The History & Archeology of Oaxaca

Oaxaca's Mixtec and Zapotec indians left some of the most magnificent archaeological sites in Mexico, dating to several centuries before Christ. Monte Alban's palaces and pyramids are perched on a hilltop overlooking the city. The civilization of Monte Alban flourished from 500 BC until 1500 AD. Monte Alban is located approximately 7 mi (11.3 km) from the city of Oaxaca in SW Mexico. Monte Alban is considered the capital of the Zapotec indians and was built on an artificially leveled, rocky promontory above the Valley of Oaxaca. Located around an enormous plaza about 1,000 ft (300 m) long and 650 ft (198 m) wide are long, low buildings set off by sunken courts and stairways. The tombs, particularly Tomb 7, have yielded great archaeological treasures of gold jewelry, copper, jade, rock crystal, obsidian, and turquoise mosaic and bone and wood carving showing elaborate religious symbolism.

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The early Zapotec were a sedentary, agricultural, city-dwelling people who worshipped a pantheon of gods headed by the rain god, Cosijo—represented by a fertility symbol combining the earth-jaguar and sky-serpent symbols common in Middle American cultures. A priestly hierarchy regulated religious rites, which sometimes included human sacrifice. The Zapotec worshipped their ancestors and, believing in a paradisaical underworld, stressed the cult of the dead. They had a great religious center at Mitla and a magnificent city at Monte Alban, where a highly developed civilization flourished possibly more than 2,000 years ago. In art, architecture, hieroglyphics, mathematics, and calendar the Zapotec seem to have had cultural affinities with the Omec, Maya and Toltec.

After the fall of the ancient civilizations, Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez arrived in Oaxaca and used the strategic location and geography to distribute produce from local farms along the coast. Huatulco gradually became an extremely active port; however, the vigorous trading activity attracted violent pirates during the second half of the 16th century causing local residents to flee in fear. Following years of struggle, the territory was divided into the capitals of the valley and the isthmus, and in 1983 the Mexican government began developing the site as a tourist complex.