Tepetate in the Valley of Mexico∗

One of the dominant surface materials in the Valley of Mexico is called tepetate, a term which sometimes is used simply as a synonym for caliche. The semantic confusion is traced to the Aztec taxonomic system of earth materials in which consistence rather than color is a primary attribute. Thus, a variety of earth materials may be termed tepetate. As a construction material, tepetate has played a major role in the development of modern Mexico. Tepetate is also marginal agricultural land cultivated under population pressure in the absence of better available land. The associated technology seems to have been developed during pre-Conquest times under similar conditions of population pressure, after tepetate was exposed at the surface through previous misuse of land.