Vestiges of Prehispanic, Sloping-Field Terraces on the Piedmont of Central Veracruz, Mexico

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Abstract
Some prominent Mesoamericanists long considered lowland central Veracruz to have been agriculturally unproductive prior to the Totonacs' construction of a canal-irrigation system at Zempoala during the Middle Postclassic period (A. D. 1200-1400). This evaluation reflects a long-standing negative predisposition toward tropical lowlands and a preoccupation with the significance of canal irrigation in the emergence of urban societies. However, an appreciation of mesoenvironments and their ecological interrelations has led to a reevaluation of agriculture in central Veracruz. In wetlands to the south of Zempoala, evidence of canals and planting platforms supporting maize cultivation by A. D. 500 demonstrates that people were intensively cultivating that mesoenvironment by the Classic period (A. D. 1-850). Moreover, vestiges of sloping-field terraces occur throughout some 1,000 km2of piedmont west of those wetlands. Direct evidence for crops and a chronology are still lacking for these latter fields, but ethnohistorical data and plant ecology suggest cotton, maize, agave, and a Prehispanic origin.