zapotecs, mixtecs, aztecs

as promised here's a few words about the ancient peoples of mexico and specifically the ones that i'm dealing with. but first to understand all of this here's a quick geography lesson:
currently i'm in the city of oaxaca which is located in the valley of oaxaca which is in the mexican state of oaxaca. when i mention oaxaca i'll try to differentiate between the city, the valley, and the state, just understand that there are three different geographical features which all bear the name oaxaca. the city of oaxaca is located directly at the center of the valley of oaxaca which has three arms {which i won't go into the names to} and is the capital of oaxaca state. just north of the valley of oaxaca but still in the state of oaxaca is an area called the mixteca {meesh>tech>ah} which is divided into two major regions the alta, a hilly highlands region, and the baja, an area of lowlands. within the mixteca alta the largest valley is called the nochitzlan valley and that is where the site of etlatongo, the one where all the ceramics were are analyzing are coming from, is located. now that we have all that, lets talk about the ancient peoples who inhabited these places.
the valley of oaxaca was originally home of the zapotecs or the "cloud people." modern decendants of the zapotecs still live in the valley of oaxaca today and in some rural villages traditional clothing is still worn and zapotec languge still spoken although this is becoming increasingly rare. the ancient zapotecs established an empire at the site of monte alban which sits on a hill top that directly overlooks modern oaxaca city. from this hilltop capital they spread out throughout the valley of oaxaca and into the mixteca conquering and incorporating other villages through a system of forced tribute. empire is a complicated word to use though. when we hear empire we immediately thing of the british or roman empires but in mesoamerica empire building was much different. instead of conquering and area, occupying it, and setting up a regional government like the british or romans, mesoamerican empires, including the zapotec one at monte alban, often kept local governments in place after conquest but forced them to pay a certain amount in tribute goods and labor in return for not being totally destroyed. from about 300 bc to 800 ad the zapotecs held a wide and variety area of influence until the somewhat unexplained collapse of monte alban in the 800's. following monte alban's collapse a series of competing city states emerged throughout their former empire and mixtecs {meesh/techs} the people of the mixteca, began to spill over into the valley of oaxaca. older archaeological texts often speak of it as a mixtec hoarde invading the valley of oaxaca, but it now seems more likely that it was more of an immigration than an invasion and many cites in the valley of oaxaca today still have mixed mixtec and zapotec populations which occasionally leads to some ethnic tensions.
the mixtecs, who beleived that they had been born from trees, were renowned craftsmen and were known throughout mesoamerica especially for their fine pottery and jewelery. it were these traits that made them appealing to the expanding aztec empire in the 1300's. once again the aztecs never occupied the mixteca or the oaxaca valley {although some have theorized that an aztec garrison was stationed in oaxaca city no evidence of it has yet been found} but instead these areas were incorporated through a tremdous tribute system which under the aztecs spread all the way from parts of northern mexico, through their capital of tenochtitlan {modern day mexico city} and south into oaxaca and the modern state of chiapas. mixtec goods were highly prized as tribute items and it is well known that montechuzoma II, the last true emperor of the aztec empire, would only eat from plates made by mixtec craftsmen. i'll talk in greater length about the conquest later but for the purposes of this post let's just say that the modern state of oaxaca stayed under aztec influence until the spanish arrived on the coast in 1519 and began slowly but surely moving inland reaching oaxaca city in the late 1520's.

that's all for now, i'll have more on my continuing work {we examined some pieces of one of those famous mixtec plates the other day!} , the conquest, and various other things as i go on. also if you have any questions about anything at all please post in the comments box and i'll be happy to get back to you as soon as i can.