Monte Albán

Monte Albán is the ancient Zapotec capital located in the present-day state of Oaxaca, in southwestern Mexico. The archaeological site covers 2.51 square miles of rugged hilltops that rise over 1,300 feet. Shortly after its foundation (500 bce), Monte Albán reached urban proportions, becoming one of the first cities in the Americas. When the Spaniards reached the central valleys of Oaxaca in the 1520s, the ancient site was abandoned. The site's Zapotec name is unknown, as are the origins of the present-day name Monte Albán.

Monte Albán is among the most intensively studied pre-Hispanic sites, notably in Alfonso Caso's excavations begun in the 1930s and Richard Blanton's surface survey in the 1970s. The ancient city was organized into residential wards, with most people living on terraces cut from the hillside. Water was procured by channeling rainfall into communal cisterns. Monumental stone masonry buildings made with earthen fill and large public spaces covered the hilltop, forming the city's ceremonial, elite residential, and administrative core. Pyramids were decorated with stucco reliefs and carved stones inscribed with hieroglyphs. Houses varied in size and construction materials with the more elaborate surrounding enclosed patios. The city's inhabitants buried their dead underneath their dwellings. Heads of noble families were placed inside subfloor tombs with painted murals and Zapotec funerary urns. Zapotec script—the earliest form of writing in the New World (dating from 600 bce)—remains largely undeciphered, but notations at Monte Albán give the names of rulers and calendar dates. Other inscriptions refer to conquered territories beyond the confines of the central valleys of Oaxaca. Explanations of the site's origins and early political growth cite expansionist warfare as a leading factor.

Monte Albán's peak population is estimated at 30,000. The hieroglyphic inscriptions and pottery from Monte Albán suggest contact with other leading centers in ancient Mexico, including the city of Teotihuacan. By 800 ce Monte Albán had collapsed, and most of the city's population had relocated to competing centers within the surrounding valley. The causes of its collapse are unknown. The present-day archaeological site is partially reconstructed and a major tourist attraction. The modern inhabitants of Oaxaca City are recolonizing its lower slopes.

See alsoArchaeology; Caso y Andrade, Alfonso.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blanton, Richard E., et al. Ancient Oaxaca: The Monte Albán State. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Caso, Alfonso, Ignacio Bernal, and Jorge R. Acosta. La Cerámica de Monte Albán. Mexico City: Memorias del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 13, 1967.

Marcus, Joyce, and Kent V. Flannery. Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.

                                           Javier Urcid

                                      Andrew Balkansky

Monte Albán an ancient city, now in ruins, in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Occupied from the 8th century bc, it was a centre of the Zapotec culture from about the 1st century bc to the 8th century ad, after which it was occupied by the Mixtecs until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.