The Productivity of Maguey Terrace Agriculture in Central Mexico during the Aztec Period

Abstract

Maguey cultivators in the Basin of Mexico during the Middle and Late Postclassic (A.D. 1150-1521) periods pioneered the more agriculturally marginal parts of the environment, such as the sloping piedmont zone around the alluvial plain. In their land-use strategy, terraced interplantings of maguey and grain formed the house gardens (calmilli) of their villages. These villages were established sometime around the twelfth century, and by the time of Spanish Conquest they covered the piedmont zones of the Teotihuacan Valley, Texcoco region, and similar areas of the Basin of Mexico. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence permit reconstruction of the caloric productivity of this interplanted terrace system, using modern maguey yields. This productivity is compared with the needs of the maguey cultivators by looking at a particular archaeological example, the Aztec period village of Cihuatecpan, in the Teotihuacan Valley.