Village and field abandonment in post-Conquest Tlaxcala: A geoarchaeological perspective

• Eroded badlands and deserted Colonial villages coincide in space in Tlaxcala.
• Metepantle-style agricultural terraces may be a post-Conquest introduction.
• Post-Conquest alluvium is scarce, colluvium of the same age is ubiquitous.
• 16th C. terrace abandonment was a major proximate cause of tepetate formation.
• Abandonment modified the hydrology of the Zahuapan river after a time lag.

Before Spanish Conquest (1519) Tlaxcala was among the most populous parts of America. Sites of the last prehispanic period recorded by archaeological surface surveys, deserted Colonial villages mentioned in historical documents, and eroded badlands mapped by soil scientists often coincide in space. This is not enough, however, to establish a conclusive relationship between the three datasets, as various plausible causes of the degradation of farmland can be pointed out in any century since Conquest. Long-term land use trajectories must be pieced together in ways that bridge the disciplinary boundaries between archaeological, documentary, and eyewitness observations, which in Mexico have traditionally focused on different centuries. It may be fruitful to approach causality by paying more attention to the different rhythms of historical change. New fieldwork and a critical analysis of previous research in the region stress the importance of the changing morphology of agricultural terraces, and the drainage-wide consequences of their collapse.