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.