In the remote Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, Monte Albán- the first city of Mesoamerica- and a great Zapotec civilization evolved, flourished, and declined. Renowned archaeologists Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery, curators at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropology, and their colleagues have spent more than two decades studying the Zapotecs and their ancestors. Their Zapotec Civilization traces 10,000 years in the isolated Valley of Eternal Spring. Less studied than the Maya or Aztecs, the Zapotecs developed one of the first civilizations of ancient Mexico. Their capital at Monte Albán, with its once magnificent temples, toms, ball cours, and hieroglyphic writing, was founded around 500 B.C. AfterA.D. 700 the Zapotec empire went into a long decline, and by the 10th century its great plaza and temples were abandoned.
Marcus and Flannery demonstrate how the Zapotecs reached civilization via a series of individual human actions (“action theory” to anthropologists) rather than by ecological determinism. The Zapotecs embraced major elements of Mesoamerican civilization- urban centers, astronomy, hieroglyphic writing, and a pantheon of terrible gods hungry for human sacrifices. Mayas to the east and Teotihuacános to the north developed similar institutions, but Marus and Flannery’s book gives us few hints of the exchange of ideas that must have taken place. Still, Zapotec Civilization is a highly readable case study of the development of one of America’s greatest cultures. Its 302 illustrations and maps help convey the genius of Zapotec art and architecture to the reader. This book will be the standard general work on the Zapotecs for years to come.
