Pre-Hispanic Population Estimates for the Valley of Oaxaca (Gary M. Feinman, 2024) (original) (raw)
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Dissertation, 2020
This dissertation investigates the link between resource availability, settlement patterns, and demography between 1600 BCE and CE 1522 in the lower Rio Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. The study addresses two research questions. First, how did the valley's physiographic zones differ in the agricultural productivity of maize? Second, how were settlement patterns and demography impacted by the development of the modern floodplain (ca. 1600-150 BCE) and the formation of estuaries (ca. 400 BCE-CE 250)? I address these questions via archaeological survey, sedimentological sampling, laboratory research, and geospatial (GIS) analysis. To assess agricultural productivity, I construct a GIS suitability model which ranks the region's physiographic zones based on soil fertility, slope, and water availability. I conclude that the floodplain was the most productive physiographic zone in prehispanic times, while the piedmont was the least. The degree to which populations were attracted to the floodplain and estuaries are examined through three seasons of regional survey and a second geospatial model. Data indicate that higher populations resided in the secondary valleys than previously surmised, while the estuarine zone contained low populations. The geospatial model measures demographic change using a combined database of all lower Verde surveys. This model is based on an ecological assumption that settlement focused on highly-productive resource zones. Evidence does not support estuary formation (by ca. CE 250) as an important factor behind settlement change, but the expansion of the agriculturally-productive floodplain between the Early and Late Formative periods (1600-150 BCE) served as a demographic pull. When settlement patterns deviated from the model's expectations, I explore whether political developments were salient. I argue that demographic centers in the secondary valleys drew large groups away from the floodplain during periods of political centralization. My findings are relevant to Mesoamerican debates regarding human-environment relations. After congregating on the lower Verde coastal plain during the initial Early Formative period (1600-1350 BCE), populations moved inland, focusing on agriculture for the remainder of the prehispanic era, as in many other coastal areas of Mesoamerica. Landscape ecology and sociopolitical processes both played a role in lower Verde settlement, but each operated at different temporal and spatial scales.