Download Document 2: Floating Gardens

April 12, 2018 | Author: Anonymous | Category: , Science, Earth Science, Soil Science
Share Embed


Short Description

Download Download Document 2: Floating Gardens...

Description

Document 2: Floating Gardens A lack of much tillable soil, a rapidly growing population, as well as the chronic fear of drought forced the Aztecs to be inventive. They made the best use of their island home by growing important food crops such as corn, squash, peppers, and beans right in the water yearround on narrow rectangular floating gardens called chinampas. Flowers were also grown on chinampas for sale in the markets. Chinampas were formed out of layers of twigs and branches, as well as mud and muck gathered from the lagoon surrounding Tenochtitlan. These floating rafts of dirt were held in place by walls of basketwork. Trees were planted along the edges of the chinampas to help retain the soil. Human manure gathered from the city and transported to the chinampas by canoe was used as fertilizer. As the Aztecs did not have farm animals such as horses or oxen and no carts or ploughs, their only farming tool was a simple digging stick which they used for both digging and weeding. The digging stick had a long handle that ended in a blade.

Source: Unknown modern artist

Source: Drawing from the Aztec Manuscript Matricula de Tributos, circa 1542. The left side of each chinampa shows the farmer's house and the owner's name in a glyph. The footprints represent the foot path. The rows grew corn, squash,beans and flowers. The canal has a water symbol next to footpath.

View more...

Comments

Copyright © 2017 HUGEPDF Inc.