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Zapotecs Build Monte Alban the ANCIENT WORLD Great Events from History The Ancient World Prehistory - 476 C.E. Volume 1 c. 25,000 B.C.E. - 312 B.C.E. Editor Mark W. Chavalas University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Consulting Editors Mark S. Aldenderfer, University of California, Santa Barbara Carole A. Barrett, University of Mary Jeffrey W. Dippmann, Central Washington University Christopher Ehret, University of California, Los Angeles Katherine Anne Harper, Loyola M arymount University SALEM PRESS Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey CONTRIBUTORS Amy Ackerberg-Hastings Nicholas Birns Michael Coronel Independent Scholar New School University University of Northern Colorado Richard Adler Jackie R. Booker Patricia Coronel University of Michigan - Dearborn Claflin University Colorado State University J. M. Adovasio Erica Brindley M. Joseph Costelloe Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute University of California, Creighton University Santa Barbara Mark Aldenderfer Antonio Rafael de la Cova University of California, Ben Brose Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Santa Barbara Stanford University David A. Crain Emily Alward David L. Browman South Dakota State University Henderson, NV District Libraries Washington University Thomas I. Crimando Earl R. Andresen Kendall W. Brown SUNY College at Brockport University of Texas at Arlington Brigham Young University LouAnn Faris Culley J ames A. Arieti Daniel C. Browning, Jr. Kansas State University Hampden-Sydney College William Carey College John Coleman Darnell Mary Pat Balkus Jeffrey L. Buller Yale University Radford University Mary Baldwin College Frank Day Carl L. Bankston III Joseph P. Byrne Clemson University Tulane University Belmont University Rene M. Descartes Maryanne Barsotti Jack Carter SUNY, Cobleskill Independent Scholar University of New Orleans M. Casey Diana Rozmeri Basic Cherie C. Castillo University of Illinois at Urbana­ University of Oklahoma University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley Champaign Barbara C. Beattie James T. Chambers Jeffrey W. Dippmann Independent Scholar Texas Christian University Central Washington University Katherine B. Beem Paul J. Chara, Jr. William J. Dominik Independent Scholar Northwestern College University of Otago Tanja Bekhuis Frederick B. Chary Marjorie Donovan TCB Research Indiana University Northwest Pittsburg State University Milton Berman Mark W. Chavalas David Allen Duncan University of Rochester University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Tennessee Wesleyan College Jon L. Berquist David Christiansen Jennifer Eastman Chalice Press Truman State University Clark University Mellissa Betts Douglas Clouatre Samuel K. Eddy Independent Scholar Kennesaw State University Syracuse University Sheena L. Binkley Carl W. Conrad K Edgington Independent Scholar Washington University Towson University xiii Zapotecs Build Monte Alban THE ANCIENT WORLD ligions and mythology of ancient Persia, most notably SEE ALSO: c. 600 B.C.E., Appearance of Zoroastrian Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. Bibliography. Ditheism; 547 B.C.E., Cyrus the Great Founds the Per­ Ulansey, David. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: sian Empire; 520-518 B.C.E., Darius the Great Con­ Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World. New quers the Indus Valley; 520-518 B.C.E., Scylax of York: Oxford University Press, 1989. A scholarly Caryanda Voyages the Indian Ocean. study of the development of mythologies related to RELATED ARTICLES in Great Lives from History: The Mithraism. Bibliography. Ancient World: Cyrus the Great; Zoroaster. C. 500 B.C.E.-C. 700 C.E. ZAPOTECS BUILD MONTE ALBAN Inhabitants of Monte Alban, one of the earliest and ban I, lasted from 500 to 200 B.C.E. The Protoclassic pe­ biggest cities in the Western Hemisphere, pioneered the riod, or Monte Alban II, lasted from 100 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. construction of astronomically oriented public The Classic period, from 200 to 700 C.E., is divided into buildings; the use of adobe, stone masonry, and lime Monte Alban IlIa and Illb. During the city's final phase, plaster; the development of a 260-day ritual calendar; archaeological evidence implies political breakdown and and the carving and painting of hieroglyphs. depletion of resources. In 500 B.C.E., at the end of the Rosario phase, there LOCALE: Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico was a radical change in the Oaxaca Valley. San Jose Mo­ CATEGORIES: Architecture; prehistory and ancient gote, the largest community in the valley for more than cultures eight hundred years, suddenly lost most of its population. SUMMARY OF EVENT This was possibly because of internal conflict. At the Monte Alban, founded by the Zapotecs, was the first and same time, some two thousand inhabitants left their vil­ largest urban center in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, lages on the valley floor to relocate on the slopes of Mon­ reaching an extension of 12 square miles (31 square kilo­ te Alban. Soon afterward, about a dozen communities in meters). The Y-shaped valley is 60 miles long by 15 the valley were established on defensible hilltops with miles wide (97 by 19 kilometers) and is surrounded by walls. forested mountains. It has an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,524 Social stratification developed during Monte Alban I. meters), with little rainfall and a permanent dry condi­ There is no evidence that a supreme ruler existed but tion. The Salado River and its tributaries provide irriga­ rather a privileged class of priests, warriors, rulers, and tion for agriculture. artists controlled other Zapotecs and their labor. A mar­ The entire urban complex, at the summit of a hill ket flourished in Monte Alban, where imported goods 1,320 feet (402 meters) high, covers 45 acres (18 hect­ such as obsidian, pottery, salt, lime, and other items were ares). Outcrops of sedimentary rock provided construc­ bartered. tion material for its many residences, palaces, temples, The first permanent structure constructed during this ball courts, stelae, and other structures. Less than 1 per­ era was Building L, containing the Wall of the Danzan­ cent of the total area has been excavated. The Zapotec tes. The Spanish conquistadors mistakenly believed that name for the metropolis is still unknown. Its current these carvings of naked upright figures represented danc­ name derives from the conquistador Diego Lopez de ers. The wall contains four alternating rows of so-called Monte Alban, who received this area as part of his en­ dancers and swimmers, who appear in smaller rectangu­ comienda (commissioned) territory in the sixteenth cen­ lar blocks in an outstretched horizontal position. More tury. The city's central location on a hilltop implies its than three hundred of these varied figures are recorded at dominant role within the region. Monte Alban. Each stone has a single naked male figure, Over the course of its twelve-hundred-year existence, eyes closed, mouth open, some with elaborate hairstyles, which included a number of phases, Monte Alban earspools, and bead necklaces. They could signify an reached a maximum population of about twenty-five awesome display of military strength or a historical nar­ thousand inhabitants. The urban phase, called Monte AI- rative. 422 THE ANCIENT WORLD Zapotecs Build Monte Alban By 100 B.C.E., Monte Alban had gradually subjugated which contained a burial place, and roofs of wood beams more than three hundred tribute-paying communities in and thatch. The simplest dwellings had wattle-and-daub the Oaxaca Valley to create the Zapotec empire. It cannot walls with an open or semiclosed format. Their patios be determined how many of these towns were taken by contained work areas, storage pits, ovens, and family military conquest, or how many weaker ones succumbed graves. Intermediate-size homes, with adobe walls on to colonization. The metropolis was protected by a long stone foundations, had a central patio with adjacent defensive wallIS feet (4.6 meters) high and 60 feet (18 rooms and a modest tomb. Elite families lived in grand­ meters) wide on the easily climbed western slopes ofthe scale palaces. Rooms with thick walls and stucco floors mountain. surrounded an inner courtyard with stairways, an altar, During the second period, Monte Alban II (100 B.C.E.- and a decorative tomb. These burial chambers, including 200 C.E.), there were an estimated seven hundred Oaxaca Tombs 103, 104, 105, 112, and 125 at Monte Alban, were Valley communities with some fifty thousand inhabit­ adorned with colorful murals and contained offerings of ants, while Monte Alban's population had grown to ten elaborate funerary urns, carved bone, and jewelry. thousand. New construction included the 8-acre (3-hect­ The South Platform, containing carved stelae on its are) Main Plaza and a ball court, shaped like a capital I, northern comers, was constructed during Period III. The with bilateral inclined surfaces of smooth stucco. There Plain Stela and the Lapida de Bazan depict significant is a large increase in public buildings and temples, most Teotihuacan elements. Strong political and cultural ties of which are oriented toward the cardinal directions. with Teotihuacan are reflected in the Monte Alban mu­ The temple-patio-altar compound emerged as a ritual­ rals and the new scapulary tablero (vertical panel) archi­ ceremonial precinct. The largest of these is the Sunken tecture. Likewise, a Oaxaca residential section appears at Patio in the North Platform, measuring 54 yards (about 50 meters) on each side. A cistern was built in the Main Plaza. Drains lined with stone were used to evacuate in­ undations in the plazas and patios into dams and a large reservoir at the bottom of the hill. Building J, an arrowhead-shaped structure, was con­ structed during this era. It has the ruins of a temple on top and its unusual shape is believed to be an astronomical indicator. Its outer walls contain about forty large slabs, weighing several tons each, with a variety of incised glyphs. Each depiction has a place glyph in the center, with an inverted adorned human head below it and a sym­ bol unique to the slab above it. The glyphs are sometimes accompanied by a text with place-names and dates.
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