Zapotec Civilization Rises

Around 600 BCE, the Zapotec people of Mexico's Oaxaca Valley were developing the political and cultural institutions that would make them one of the major civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica. The summary for this event credits the founding of Monte Albán with that rise. Many archaeologists place the hilltop city's founding somewhat later, around 500 BCE, so 600 BCE is best understood as marking the broader emergence of Zapotec power. Monte Albán became one of Mesoamerica's earliest large cities and the center of a state that lasted more than a thousand years.

The background lies in the valley's long agricultural history. The Oaxaca Valley has three arms that meet near the modern city of Oaxaca, and its farming villages grew steadily from the second millennium BCE. By about 1000 to 700 BCE, San José Mogote, in the Etla arm, was the leading regional center. It had public buildings, evidence of ritual specialists, and carved stone monuments, some bearing early glyphs that may be among the oldest writing in the Americas. Contact with the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast shaped the region's art and elite culture, though how strong that influence was is still debated.

Monte Albán was built on a mountaintop where the three valley arms converge. The site was not near the best farmland or water, which suggests it was chosen for its position and perhaps as a neutral ground between competing communities. Many researchers think it began as a political alliance or confederation among valley groups, though the evidence is open to interpretation. Settlement in the valley shifted toward the new center, and builders leveled the summit to create a great plaza surrounded by temples and platforms.

Early Monte Albán is known for the carvings called Danzantes, stone slabs showing contorted, often naked figures, frequently with glyphs that may name individuals. Scholars once thought they depicted dancers. Many now believe they represent captives or sacrificed enemies, which points to warfare and the growth of centralized rule. The Zapotec also developed a calendar and a hieroglyphic script, part of a wider Mesoamerican tradition of recording rank, conquest, and time.

The city's importance grew over the following centuries. In its classic period, roughly the first millennium CE, it held a large population, with terraced hillsides, elite tombs, and ties to distant powers such as Teotihuacan. Around 500 to 800 CE, its authority weakened and the site was largely abandoned as a capital. Zapotec communities persisted, however, and later centers like Mitla rose in the valley. Zapotec languages are still spoken in Oaxaca today. Monte Albán is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, valued as a record of one of the Americas' earliest urban and political experiments.