Lecture 8: Monte Alban

what does “Monte Alban” mean and why did the Zapotec name it that way?

• it means “white mountains”

• there are white flowers that leaved petals on the floor or because the buildings were white

what was the main problem at Monte Alban?

• there was no direct access to water

• rainy season only lasted 6 months

• without irrigation, maize culture was complicated

why was rainy season important?

because you would store as much water as possible in reservoirs

what are the usual chronologies used to describe Monte Alban? (2)

• roman numerical (period I, II…)

• names: Nisa, Pe, Danibaan

how was the political situation during the Rosario phase (before the creation of Monte Alban)?

politically unstable: a lot of raids between small independent chiefdoms

what was the biggest site during the Rosario phase?

San Jose Mogote

by who was Monte Alban founded and why?

• by residents who left San Jose Mogote and other people around

• founded for neutral military alliance to pacify the region

what are the main phases/periods? (4)

1. Danibaan-Pe

2. Nisa

3. Tani-Pitao

4. Peche-Xoo

during the Danibaan-Pe period, what was the role of the Main Plaza?

axis mundi: connect the living, the dead and the spirits

what was the disadvantages the hilltop location of Monte Alban? (2)

• difficult to acces

• need a lot of work to build

what were the advantages of the hilltop location of Monte Alban? (3)

• economic: at the center of the valley, so all the other villages are around

• military: defensive, difficult for enemies to access

• religious: mountain was sacred

religiously speaking, what were the advantages of building Monte Alban on top of the mountain? (3)

• on top of a sacred mountain = buildings and people become sacred

• during rainy season, the city was hidden by the clouds (axis mundi)

• a lot of crevices and cave to connect with the underworld

what was the initial axis of the Main Plaza?

East/West and then changed to North/South during Nisa

when was Main Plaza located?

on the biggest and tallest mountain

what was the purpose of the Main Plaza?

to be a ceremonial center

why do we think that people had collective governance? (3)

• presence of ceramic vessels on non-noble contexts

• commoners’s houses were built with brick

• reinterpretation of the Danzante glyphs

explain what were the Danzantes?

• some sort of drawing plaques

• at first, we thought they represented dancing people

• then we saw that they were bleeding … other chiefs being killed? (no because they weren’t attached)

• it was actually some people being sacrificed

why did the Zapotec believe that they needed to give some offerings to their gods?

• they believed they continuously borrowed from spirts: you cultivate a plant, you will borrow the ground

• because of that, you need to sacrifice something in return

• it can be offering (food), burrowing a figurine to sacrifice

• → question of balance: you take, you need to give back

why were some offerings only giving food and others sacrifices? (why didn’t we only do some sacrifices?)

because some actions cost more than others: the bigger you take, the more you sacrifice

true or false: we only sacrificed at the communal level

false: we also sacrificed at the household level

explain “blood-letting”

you give blood to the spirit in order to pay them back (not necessarily killing, just blood)

why would some people do blood-letting everyday?

to keep their power

when were human sacrifices done?

when they believed their god wasn’t happy

how were human sacrifices done?

you would place the person on an altar, pierce their chest, take out the beating heart and wait until it stopped (meaning that the god took the life)

what showed that there were still social inequalities? (4)

• elaborate elite residences on the Main Plaza

• name of 3 rulers on Danzantes

• access to obsidian was restricted to people living on the Main Plaza

• mortuary context (more elaborate for people on Main Plaza)

what were clusters?

people living around the hill on other terraces, around the Main Plaza

what were the zapotec calendars? (2)

• astronomy: 365 days

• ritual: 260 days

(it takes 52 years for the dates to meet on both calendars)

how did small residences collect water?

by having barrels on top of the house that would bring the water down to reserves

what happens if you die?

• you become an ancestor

• you are buried close to where your family lives

• you become an ancestor: you negotiate with other entities and gods (sustainably)

why do you need to give offerings to your elders?

to keep the ancestor on your good side or else they will haunt you

what are the ways to be buried? (2)

• formal tomb: for more important members

• simple grave: less important, but you’re still buried close to your house

explain formal tombs

• put the tomb under the house and build the house over it

• had an altar so you didn’t need to go to the tomb to give offerings

• only the leading couple was buried there

• it was well sealed as there were smells and it was flooded during rain season

true or false: for simple graves, the person was simply put in a hole

false: they were wrapped in cloth first

what are the differences found in formal tombs and simple graves? (5)

• architecture: complex VS simple

• offerings: better quantity and quality for formal graves

• access: can access grave with formal but not simple

• nutrition: people buried in formal had a better nutrition

• alcohol: found in formal but maybe not in simple

what were the shifts during the Nisa phase? (2)

• population goes up

• important role of turkey

what were the transformations of the Main Plaza during the Nisa phase, after the Danibaan-Pe phase? (3)

• change in meaning: E/W to N/S orientation + temple representation used for construction

• arena of performance: people can go and perform rituals

• restricted access: installation of wall with guards

why was the wall constructed around the Main Plaza?

either for protection or to separate elite form commoners

how was the Main Plaza divided? (2)

• North platform: sky, rain, lightning

• South platform: underworld, sacrifice, wars, ancestors

the elite lived in the [North/South] platform

North

what’s special about building J?

it’s the only building that doesn’t follow the N/S axis (but we don’t know why)

what’s the name of the lightening god?

Cociyo: most important god, elites were associated with him when they died

what was the main environmental consequence of Monte Alban and how did they try to stop it?

• erosion of the soil

• stop by building terraces but had to maintain them or else even more erosion

what was the Main Plaza’s cistern?

it had 4 tunnels and was used to collect water