Why go
Agriculture explains the scale of Maya urban life beyond Chichen Itza’s stone monuments. Knowing the difference between staple crops and prestige crops makes the city’s wider economy easier to picture, while the range of farming methods cautions against imagining one uniform Maya landscape.
The full story
Maize, beans and squash were central to ancient Maya food production. Gardens and forests supplied other plants, while farming methods varied by terrain, water and period. Shifting cultivation cleared land for a time, but it was only one method. Archaeological and environmental studies also point to permanent raised fields linked by canals, terraces, intensive gardens, forest gardens and managed fallows in parts of the Maya region. Their relative importance differed from place to place; the evidence does not imply that each system was used at Chichen Itza. Pollen in lake sediments associates maize, manioc, sunflower seeds and cotton with landscape change in Mesoamerica from at least 2500 BC. Aerial photographs reveal traces of some raised-field systems, and the abundance of useful tree species in former population centers suggests long-term woodland management. At Joya de Cerén, in present-day El Salvador, a volcanic eruption preserved household stores that included chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were being ground, perhaps for oil. Cotton, cacao and vanilla had uses beyond basic subsistence. Cacao could be made into a valued drink, especially among elites; spun, dyed and woven cotton became tradeable cloth. Animal foods also mattered. Dogs were kept and used for hunting, Muscovy ducks were domesticated by the Late Postclassic, and wild ocellated turkeys could be penned for fattening. Evidence that deer were similarly penned is less certain.