Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications
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Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications Gary M. Feinman 1
&
Linda M. Nicholas 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Coordinated with excavations at two prehispanic sites in the eastern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, we documented a diversity of economically useful plants at both localities. Many plants that abound at El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress are used locally as food, medicine, and in ritual activities. These hilltop settlements were abandoned during the prehispanic era and never resettled, leaving relict floral communities that were once tended by their prehispanic inhabitants. A comparison of plant communities at El Palmillo, the Mitla Fortress, and other locales in the Valley of Oaxaca illustrates the higher incidence of xerophytic plants in the drier eastern (Tlacolula) arm of the valley, with the greatest abundance in archaeological contexts. These findings affirm the importance of a broad array of succulents (especially Agave spp.), yucca, and cacti for the region’s inhabitants, thereby helping account for the dense prehispanic populations that resided there. Keywords Xerophytic plants . Agave sp. . Fiber . Cochineal . El Palmillo . Mitla Fortress . Tlacolula Valley (Oaxaca) . Mexico
Introduction Over a period of 13 years we excavated two prehispanic hilltop sites—El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress—in the eastern, Tlacolula arm of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico (Feinman et al. 2002, 2010; Feinman and Nicholas 2019). Viewed from afar, the concentration of xerophytic plants, particularly cacti and succulents, on these locations sets them apart from surrounding hills. From archaeological and ethnobotanical research and discussions with local residents, we became aware that many of the plants that thrive on the two sites today are (and were) economically useful as food, medicine, raw materials to make other goods, or as key elements in ritual practices. El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress were large communities during the Classic period (c. AD 200–850) but were Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00177-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Gary M. Feinman [email protected] Linda M. Nicholas [email protected] 1
Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA
abandoned before the Spanish invasion and today are overgrown with vegetation. In conjunction with our archaeological investigations, we documented the diversity of the plant communities on both sites (Middleton et al. 2001; Feinman et al. 2007). We argue that economically useful plants growing on these hilltops today are relicts of prehispanic management of local plants that were either native or brought to the site from nearby areas (Feinman and Nicholas 2005; Feinman et al. 2007; see also Casas et al. 2007; Casas et al. 2016; Colunga-GarcíaMarín et al. 2
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