Groundwater
• Water Gains: precipitation
• Water Losses: Evaporation, Transpiration
• Water Fluxes: Infiltration, Runoff, Groundwater flow, River discharge
Groundwater sources:
• Fossil water trapped in layers of porous rocks when they first formed
• Pleistocene glaciers melt leaving lots of water
• Recent rain or snowmelt
Groundwater Table depends on:
• Groundwater recharging from rain and snow source
• Humans using/removing water
• Where permeable layer below the surface is.
Aquifers
• Confined Aquifer: Groundwater that is confined (by bedrock below or clay and rock above) on both its upper and lower boundaries
• Unconfined Aquifer: Groundwater that is NOT constrained by an impermeable layer
Springs:
• Natural Spring Water: water that flows out with groundwater from hillsides, valleys, deserts. Generally natural spring water flows out from crevices and fissures in rocks.
• Springs are usually found where aquifers meet sloping land.
Aqueducts
• Aqueducts: channel carrying water from one place to another. Aqueducts can be underground channels or channels lined with rocks or clay pipes.
• Aqueduct of Cantayoc: 4km east of Nazca. Made by subterranean galleries with vents to check the water level. There are subterranean rivers there that are 12 m below surface level. It looks like a spiral descending into the ground lined with rocks.
• Saltwater Intrusion: using too much groundwater near the coast can cause saltwater to be drawn into the freshwater aquifer
Karst Topography
• Limestone: soft, permeable rock which erodes chemically and physically. Limestone can erode because acid from the atmosphere, soil, and plants cause it to dissolve.
• Karst Formation: Limestone is dissolved by the atmosphere/plants/soil’s acid on the top of the rock, eventually a hole dissolves down to the bottom of the limestone. The hole reaches the sealevel. All the while water has been flowing in the hole. Eventually hole erodes parallel to the sea level and the water mixes with the sea water.
• Cenotes: Cenotes are Sinkholes that are common in a karst landscape. Cenotes are underground caverns (like covered underground tunnels) whose roofs erode (natural reasons) eventually exposing the cavern to the air (ie: no roof). Cenotes can eventually be completly filled by land. Cenotes can be dry or filled with water.
Closed Water Basins
Closed Water Basins
• Water confined in a natural watershed.
• Input from precipitation (rain/snow)
• Little to no output:
o No groundwater flow between subsequent basins
o some evaporation and transpiration
• when the rock is permeable the watertable is deep with little runoff
• bottom of valley covered with layers of eroded clay/silt from mountains
• soil is fertile but sensitive to changes/disturbances
Phreatophytes
• trees that do not tolerate salty water
• used to find location of potable spring water
• grows in earthquake areas because they open cracks which allow water to get to surface
• in Mexico Cypress trees can grow to 100s of years old.
Valley of Mexico (Closed Basin)
• groundwater recharge occurs in volcanic mountains surrounding valley
• groundwater discharge happens on the entire valley floor and lower mountain slopes
• water Output: evaporation and transpiration
• salinization occurs accumulation on floor/low lakes
• Salt production from salty brines traded
Origin of Oases
Formation of Natural Oasis
• Area with lush vegetation and permanent source of fresh water that is surouneded by desert
• Freshwater source comes from underground streams that transect/bubble to surface
Artifificial Oases
• Natural oasis whose “pure” water capabilities are extended by planting adaptive plants
• Adaptive plants are drought resistant and saline, ie: they require less water leaving more water
Salt tolerant Plants
• Pomegranate
• Date Palm
• Alfalfa
Drought tolerant plants
• Olive trees
o Drought tolerant and doesn’t need permanent irrigation
Oases of Western Deserts (Egypt)
Oases of Ancient Egypt
• Function
o Cultivation of valuable (exotic) crops (Grapes –wine-; Dates -40 varieties cultivated-)
o Critical points of trade between Northern Africa, Nubia, and Egypt
o Defensive outposts guarding border between Libya and Egypt
Pre-Dynastic Fayum Oasis
• Pre-dynastic people (among first settlers) lived around Fayum lake
• Mid Holocene: lake 55 m higher than it is now, had forest and swamp. Now it’s arid wasteland
Dynastic Fayum
• Fayum area was very fertile, had fresh water lake Moeris, fields could grow grapes (lots of water)
• Fayum important religious centre ca 2000-1600 BC
Kharga Oasis
• Largest ancient egyption oasis ; 100km2
• Had underground aqueduct system which got water from underground limestone ridges
• Water traveled through large system of tunnels (3 uncovered) to low lying areas for irrigation
• Kharga used as penal colony by romans
• Could have been developed by Egyptians or romans.
• Aquifers + surface springs available as potable water.
• Kharga located at transaction of 3 trade routes
• Still used today
Dakhla Oasis
• Established after 5th Dynasty, ancient Egypt
• In Libyan Desert, 300km west of nile
• Outpost connecting southern routes from Nubia to nile valley
Siwa Oasis
• Siwa near border with Libya
• Isolated oasis, used as defensive outpost
• Water tainted with salt, thus crop cultivation hard
• Water table 20cm below surface
• Still troubled today, unchanged since ancient times
Oases of Eastern Desert
Nabateans (300BC-600AD)
• Petra Canyon permananetly settled 200BC
• Nabatean state, 64BC
• Flourished during Hellenistic period because it connected Greece + Rome to India, Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and Mediterranean through trade route.
Nabatean Commerce
• Economic prosperity increased with trade
• Mainmarket catered to caravans which needed food,water, and lodging
• Trade funded building of temples, administrative buildings, watersupply, structures within City of Petra
• Agriculture very important
• Nabateans skilled at engineering
City of Petra
• Petra means “a certain rock” in Greek
• Petra carved into mountainside of what is now Jordan
• Canyon and deserts fortified city
• Spring fed water, therefore reststop along east-west trade route
• Located in active tectonic region
• Site was abandoned after several severe earthquakes
• Disappeared from historical record 7th century AD
Nabatean Irrigation
• Petra’s main source of water: Ain Mousa Spring, 7km from Wadis Mousa
• Siq was the main water channel into Petra, 2km long
• Dam and flood bypass channels were located at border of city where Siq entered city
• Open channels replaced by pipelines
• Irrigation system
o Provided Continuous water source through periods of drought
o “on-demand” water source, flexible. Incorporated water redundancy
Nabatean Hydraulics Engineering
• Surface cisterns and reservoirs above city on mountain to trap surface runoff during rainfall
• Multiple pipelines (water redundancy) made of terra cotta, led to all locations in city
• Multiple pipelines led to market centre and ceremonial buildings
• Water always available when needed
• Small reservoirs along water flow (pipeline) routes to collect sand and silt. Water filter system
• Flood control through diversion dams and storage reservoirs
• Creation of a network of fountains around the city supplied with water after storage cisterns were full. After fountain’s water excess water sent to lowland where livestock grazed and crops gorwn
Ancient Chinese Oases
Taklamakan Desert
• 270,000 km of Tarim Basin
• White Jade River flows into Taklamakan desert and eventually dries up in desert sands
• White jade is found in alluvial deposits
• Desert crossed at northern and southern edges by two branches of Silk Road
• Oases in Taklamakan desert were used as important defensive outposts during Han Empire
• Yanqi Oasis still exists today
Turpan Depression
• Karez: subterranean aqueducts from which Turpan depression in Taklamakan Desert gets water
• Water transported underground, therefore no evaporation or salinization
• Karez carrys snow and glacier meltwater for distance of 30,000km
• Some of karez is straight some not
Early Civilisations of Mexico
Arid Valleys of Central Mexico
• Mesas: highlands from 900-3050 masl
• Has former volcanos with pumice, stone and tuff (type of rock which can destroy fertile soils)
• Source of glass rock called obsidian (prized by Mesoamericans)
• Landscape variability due to tectonic activity
• Volcanism influences
o Variability in relief
o Surface rock types
o Microcilmate
o Pedogenesis (process of soil formation)
• Intermontane basins make series of lagoons (lakes), but don’t have potable water
Highland Climate
• Orographic precipitation + highland heat causes high rates of rainfall in some areas of central highlands
• MAP (mean annual precipitation) is 2000 mm with 80% as rain in summer months
• Cloud layer forms 1300-2400 masl, creates zone of increased soil moisture
• Transaction of cloud layer and mountainside sees water condensation on vegetation and drips to the ground
• Cloud formation increases water collection by 75% in dry season
• Long dry winters, dust storms erode fertile loam(type of brittle soil with some sand, silt, clay) soil
• Early or late frosts were a great concern for farmers
Volcanic Activity
• Some volcanoes active since formation
• Eruption of Xitla buried an entire city twice such that only remains of the city are building tops
• Tuff: fine particle (<2mm) element of pyroclastic (fragments originiating from volcanic origin) processes that when deposited turn fertile areas into wastelands
Highland Vegetation Types
• Central Mexican highlands are arid, therefore much of area is covered with xerophytic (plant adapted for growth under dry conditions) shrub land
• Cloud forest 1500 masl in Sierra Madre Occidental
o Species rich
o Liquidambar: Most common cloud forest taxa
• Ecosystem sensitive to human disturbance and climate change
• Below 1300masl cloudforest changes into tropical rainforest
• Above 2000masl cloud forest changes into Pinus Quercus forest
Olmec (1200-900BC)
• Olmec region includes present day Vera Cruz
• Climate is hot, humid.
• Land is inundated on west and has marshes in the east
• Ideal climate for rubber trees.
• Olmec: “The People of Rubber”
La Venta
• most important Olmec site
• Constructed 1100BC, climax 800BC, destroyed, smashed, and burned 500-100BC
San Lorenzo
• Important city-center
• Construction of elaborate drainage system, first in New World
• Part of drainage system built into hillside ridge
• Drains made of U shaped stones placed end to end buried within trenches
• Irrigation system require people to move heavy rocks long distances without draft animals
Olmec Agriculture
• Mostly maize
• soil relatively fertile (in high locations)
• 2 crops per year possible
• Soil became exhausted (infertile) quickly, thus could only support small population
• Crop production limited by heavy rain during wet season (floods, and soil turned into clay)
• Clay is poor in nutrients
• Best agricultural land is narrow string beside rivers. Soil has layer of silt carried from mountain
Valley of Oaxaca
• Ecological zones diverse
• Flat valley floor 1500masl
• Small river drain and releave alluvium deposits onto valley floor
• Most arable land in all of central American valleys
• Piedmont: areas are upsloping at margins of flat plateaus and are less fertile than valley floor. Piedmont areas can be cultivated if irrigated though.
Olmec, Jade and Jaguar
• Feline figure meant earth and vital strength and fertility
• Jade was precious to early Mexicans, but also symbol of heart of earth
• “cult of jaguar” . Olmec art had a lot of half human half jaguar things
Monte Alban (600BC-900AD)
• Monte Alban is in central Mexican Altiplano
• Earliest building built before Teotihuacan and traced back to Olmec times
• Low population density
• Civilization zenith 300AD
• No water source at Monte Alban, thus it wasn’t place of permanent habitation
• Not agrarian center but played a role in defense, administrative, and political activities
• Elite/nobles made farmers cultivate piedmont regions so that people would live close to Monte Alban and have to pay taxes
• 900AD Monte Alban decline
Teotihuacan
• Valley of Teotihuacan is a sub valley of Valley of Mexico.
• Valley of Teotihuacan covers 348km2
• Altitude 3000-2250masl
• Mesoamerican Trinity: beans, squash, maize
• Valley of Mexico initially settled by Toltecs who farmed Mesoamerican Trinity
• Irrigation system expanded including underground drainage channels in stone troughs
• Irrigation expansion parralelled rise in city center
• Combination of wide range of environments and varying accesability to water caused settlement hierarchy
• Settlement hierarchy: aggression between centers
• City centre placed above concentration of 80 springs
Early Civilizations of Mexico
Popocateptl and Teotihuacan
• 2000 yrs ago eruption of volcano Popocatepl, same year rise in Teotihuacan population
• Eruption deposited 3.2km3 of pumice
• Lava flowed over 50km2 and left 20-40m of andesitic rock
• Popocateptl has erupted 30 times since 1400
Astronomical Alignment of Teotihuacan
• Temples oriented towards sunrise or sunset on solstices. Mountain peaks = markers horizon
Agriculture and Irrigation
• Soil not fertile except at springs
• Teotihuacan Irrigation system only based on spring water flow
• River San Juan close to city but not much water
• Really arid so farmers used drought tolerant species : Maguey and prickly-pear cactus
• Inhabitants of Teotihuacan had to go far to lake Texcoco to get water
• Wells were ceremonial not functional
Teotihuacan Farmer
• Extreme temperatures days hot nights cold, winter frost often
• Killing frost occurs once every 7 years
Demise of City Centre
• 600 AD city abandoned
• Deforestation and erosion of arable soils
• Conflict with neighbours
• Population size too big for land’s carrying capacity
• City was sacked, burned. Systemic destruction of city centre
Teotihuacan Mythology and Art
• Liked painting murals 450-650AD. There’s one in temple of the sun. Painted on red b.g.
• Drew Tlaloc and people doing stuff with nature too
Valley of Mexico and the Aztecs
Valley of Mexico
• Large elevated basin no closed hydrological unit (ie: no external drainage)
• Floor elevation 2236masl, drainage divide 3000masl, lowest pass 2260masl
• Marshy lagoons from mountain runoff
• Rainy season between may and October. MAP 450-1000 mm
The Aztecs
• 1200AD emerged as tribe
• All arable land in valley of mexico occupied, therefore met with resistence
• Forced to settle in cattail marshes in shallow lake of Texicoco
• 1300-1500 AD Aztecs drained large areas of valley of Mexico to create arable land
• Tenochtitlan capital city on island
• Water level. Had five lake system.
• Built levy-dykes to prevent flooding and water damage to Tenochtitlan
• Southern lakes higher + less brackish
Aztec Chinampas
• Aztec developed floating gardens to expand farming land
1. Dredged canals from marshy soil to chinampas
2. Frame of gardens were made with woven baskets and lined with stones to help drainage
3. Filled with dredged material like leaves, mud, fertile soil, feces, and humus
4. Towed to desired location and anchored
5. Tree roots would grow into them strengthening further
Raised Feild Agriculture
• Also had raised fields.
• Parallel canals dredged, material from that put on top of adjacent land
• Plots of raised land planted with Mesoamerican trinity
• Some supported 2 harvest/ year
• Soil fertile because of constant dredging
• Canals used for transportation
• Houses connected via causeways
Tenochtitlan City planning
• Travel thorugh Tenoctitlan by roadways with temples, pyramids and latrines on side
• Personal dwellings accessed by tree trunk canoes through dredged canals
• 4 causeways into city. Good defense
• Causeways
1. Communication. Travel and trade
2. Water level control
3. Drinking water transported with ceramic pipes
4. Fountains
Aztecs and Cacao
• 600BC cacao ritual food, second to maize
• Popular because of taste/smell, medicianal / antioxidant compounds
• To grow needs
1. Well drained soils
2. Adequate to high rainfall
3. Protection from sun (shade tolerant plant)
• Classic period cacao was grown along Pacific coastline and W edge of Tabasco and Veracruz (Olmec)
• Cacao used as currency across Mesoamerica because it was really rare
• Ripe beans susceptible to herbivory
Aztecs and Vanilla
• Pre Columbian time vanilla gathered and not cultivated
• Vanilla not listed as cash crop by Aztec docs
• Vanilla Planifolia, rare +tastey perennial climbing vine.
• Grows in humid evergreen forests in Mesoamerica
• Found on karst substres between 250-750masl, gets more than 250 cm /year of rain
• Aztec sent messangers to tropical coast to ask for plants with roots of vanilla orchid
• Fermented vanilla pods: has stimulants like cafine
Aztecs and Feathers
• Feathers used as tribute for Aztecs
• Mostly from cloud forest
• Quetzal most common and prettiest bird for feather collecting
• Yearly harvest of quetzal 620 birds (31,000 feathers)
• Feather weaving = est. craft
• Myth god Questzecoatl
Aztec Warring Rites
• Rainfall was unpredictable in C. Mexico
• Farmers prayed to gods for April rain after seeds sown, and no rain after Aug
Tlaloc
• Tlaloc rain God of Aztecs. Only appeased with human blood and beating heart
• Prisoners from war were best sacrificial victims
• If Aztec it was an honour to be sacrificed to him.
• Aztecs thought they’d have a good harvest if they were in war (more sacrifices)
Aztec and Jade
• Jade refers to jadeite and nephrite.
• Jadeite = hardest, used by Olmec. Used it to make life like figurines en mass
• Jade carved with stone utensils, needed skilled craftsmen, diff. Finishing things, drills etc.
• Aztec word for jade means “precious”
• Jade bead put in mouth of dead before burial
• May have been used as currency
• Jade artifacts = most abundant tribute in Mesoamerica
• Jade = limited raw material from mountains of Guatemala
Sunflowers
• 2600BC sunflower pollen used.
• Mostly grown by Aztecs for ornamental plant, seeds as food, oil seed
Agave
• Fibres 60-100cm in length, colourfast, good for thermal insulation, flame resistant, hydroscopic
• Concentrated resin of maguey (agave sap) used to treat wounds by Aztecs
• Maguey inhibits growth of pus-forming infections like Staphylococus aureus
• Aztec combined sap with salt for better healing effect
Cotton
• In Mesoamerica cotton is grown in dry areas. Important for trade
• Cotton comes from several plants from the “mallow” family, has fluff filled pods
• Cotton is native to subtropical America
• Aztecs/Incans spun short strong cotton fibres into threads
Tropical Rainforests and the Maya
Biology of the Tropical Rain Forest
Rainforest Vegetation
• diverese ecosystem, lots of insects birds animals plants
• photosynthesis rate is high because lots of rain and water
Rainforest Structure
• Emergants: bigger than 50 m tall. >50m. Have buttress roots
• Canopy: dense layer forming almost complete cover with 20-30 m tall trees
• Under canopy: dark humid. Saplings and tree truncks
• Shrub layer: small trees and shrubs. Lots near river
• Forest Floor: coverend with ferns and deep litter.
Rainforest Understorey
• Understory difficult ot traverse because
1. Thick herbaceous layer. Has shade tolerant plants
2. Trunks of big trees have large buttresses
Butresses
• Extra roots which anchor tree + give it strenghth
• Triangles of solid wood at about breast height
Lianas
• Tropical woody vines that go around trees. They support them as they mature.
• Lots in understory
• Twine up trees to get closer to light.
• Can be bigger than 25 cm in diameter
Epiphytes
• Lots. No roots. Rely only on moisture in air to provide water and nutrients for their growth
• Bromiliads and Orchids are ex.
• Lower canopy has moist microclimate. Epiphytes like that
Geography and Climate
Mayan Territoies
• Guatamalan Highlands
• Mayan Heartland (lowlands)
• Yucatan Peninsula
•
Mayan Highlands
• Volcanic mountains
• Temperature cool
• Lots of Pinus Quercus
• Fertile soils because of wind and erosion in past
• Lots of rain.
• Non irrigation farming possible for maya
Central Mayan Lowlands
• Few rivers on Guatamalan Peten. Water escpaes into underlying (porous) limestone (KARST)
• Seasonal wetlands(bajos), rainforest vegetation, scrubforest, and grasslands
Northern Lowlands (Yucatan)
• Rocky limestone, loose gravel
• Layer of soil on top of limestone
• Driest areas only have scrub and succulents (sisal and agave plants)
• Bedrock is very porous. Causes little to no rivers on land surface
Coastal Wetlands
• Maya were where modern Veracruz and Tabasco are.
• Covered with lush vegetation, swamps, quagmires, coastal bayous, creeks and rivers
• Ideal climate for growing cacao. Only grew cacao
Climate
• Stong precipitation gradiant
• NW and NE Yucatan had defecit in water
• NW = driest
• MAT 25 degrees C.
• Rainy season may-sept
• Dry season oct-aprl
Vegetaion
• NW base of Yucatan Peninsula has rolling hills of forests and few rivers
Water Storage
Cenotes
• Sophisticated irrigation.
• Rain infiltrated into cenotes
• In someplaces cenotes drinkable in some it was mixed with sea water
• To prevent loss from evaporation used underground cisterns
• Centos water proofed with plaster and also caped to prevent evaoportation
• Chultunes: reversvoirs created to transport and store fresh water. Stone lined
• Chultunes used to store dry things like garbage and dead people in area where there were lots of cenotes
Irrigation network
• Rainy season water collected from roofs and drain into run off channels that led to centralized water storage
• One canal was 1.6 km long. 30 m wide, 3m deep
• Channels and breakways were used to control floods\
• Farmers planted crops close to possible wells because water transported by hand
• Aqueduct system running beneath city of Panenque
• Widespread plumbing
• Use of sweat baths
• Steam baths at Tikal and Chichen Itza
Tropical Rainforests and the Maya
Agriculutre
Maya and Milpa farming
• Sidden agriculture, slash and burn, aka. Milpa
• Clearing small section of forest with stone axes in dry season Dec –Jan
• Mar april site burnt to release nutrients into soil
• May jun seeds planted in burnt field
• Field not cultivated or turned over. Diggiing stick used to poke hole to put seed in
• No draft animals no plough
• No metal
• Weeds were a probem
• Field weeded per growing season / more
• Harvest in autumn
• Soil deforested becomes depleted of nutrients and eventally there are too many weeds.
• Land is then abandoned and a new milpa field is made
• Milpa sites used for 3 years then left to fallow
• Limitations to milpa farming
1. Decline in soil fertility
2. Potential soil erosion
3. Availability of land decreases
• Food first brought to temples to be stored/ redistributed
• Surplus food production leads to road building, palaces, temples, irrigation networks
• No wars waged during planting season as maize came first
Other forms of Agriculture
• Terracing on hillsides to prevent soil erosion
• Raised field agriculture with channaling wet areas to drian water and planting on elevated surface
• Kitchen gardens. People planted personal gardens outside house. Had avocado papaya sunflower RAMON tree
• Cultivation of bajos, ie: seasonal swamplands to get extra land for agriculture
Bajos Agriculture
• 250 AD bajos (large karst depressions) were perennial wetlands
• Permanent bajos better than seasonal swamps
• 40-60% of land covered by bajos
• Bajos on coast were low (1-20masl) and spring fed
• Perennial surface water rare in upland bajos (120-300 masl)
• Tikal planted corozal plam (had food oil)
• Tikal planted pital bajos (palm speciaes) used to make cords
Drought and Crop Failure
• Corn fields dried up and soil = hard
• They had to rely on house gardens
• Drought came with hungary locusts.
Yucatan Wetlands
• 100BC -450 AD Maya were
1. Using wetlands NE of Yucatan
2. Using soil and algae from wetlands to fertilize upland soil
3. Cultivating lots of trees “tree cropping”
• Seasonal wetlands grew depending on water table
• Edible wetaland resources
1. Typha (cattails)
2. Tasiste palm
3. Apple snails
Periphyton
• Conoly of algae, fungus, bacteria that form a living mat that is cm thick
• Renewable source of fertilizer
Wetland (Veracruz) Agriculure
• Role of canals in patterened wetlands of Veracruz mexico.
1. Used for transporting cargo + people
2. Defense mechanism
3. Helped drain water in seasonal flooding
4. Water storage if canal tipped toward a depression in a wetland
• 100-300AD cotton cultivated in saline marshlands
• 300-700AD full use of wetlands involving raised fields
• 700-100AD use of wetlands decreased
• They did not use causeways, dams, or weirs
• Worse at using water than the Aztecs with their chinapas
• High wetland areas dried out
• Low wetland areas flooded with rainfall
• Always some territory to farm with when there is variable topography
Major City Centres
Clasic Mayan Civilisation
• Mayan culture originated around 2600BC
• Prominence 300-900 AD
• Central Mayan lowlands considered Mayan Heartland
• Region on pleatau of limestone in Guatamalan rainforest
• Population of 3,000,000 by 800 AD
• Clasic period ended 900AD
1. Populations in south forest city centres decreased
2. Ceremonial centres unused
3. Few new buildings made
Post Classic Mayan Civ (1000-1500AD)
• People emigarated to N of Yucatan.
• Mayan Renaissance; Mayans flourished
• Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Tulum: places of cultural activity during post classic
Tikal
• Deep Guatamala rainforest sitting on large limestone outcrop
• Earliest centres = largest
• 600-800AD Tikal population grew to 60,000
• Sourunded by forest of ceder, mahogany, plams, and strangler figs
• Lots of monuments towering over rainforest canopy
• Suffered from drought even though it was in rainforest
• Enormous reservoir dug up into natural depression (ravine) in middle of city
Copan
• Second largest of Mayan cities most southern of Mayan sites. Lies at 600masl
• Acropolis Copan look over shore of Copan River
• Connected to other cities by road and sea
Chichen Itza
• Sits on flat plain in N Yucatan
• Important post classic centre
• 2 large wells, one for storing water and one for ceremonial human sacrifice (sacred Cenote)
• Chichen itza biggest trade centre
• Prominent role in 432AD, 964AD, 1194AD
Uxmal
• Built on low hills and limestone ridges
• Soil rich and fertile
• Rain reliable
• Rain water collected from rooftops to be stored in underground cisterns
• Cisterns alone kept 6000 people with drinking water for 1 yr
Palenque
• Classic city sitting at 300 masl in Chiapas forest
• Located along fresh water river
• No direct trade route to Copan because cities were separated by mountains, big rivers , etc.
• Corbelled arch sewer at Panelque
• 900AD city abandoned
Mayan Home Gardens
Canistel
• Native to Yucatan Peninsula grown in home gardens since early Mayan times
• Wind resistant and sandy/limestone soil tolerant
• Canistel (Pouteria campechiana) is rich in vitamin C, calcium, minerals, low in fat
Chayote (Sechium edule)
• Important vegetable in Mesoamerica
• All of the plant can be eaten (Roots, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seed)
Chaya (vegetable)
• Domesticated leaf green vegetable important to people who lived in ancient Yucatan
• Used for food and for medicinal purposes
• Valued because: easy to cultivate, productivity, substantial nutritional value
• Chaya was used as a living fence or ornamental plant up to 6m in height
• Big leaves, milky sap
• Few grown in milpa, mostly home garden grown
Columnar Cacti
• Common name “prickly pear” (Stenocereus pruinosus)
• Eaten in earliest phases of human occupation in Mexico (it was arid)
• Used as: food-fruit, building material, fodder, living fences, fuel.
• Spines where used as needles, forest cleared for maize cacti left intentionally
• Cultivated in home gardens
Bee-Keeping
• Wild honey gathered in woods or beehives of stingless bees kept in kitchen gardens
• Hives set underhatched roof
• Honey was thin, delicate, prized as trade item
Plant Fibres
Yuccas
• Yuccas are part of lily family but shrubsized
• 12 species, Joshua tree is the largest
Sisal
• Sisal is regenerating raw material extracted from leaves of Agave sisalana in Mexico
• Pulp is pressed and rinsed with water then dried
• Sisal grows in dry N Yucatan region
• Fibers woven to make strong ropes used to move heave rocks
• Used to make woven bags, nets, kiklts, baskets, mats
• Mayans known to clear Yucatan scrub forest to plant spiky henequen (sisal)
Mayan Paper
• Paper made from fibres of Ficus tree.
• Bark pulled off tree, inner fibres removed and pounded flat with hammer (stone)
• Fibres then soaked in water to soften and remove tree sap, pulp removed then stretched thin.
• Tree bark coated with lim paste and folded like accordion (Mayan codices)
• First book 889AD
• Spanish burned all but 3 Mayan codices
Maya and Trees
• Maya believed in the rebirth of their ancestors as trees. Houses sourounded by trees
Sacred Tree of Maya
• Maya viewed the world itself as a sacred tree
o Roots extended into underworld
o Canopy reached toward the gods
• Worshipped tree as symbol of abundance and everlasting life
• Ceiba 1/5 trees worshiped by the Maya. Always the centre tree sourounded by the four other sacred trees (representing N, E, S, W)
• Flowers of Ceiba tree drawn in Maya art
• Today tree represents life, strength, perpetuity, grandness, beauty, kindness, union
White Water Lily (Biology)
• Latin name Nympaea ampla
• Susceptible to pollution and sudden changes in waterflow. Prefers quiet wetlands
• Big leaves 10-45cm wide green on top, purple under
• Flowers open in morning, fragrent, pollinated by bees and stingless bees
• Eventually flower wilts, submerges and then becomes fruit
• Considered sacred by Maya
• All plants produce hallucinagentic effects if eaten
Dragon Flower
• Dragon flower (fruit) from cactaceae family
• If eaten produces hallucinogenic affects
• Flowers available between Jun and oct
• Important chemicals of Dragonflower: apomorphine and nuciferine.
Jicara Tree and Reincarnation
• Aka morro tree
• Associated with the reincarnation myth (head of nobleman put in jicara tree, they are reincarnated)
Mayan Rain god Chac
• Chac prevalent in Mayan sculpture, art, and architechture
• Chac only satisfied by human blood and beating hearts
• “chosen one” was painted blue to indicated they were to be sacrificed
• Referenenced 218 times in 3 Mayan codices (books)
• Mayan ancestors still perform rain ceremony at the end of the dry season in may
Sacred Cenote (Maya)
• Ceremonial cenote at ChichenItza.
• 60m in diameter, 10 m in depth
• 15m of detritus accumulated over years
• Sacrificial offereing made to Chac + other gods at Cenotes
• Remains of human skeletons found at bottom of cenotes as sacrifices.
• Centote human sacrifice would be thrown in and would die of dehydration
Human Traficking by Maya
• male slaves: crop preparation, weeding, cargo carriers, paddlers done
• Female slaves: ground maize, drew water, dyed cloth
• Slaves were born into servitude or captured during war.
• One could buy themselves out of servitude
Yum Caax
• Yum Caax was the personification of maize and god of agriculture and nature
• Yum Caax mean “Lord of Woods”
Cacao Mayan Mythology
• Cacao represented a relationship with human sacrifice, rebirth to cacao tree after death
Introductino to Plant Biology
Plant Anatomy
• Roots: axial tissue (underground). Absorbs water and nutrients and anchors plan to ground
• Stem: axial tissue above ground. Makes plant stand upright
• Node: part of stem where one or more leaves are attached
• Internode: part of stem between two successive nodes
• Leaf: specialized tissue. Has cholorplasts, pigments where photosynthesis occurs
[photosynthesis: conversion of solar into chemical energy]
Flowers
• Reproductive structure of angiosperms. Has one stamen (produces pollen [anther and filament]) or one carpel ( protects ovules [stigma and ovary])
Fruit and Seeds
• Pericarp: provides protection
• Seed: formed by maturation of ovule following fertilization
Herbaceous Plants
• Classification based on number of seeds in the cotyledon
• Vascular bundles are made of phloem and xylem (transport of sugars and manufactured nutrients)
Conducting Tissues
• Xylem: conducts water and salts from roots to leaves
• Phloem: transports sugars and manufactured nutriensts to different parts of the plant
Plant Tissues
• Sclerenchyma Tissue: thick walled often lignified secondary walls (incl. Fibres and sclereids)
• Lignin: provides structure, protects. Thickening in tissue can be caused by lignin
Woody Plants
• Plants with stems which have woody tissue
• Trunk: woody stem.
• Bole: longitudinal portion of trunk
• Crown: leafy aboveground portion of tree
Woody Stems
• Pith: tissue occupying centre of stem or root
• Heartwood: non living dark wood. No waterfransport
• Sapwood: outer part of wood and stem. Lighter in colour than bark. Conducts water
Tree Species Used by MesoAmericans
Fruit Trees
Avacado Tree
• Scavenged by hunters in Mesoamerica
• 4500-2000 BC climate was drier and avocado rare
• Cultivation in forest gardens
• Avocado’s different in N and S because of
o Day length
o Seasonality
o Habitat
o Disease
• Olmecs first to domesticate and distribute avocado with trade network
• Avocado spread into Honduras (Mayan territory) and Central and South America
• Avacado given to Aztecs as tribute
• Aztec thought avocado medicinal
• Avocado one of first trees domesticated in Neotropics
Cashew
• Fuit is edible
• Nut used to flavour drinks
• Nut used medicinally sometimes
• Nut used as ink
• Bark used as glue
Hogplum (Spondias pupurea)
• Hogplum, aka. Jacote or red purple mombin
• Native habitat in tropical dry forest but it’s found in less seasonal habitats now
• Plum-like fruit. Can make into drink or jam/ eat raw
• Some orchards but most planted in home gardens
• Propogatted vegetatviely
• Bark has medicinal value
Guava
• Fruit is eaten
• Wood burnt for fuel
• Leaves used medicinally
Wood Resins
Resin Ducts
• Resin duct found in bark of tree
• Secretes resin in response to an injury
• Resin ducts are large intercellular spaces lined with parenchyma cells which secrete resin
• Wounding, pressure, injuries from frost or wind, all simulate formation of resin ducts to conifers to promote healing and prevent desiccation
• Resin also used by tree to repel insects, to deter vertebrate herbivory and to inhibit growth of bacteria and fungi
• Resin refered to as the following depending on ultimate use
1. Gums (incense)
2. Latexes (adesvie)
3. Copals (varnishes)
Sapodilla Tree
• Sapodilla tree is a source of chicle for chewing gum and for raw material for carving
• Sapodilla latex is collected during the rainy season
• The maya boiled, molded, ground, melted, and flavoured chicle
Liquidambar (Sweetgum)
• In Mesoamerica. Liquidambar styraciflua trees make resin that is used in perfumes and adhesives
• Aztecs harvested resin and transported other raw materials from the Sweetgum tree/liquidamber
• Liquidambar is regularly observed on Aztec tribute lists
Copal Resins
• Copal resins were from a variety of species like Pinus Protium and Bursera
• Copal Resins are mostly used for artwork
• Resins can be dyed with hematite and used decoratively
Copal Tree
• Copal trees grew wild in the lowlands with lots in groups in the Yucatan
• One of the sacred trees worshipped by the Maya
• Resin of copal trees was burned as incense in mayan temples
• Cakes of copal (dark, amber coloured substance) were used in artwork and to decorate turquoise mosaics
• Molded into the shape of a heart and used in sacrificial ceremonies
Introduction to Plant Biology
Oleoresins
• Oleoresins are fragrant come from the torchwood and legume families and are used as incense
• Protium copal (Guatamalan incense) and Bursera simaruba were used by the maya
• Oleoresins have volatile essential oils and non voilitile resins. They can be used in perfume, incense and medicine
Balsams
• Balsam fir trees produce “juvenile hormones” that interfere with insects life cycle.
• Used as insecticide
Amber
• Chiapas Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil resin globs (Hymenaea protera) can be found underground after chemically transforming over millions of years
• Amber is resistant to natural decay and isn’t altered by organic solvents like alcohol or acetone.
Essential Oils
• Oleoresins (small compounds) are volatile at room temperature.
• These essential oils are found in flowers, fruits and leaves
• Essential oils repel fungi and harmful insects and have a sweet fragrance to attract pollinators
• Oils found in citrus peels are effective as insect repellent
Balche Tree
• pounded Bark was soaked in fermented honey and water, sometimes with maize and tree roots
• This concoction produced a mildly intoxicating beverage.
• Balche was often at the center of important maya ceremonies
• If there wasn’t enough bark they’d use the leaves
Wood Gums
• Sometimes resins are described as gums but they are chemically different
• Gums are complex polysaccharides made of lots of sugar sub-units
Lignum Vitae
• Lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) called “wood of life” because of its medicinal properties
• All parts of tree valuable
1. Heavy dense wood that could be used for construction (ironwood)
2. Resin (called guaiacum) gotton frorm the wood by distillation which treats weakness
Rubber Trees
• Found in concentrated groves + individually in Mesoamerica.
• Can be used to make rubber balls and rain proofing for capes
• Important item for tradeitem from lowland to highland cities
• Aztecs used orchid gums to attach cotton and paper backings to make pretty mosaics
• Kids’ job to make gum
Wood Fibres
Fibres
• Cells that line phloemsylem to give conducting tube strength and resilience
• Cellulose: most abundant carbohydrate, provides structure to cell wall
• Lignin: found in secondary wall of vascular plants (not all walls contain lignin). 2nd most abundant
Ceiba Tree
• Guatamala. Ceiba treea between 0-1000masl
• Deciduous tree, sheds leaves in the dry season, flowers before leaves appear
• After pollination flower matures into oval capsules aka “kapok”
Kapok Fibres
• When open, kapok release silk fibres and small oily seeds, makes “kapok silk”
• Kapok isn’t absorbant and doesn’t conduct heat; therefore made good cold weather clothes
• Modern: commercial demand for wool replacement
• Wood is light and makes canoes, carved wood , paper
• Seeds used for oil production, eating, soap making
• Grind left over seeds to make paste to feed to livestock
• Wood used as Tinder
• Ceiba tree hosted large # of epiphytes
Balsa Tree
• Balsa forests grow in Euador and Peruvian eastern flanks of the Andes
• Hollowed out dried used as canoe
Mahogany
• Most Important for timber for world trade
• Deciduous tree broad “emergent” crown can be as tall as 40 m or 2m dbh (diameter breast height)
• Found in both wet and dry forests (rainfall 1000-2500mm)
• Harvested by mayans for timber and canoe building, caused deforestation and planting cycle 1-1300AD
• Tress have little genetic diversity where there were high mayan populations
• Mahogany left with inferior triats
Multipurpose Trees
Palm Tree Species
• Palm tree leaves used for roof thatch, fire fans, baskets and raincoats
• Palm tree fruit eaten
• Trunks used as building material
Pine Trees
• Pine tree needles distilled to make scented oil for soap and perfumes
• Nuts of pinyon pine trees eaten
• Tannins were taken ffrmo the back to tan leather trunks used to construct things
• Gums and resins used as a source of turpentine (solvent) and to make soaps and inks
• Seed crop of pinyon pine was valuable as staple food (eaten raw or as flour)
• Pine needles steeped to make tea and incense from crushed cones
Ramon (Breadnut) Tree
• Ramon (breadnut) treess found in moist wet forests ascending to only 1000 masl, often found at 300 masl
• Tree produces fruit only 1 per year during rain season
• Used as forage (food for animals)
• Pulp of fruit was edible
• Seeds are nutritious if boiled
• Seed can be dried, or ground to make flour for tortias
• Wood used for construction
• Groves of Ramon Breadnut trees called “ramonales”
Nance
• Slow growing topical (sub tropical) shrub or tree 10m
• Native and abundant in wild.
• Medicinal uses: headaches, snake bites, pulmonary afflictions
• Central + S America, tree at 0-1800masl
• Drought tolerant
• Wood used for construction
• Fruit could be eaten raw, cooked to make dessert and to make acid, oily, fermented beverage “chicha”
• Chicha can mean any beer like drink made from fruit or maize
Mamey
• Wild fruit, edible
• Pulverized seeds used for insecticide
• Added to drink to treat infections
Incan Tree Crops
• Mallqui: cultivated tree
• Sacha: wild tree
• Forests state property, any people damaging forest punished (some to death)
• Logs gilded to appear as if solid gold, also for gifts
Molle Tree
• Spanish arrived they cut down most of molle forest (Schinus molle)
• Good source of coal
• Aka pepper tree because smells like pepper
• Native to Andes
• Berries used to spice intoxicating beverage
Huarango Tree
• Hard grained tree used by Incans for timber and building posts
• Nazca aqueducts made of stone and huarango
• Peruvian civilizations called the Huarango tree the “tree of life”. It was important to them
1. Survives high desert winds
2. Stabilizes soil
3. Provides forage for livestock
4. Shelter from sun
5. Supplies food (edible bean pods made into flour and syrup or eaten fresh from tree
• One of hardest woods in world
• Chopping huarango tree was hard with an axe
• When forest cut down it causes desertification
Quenua (Polyepis spp.)
• Form the highest elevation forests on earth. Greater than 4800masl (>4800masl)
• Gnarled twisty trunks from wind
• Forests with these Form mossy woodlands and home to several weird bird speices
• Woodlands had resources for fuel and cooking and heating
Alnus Agroforestry
• Alnus acuminate may have been planted with food crops
• Buddleja spp planted by hand and used as timber for building housees
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa)
• Cultivated for more than 5000 years
• Light small seeds rich in protein and nutrients; e.g. calcium, iron, essential amino acid, lysine
• Adapted to grow in cold dry Altiplano (high Andean climate)
• Sacred to Incas
• Less popular after Spanish conquest (cultivation was prohibited by Spaniards)
Rocks
Obsidian
• Aka volcanic glass. Made under extremely high temperatures in volcanic regions
• Necessity if metal tools/weapons not available
• Volcanic glass, very hard and filed to shap cutting edge
• Obsidian blades were attached to wooden handles with the Aztecs
• Used in Aztec ceremonial blood letting.
• Beginning of trade with the Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan had 4 obsidian worksops
• 350-650AD Teotihuacan had 400 obsidian workshops
• Teotihuacan especially liked green obsidian from Pachuca
• Initially open pit mines were place to get obsidian
• Weathering made obsidian over time break apart into easier sizes
• Lots in Central America
• Mesoamerican sources for obsidian are
1. Green obsidian of Pachuca
2. Grey obsidian from Otumba
3. Obsidian from Kaminaljuyu
• Pachuca source was in Sierra Las Navajas (near Hidalgo Mexico)
• Pachuca prized because of distinct green colour
• Colours unique due to combination of composition, temperature , gas concentration during magma melting process
• Pachuca obsidian crystal free, making it good for tools and projectile points
• Pachuca source controlled by Teotihuacan, traded with Tula and Tenochtitlan
