The Zapotecs

The Zapotecs dominated the area around Oaxaca with their city of Monte Alban for centuries. Monte Alban was one of the more ancient Classic peried city states, with sites there as old as 600 B.C..After 650 A.D. Monte Alban was one of the most powerful cities in Mexico . Around the 800s, the city began to lose its power and by 900 A.D. the city was abandoned . However, the Zapotec culture still remained vigorous and other cities, such as their captial at Zaachila remained .The Zapotec city of Mitla are masterpieces of Classical architecture  with dazzling geometric patterns .

wall mural at Mitla

The Zapotecs developed a calendar and a logosyllabic system of writing that used a separate glyph to represent each of the syllables of the language. This writing system is one of several candidates thought to have been the first writings system of Mesoamerica and the predecessor of the writing systems developed by the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations. At the present time, there is some debate as to whether or not Olmec symbols, dated to 650 BC, are actually a form of writing preceding the oldest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BC.The Zapotecs tell that their ancestors emerged from the earth, from caves, or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people, while the elite that governed them believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to such status. In fact, the name by which Zapotecs are known today resulted from this belief. In Central Valley Zapotec "The Cloud People' is "Be'ena' Za'a."

Zapotec funerary urn, pottery 200BC-250AD

The last battle between the Aztecs and the Zapotecs occurred between 1497 and 1502, under the Aztec ruler Ahuizotl. At the time of Spanish conquest of Mexico, when news arrived that the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, King Cosijoeza ordered his people not to confront the Spaniards so they would avoid the same fate. They were defeated by the Spaniards only after several campaigns between 1522 and 1527.