Concept
The Zapotec civilization ( "The People"; 700 BC–1521 AD) was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture originated at least 2,500 years ago. The Zapotec archaeological site at the ancient city of Monte Albán has monumental buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods, including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica. It was the center of a Zapotec state that dominated much of the territory which today is known as the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Zapotec civilization originated in the Y-shaped Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the late 6th century BC. The three valleys were divided among three different-sized societies, separated by "no-man's-land" in the middle. The city of Oaxaca much later developed in that area. Archaeological evidence, such as burned temples and sacrificed war captives, suggests that the three societies competed against each other. At the end of the Rosario phase (700–500 BC), the valley's largest settlement San José Mogote, and a nearby settlement in the Etla Valley, lost most of their population. During the same period, a new large settlement developed in the "no-man's-land" on top of a mountain overlooking the three valleys; it was later called Monte Albán. Early Monte Albán pottery is similar to pottery from San José Mogote, which suggests that the newer city was populated by people who had left San José Mogote. Although there is no direct evidence in the early phases of Monte Albán's history, walls and fortifications around the site during the archaeological phase Monte Alban 2 (ca. 100 BC–200 AD) suggest that the city was constructed in response to a military threat. American archaeologists Joyce Marcus and Kent V. Flannery liken this process to what happened in ancient Greece - synoikism: a centralization of smaller dispersed populations congregated in a central city to meet an external threat.
