence that was crucial.


Tropical Climate
Source: Sciencing

    Hypothesis/Explanation 2: Domestication of Crops

            Even with a lack of a major interconnected irrigation system, Mesoamerican civilizations were still able to domesticate a great variety of plants. These civilizations had a landscape that provided "high, cool mountain valleys to lowland tropical forests" (Scarre 2018:593). This difference in altitudes and temperatures provided a foundation for a plethora of different fruits, vegetables, and other crops to be grown. Examples of some well-known crops that came from Mesoamerica include a variety of legumes, bottle gourd, chili peppers, tomatillos, avocados, cacao, agave, guava, indigo, and even cotton (Scarre 2018:307)! Similar to other ancient civilizations, agriculture held an important significance in Mesoamerica. Agriculture soon became an economic mainstay that was vital to sustaining multiple communities. With the increase in agriculture, these civilizations were able to sustain themselves as well as larger populations and neighboring communities. These civilizations had a "wealth of domestic plants" with maize being the most well-known crop to have been domesticated (Wright 1989:99). Although, there is a lot of controversy between archaeologists on the exact date that maize was domesticated. Some archaeologists say that maize domestication began around 5000 BCE, while others say it began around 7000 BCE (Scarre 2018:306,320). Yet, maize cobs found at Guilá Naquitz in Oaxaca, Mexico date back to 4300 BCE (Scarre 2018:306). This is further proof that the domestication of maize began way later on in time than archaeologists previously thought. The domestication of these crops "took place over thousands of years," and it created more edible and usable forms of these crops (Landon 2008:110). Teosinte was the original maize, but it was way smaller and provided less sustenance for communities. Ancient Mesoamerican civilizations began to domesticate it into the maize we see today in order to get more benefits and use from it.

  Domestication of teosinte into its modern form of maize.
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA