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Land Use in the Environs of Monte Alban and Mitla

1. Agriculture

If there existed a single general land use at Monte Alban prior to its discovery it was agriculture. In photographs taken shortly before exploration of the main plaza one can see clearly how the soil of the sunken area of the plaza as well as the tops of some of the mounds and platforms had been prepared to serve as cropland. During the 1930s, as we have seen, the city of Oaxaca was still far from jumping the natural boundary of the Atoyac River, and the communities surrounding the present archaeological zone were still small settlements.

Agriculture at Monte Alban has always been seasonal on thin, steep soils, with the exception of a few topographically favorable areas which in many cases coincide with the monumental structures. During the pre-Columbian era the problem of slope eroison was resolved by building terraces to facilitate cultivation, as these retained sufficient soil and moisture to assure adequate and predictable production. In more recent times farmers have concentrated their efforts on areas with better, deeper soils for farming, practically abandoning the hillsides where a substantial investment of labor was no guarantee of production.

Traditional agricultural practices, i.e., seasonal, manual cultivation, has been compatible with the archaeological zone, as they did not affect the deeper soil strata. With the initiation of exploration at Monte Alban only the central plaza was declared off-limits to farming, resulting in an agricultural landscape surrounding the zone which provided continued protection. But even so these practices began to have an effect on archaeological resources, as in the twenty years after exploration began at Monte Alban farmers working nearby lands uncovered a number of pre-Columbian tombs in the process of plowing or other minor excavation related to agriculture. In general, however, for many years they maintained a stable, uniform land use surrounding the zone.

Unfortunately over time agricultural activity on the slopes of Monte Alban has gradually declined, and is now limited to those areas offering the best soils and moisture. On the other hand the urban spread of the city of Oaxaca has to an alarming degree displaced agriculture in favor of residential use, or under the best of circumstances to lands being left idle. In Santa Maria Atzompa agriculture is still practiced in small isolated patches on the middle and lower slopes of the Cerro de Atzompa, around the Cerro del Gallo, to a small degree in the Cañada, and on a few plots on the middle slopes of Monte Alban, where they overlay an area with a high density of archaeological remains. Atzompa's agricultural lands within the Monte Alban boundary amount to about 5 percent of its total supply (Figure 33). To the west agricultural use by San Pedro Ixtlahuaca is much higher, with about 35 percent of of its seasonal agricultural land within the boundary (Figure 34). Its location on the west side of Monte Alban makes it less subject to the urban uses found on the east side adjacent to the city of Oaxaca.

Figure 33.—Monte Alban. Land use in Santa María Atzompa, 1995.

Figure 34.—Monte Alban. Land use in San Pedro Ixtlahuaca, 1995.

In the municipality of Xoxocatlan agriculture is in sharp decline, as ejido lands are subdivided and sold for residential use. There is still some modest production on communal lands and a few private parcels. In general terms about 15 percent of Xoxocatlan's land within the boundary are still farmed, but this use diminishes almost daily through subdivision and the formation of new urban neighborhoods (Figure 35). In the city of Oaxaca the only remaining agriculture adjacent to Monte Alban is on small plots in San Martin Mexicapam. About 25 percent of this agricultural land lies inside the archaeological zone boundary, and much of it is rich in artifacts (Figure 36). A generation ago agriculture was an important feature of the Monte Alban landscape, but it has now given way to less compatible uses.

Figure 35.—Monte Alban. Land use in Santa Maria Xoxocotlan, 1995.

Figure 36.—Monte Alban. Land use in the Municipality of Oaxaca, 1995.

In the case of Mitla, agriculture within the boundary of the archaeological zone has been a minor element in a variety of economic activities undertaken within urban households. That is, traditionally part of the compound of each home has been used to plant corn, beans, squash, herbs, flowers and fruit trees, essentially complementing craft production and/or commercial activities. In spite of an arid landscape consisting largely of abandoned agricultural lands surrounding the urban part of contemporary Mitla, Parsons tells us how in 1931 Mitla was still self-sufficient in the production of corn, beans, and squash, with fields of peas, alfalfa, maguey, castor beans, and cactus such as nopal and pitaya raised for human use (Parsons 1936: 51). Even then, however, most cultivation took place on lands more distant from the archaeological zone, on the riverbanks where farmers planted alfalfa, carrizo, and early corn, or on some distant hillsides where there were some modest small-scale irrigation systems. In town household plots, usually under the care of women or children, made small contributions to the family economy. Today older informants estimate that less than 25 percent of the household plots which existed in 1975 are still in production.

Currently agriculture has a minimal importance among the economic activities of the community. Within the archaeological zone less than one percent of the land is still considered agricultural, and most of that is idle (Figure 37). Little land is cultivated, except by a few older men still willing to work it for the pittance it produces. Males in the work force find employment in commerce and services, as laborers, or they "go north", a term locally understood to mean they go to the United States as undocumented workers or, more likely, they go to Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan to sell handicrafts on the beach.

Figure 37.—Mitla. Land use in the area of the monumental structures, 1995.

It is clear that in a relatively short time agricultural activity around these two archaeological zones has essentially collapsed. Changes in land use or its abandonment attenuates the sense of connection or identification its previous users might have had with the surroundings of the archaeological zones. On the other hand, it also means that for most alternative uses the owner is likely to seek authorization for construction which requires deeper penetration of the subsoil, thereby increasing the potential for damaging archaeological remains.