Teotihuacan's farming combined San Juan River irrigation canals, hillside stone terraces, and wetland raised fields. The Olmecs and Maya had used raised fields for centuries earlier. Chinampas refined the concept by building rectangular stake pens in shallow lakes, filled with plant matter and mud. The first true chinampas appeared in Xochimilco and Lake Chalco around 1100 AD, about 400 years after Teotihuacan's collapse. The Mexica later used them to build Tenochtitlan itself. Xochimilco's floating gardens still survive today.
Chinampas evolved from Mesoamerican raised field agriculture after Teotihuacan's fall
Key facts
- Teotihuacan farming relied on irrigation canals dug from the San Juan River, stone terraces with rain-fed irrigation on hillsides, and raised fields in valley wetlands
- The Olmecs and Maya in southern rainforests had been using raised field agriculture for centuries before Teotihuacan
- Chinampas differed from raised fields by being constructable in shallow lakes using rectangular pens of wooden stakes anchored to the lake bed, filled with rotting plant matter and mud
- The first true chinampas were built in Xochimilco and Lake Chalco as early as 1100 AD, roughly 400 years after the fall of Teotihuacan
- The Mexica, later leaders of the Aztec Empire, took chinampas beyond farming to create habitable land, with the entire city of Tenochtitlan built as a cluster of chinampas
- The floating gardens of Xochimilco still exist in southern Mexico City
Sources
Irrigation and Agriculture in the Valley of Teotihuacanbooks.google.com
Irrigation and Agriculture in the Valley of Teotihuacan. Irrigation at Teotihuacán. San Juan San Juan Teotihuacán
Indigenous People Day: Irrigation Methods of Tenochtitlansciencemadefun.net
Over years, the mats, with their built-in irrigation system, became islands that could be planted and harvested up to 7 times per year, making ...
Conflict in the Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation Systemacademia.edu
The modern Teotihuacan irrigation system serves over 9,400 acres with an average water flow of 143 gallons per second. Endemic conflicts arise between upstream ...
Watering the Fields of Teotihuacan: Early Irrigation at ...cambridge.org
by DL Nichols · 1991 · Cited by 56 — Small floodwater irrigation canals were found underneath a residential structure that had been occupied by Zapotec immigrants from Oaxaca.
Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica - Anthropologyanth.la.psu.edu
by N Gonlin · Cited by 4 — Teotihuacan's land-and-water relationship was shaped by drainage down these slopes, with several large barrancas draining into the San Juan ...
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