oaxaca owns a unique place in mexican political history for a variety of reasons, but most seem to be linked to a certain revolutionary spirit. oaxaca was home of course to benito juarez, revolutionary and first president of mexico, sort of the mexican george washington, a true father of the nation. oaxaca was also the site of revolutionary and anti church activity, culminating in the capture and execution of guerilla leader vicente guerrero, who was kept at the convent in cuilapan, the very place i am analyzing sherds today, before he was shot in the backyard. more recently southern parts of oaxaca state were on the fringes of the zapatista activities, only furthering its revolutionary reputation. it has been more recent events that still play out today however. in the early summer months of 2006 the teachers union in oaxaca went on strike, as they usually do at the end of the semester, to protest for better wages and benefits. strikes are common in oaxaca, we had a taxi driver strike just last week, and most commonly they block a few key intersections in the city and then move when they are resolved. the 2006 teachers strike however was not quickly resolved and as it grew longer political agitators in the region latched on to it. earlier that year the current right wing governer of oaxaca had won an election under dubious circumstances and demonstrators against his administration flooded into the streets as well. simultaneously a communist group named APPO (associasion political de poblacions de oaxaca) who sought the overthrow of oaxaca´s entire regional government came into the city as well. for several months the center of the city was completely shut down and gangs of government thugs and revolutionaries clashed in the streets. eventually, the army was sent in, culminating in a clash in the center of the city in which more than a dozen people (some accounts have it close to 100) and an american journalist were killed.
as you can imagine these events significantly detered tourists, both domestic and foriegn, from coming into the city, and still tourism has not entirely recovered. the city now however feels very safe for tourists. people here are extrodinarily friendly and at night the streets are well lit and filled with people, especially now with the festival in town. more importantly though the governor is far away from oaxaca city, the governor´s palace in the center city remains conspiciously empty, and while he was in town for the galuegetza, he rarely shows his face here he is so unpopular. also since the disaster of the teachers strike in 2006, people here in oaxaca are much less tolerant to those kinds of activties. causing a major disturbance is recognized as a great bane to the city and anyone displaying any sort of disruptive attitude is quickly admonished and ostrisized. small strikes continue of course, but the participants are fast to reach preliminary agreements to avoid being labeled or associated with organizations like APPO which are blamed for the 2006 disasters. oaxacans still maintain their revolutionary spirit, but they are wary of the consequences of action spiraling out of control and today the city, sometimes still bearing the signs of past conflict, especially in grafitti, seems tranquil and open making walks along its open streets and large parks enjoyable, peaceful, and safe.
Friday, July 25, 2008
the spanish conuest
we all know that columbus first ¨discovered¨ the new world in 1492 but the ways that the story continues from there are extremely diverse and i just want to take a second here to talk about the spanish conquest of oaxaca and what it still means today.
in 1492 columbus landed on islands in the caribbean thinking that he had reached india, the destination he had set out for. for this reason this area is still broadly known as the east indies and inhabitants in all of the new world as indians. the spanish did not arrive in mexico though until 1519 when soldier hernan cortez landed on the gulf coast near modern veracruz. there he came into contact with peoples subjugated by the aztec empire and quickly he moved with his small force of spanish soldiers, less than 500 men, and a growing force of indigenous allies towards the aztec capital at tenochtitlan. when the spanish first arrived in tenochtitlan (modern day mexico city) they were completely dumbstruck. the city was at the time the largest in the world and it absolutely dwarfed paris, the largest city in europe at the time, by two or three times. the city was also much cleaner than any large urban space in europe at the time and it´s grand causways, aqueducts, and public architecture stunned cortes´men. unfortunately however, cortes, a second son and therefore of no inheritance back in spain, was after personal riches and glory. after being received as a guest he took montechuzoma, emperor of the aztecs, hostage inside his own palace. for weeks the spanish remained inside the palace levying ransom for montechuzoma while outside a smallpox epidemic ravaged the city. eventually cortes and his men left, but only returned later with a huge army of the aztecs former subjects, eager to rebel against their former lords. from tenochtitlan, cortes and future spanish soldiers and missionaries spread throughout the former aztec empire, reaching oaxaca but the early 1530´s. while oaxaca was of little military value, missionaries flooded into the area using it´s remote hillsides to build huge convents and monestaries, still the largest buildings in many rural areas to this day. interestingly, many of these churches and monestaries are also built right on top of old prehispanic mounds or monuments, as the spanish friars tried to utilize an existing religious power endowed in certain places to promote the new faith. many of these old churches also incorporate stones from prehispanic monuments, some of which can still be clearly seen in the surviving walls of these colonial buildings. the construction of these buildings came at a cost though. although designed by european architects they were built essentially with native slave labor and tens of thousands of mexico´s indigenous population died from over work and disease, many more than died in the conflict of actual conquest. many areas of modern oaxaca today, especially in the mixteca and other rural areas are still less populated than they were in prehispanic times, as the many archaeological sites that dot the landscape can attest.
the city of oaxaca however is a somewhat different story. under colonial rule it became the third largest city in mexico and became an important center for the production and export of cacao beans to be refined into chocolate. when first exported to europe chocolate was a complete rage and the comercial boon from this trade can still be seen in rich colonial architecture of oaxaca city. indeed, chocolate is still considered as essential part of spanish cusine even theough it is a new world import to europe. chocolate is still available here of course and is very, very, good. mixed with cinnamin and chili powder, it is served not only in bar form but more commonly in frothed milk and served warm in a sort of hot cocoa drink. in the decades since colonial times oaxaca has lost some of its size and influence, but it has retained a certain place in mexican political history, which you can read about in the very next post.
in 1492 columbus landed on islands in the caribbean thinking that he had reached india, the destination he had set out for. for this reason this area is still broadly known as the east indies and inhabitants in all of the new world as indians. the spanish did not arrive in mexico though until 1519 when soldier hernan cortez landed on the gulf coast near modern veracruz. there he came into contact with peoples subjugated by the aztec empire and quickly he moved with his small force of spanish soldiers, less than 500 men, and a growing force of indigenous allies towards the aztec capital at tenochtitlan. when the spanish first arrived in tenochtitlan (modern day mexico city) they were completely dumbstruck. the city was at the time the largest in the world and it absolutely dwarfed paris, the largest city in europe at the time, by two or three times. the city was also much cleaner than any large urban space in europe at the time and it´s grand causways, aqueducts, and public architecture stunned cortes´men. unfortunately however, cortes, a second son and therefore of no inheritance back in spain, was after personal riches and glory. after being received as a guest he took montechuzoma, emperor of the aztecs, hostage inside his own palace. for weeks the spanish remained inside the palace levying ransom for montechuzoma while outside a smallpox epidemic ravaged the city. eventually cortes and his men left, but only returned later with a huge army of the aztecs former subjects, eager to rebel against their former lords. from tenochtitlan, cortes and future spanish soldiers and missionaries spread throughout the former aztec empire, reaching oaxaca but the early 1530´s. while oaxaca was of little military value, missionaries flooded into the area using it´s remote hillsides to build huge convents and monestaries, still the largest buildings in many rural areas to this day. interestingly, many of these churches and monestaries are also built right on top of old prehispanic mounds or monuments, as the spanish friars tried to utilize an existing religious power endowed in certain places to promote the new faith. many of these old churches also incorporate stones from prehispanic monuments, some of which can still be clearly seen in the surviving walls of these colonial buildings. the construction of these buildings came at a cost though. although designed by european architects they were built essentially with native slave labor and tens of thousands of mexico´s indigenous population died from over work and disease, many more than died in the conflict of actual conquest. many areas of modern oaxaca today, especially in the mixteca and other rural areas are still less populated than they were in prehispanic times, as the many archaeological sites that dot the landscape can attest.
the city of oaxaca however is a somewhat different story. under colonial rule it became the third largest city in mexico and became an important center for the production and export of cacao beans to be refined into chocolate. when first exported to europe chocolate was a complete rage and the comercial boon from this trade can still be seen in rich colonial architecture of oaxaca city. indeed, chocolate is still considered as essential part of spanish cusine even theough it is a new world import to europe. chocolate is still available here of course and is very, very, good. mixed with cinnamin and chili powder, it is served not only in bar form but more commonly in frothed milk and served warm in a sort of hot cocoa drink. in the decades since colonial times oaxaca has lost some of its size and influence, but it has retained a certain place in mexican political history, which you can read about in the very next post.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
festival time
it´s festival time here in the city of oaxaca and the steets are busy and lively. every year on the first two mondays after the 16 of july oaxaca city hosts a festival called the galugetza, a celebreation of the different regions within oaxaca state with the presentation of traditional folk dances. normally this is a time in which tourists flood into the city, and i must admit that it looks pretty busy but apparently not as busy as in years past. it seems that the riots of 2006 (more on this later) have continued to hurt the tourist industry and while people here in oaxaca are optomistic that tourism has begun to recover the region is still feeling a significant lack of one of it´s cheif incomes. meanwhile though the galuegetza has been spectacular. fireworks are set off from the street every night lighting up the entire city, street venders stay out until all hours and all over people are parading the streets in traditional costumes and selling traditional wares, everything from exotic fruits to handmade rugs and jewelry. it´s a splendid time to be in oaxaca, the city only wishes that more people were here to share in it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
mexican food
oaxaca is known for its food, the people here take real pride in it, and rightly so because it is excellent. corn and beans are the main staples (in fact oaxaca is where corn was first domesticated by man roughly 20,000 years ago) and they are served in a variety of different ways. most typical and commonly sold by street venders are tlayudas, tortillas spread with a thin layer of refried beans and then fried, and memelitas, essentially the same thing but with the edition of salsa and an excellent oaxacan string cheese called quesillo. also common are tamales, soft corn cakes stuffed with beans and steamed wrapped in corn husks, and my favorite sincronizadas, tortillas filled with ham and cheese then grilled. oaxaca is also known for it´s mole, a rich sauce which is often made with over 30 ingredients the most prevalent of which is chocolate. it´s a little strange to eat chicken smothered in a sauce made with chili peppers and chocolate, but the results are excellent. another personal favorite is milenasa, a very thin cut of chicken or pork, lightly breaded and fried. oaxaca is also home to a variety of fruits, some familiar and some foreign. best of the foriegn is tuna (prickly pear or cactus fruit) which is good both raw and made into ice cream which some tourists hysterically confuse it with the fish and beleive that tuna fish ice cream is being served. pineapples and plantains are also prevelant here as is habiscus flower which is made into an excellent juice. the other truly wonderful fruit here are the limes. they are small and sweet and served with absolutely everthing. a personal favorite of mine is freshly roasted peanuts and chiles then covered in lime. the avacodoes here are also excellent, served either in a thin guacamole or in whole slices, even in soups.
the other wonderful part of mexican cuisine is the alcohol. imported alcohol here is amazingly expensive, but the types made in mexico are very cheap with even very nice mixed drinks only costing half of what they do in the states. the best local drink is mezcal, a tequila like beverage made from the sap of the maguey plant, a large spiny desert plant similar to the yucca in the american southwest. it is consumed straight and is very powerful but can be very smooth if you get a better variety. mezcal is also made into a variety of flavoured creams, think a tequila version of baileys, and comes in flavors like mint, coffee (excellent), passion fruit, and coconut. mezcal is also sometimes mixed with powder from chili peppers, something i find very enjoyable but others here find completely unbearble. i´ll bring a little back so you can see for yourself.
mexican beer is also excellent and comes in a large variety. corona and tecate are available in the states and considered pretty cheap and of low quality. of better quality are negro modelo, also available in the states and definately worth a try, and the mexico only indio and leon. possibly my favorite thing about beer is mexico are the ¨family size¨beers you can buy in local corner stores. they are liter or liter and a half bottles of beer, corona usually, that literally say ¨family size¨across the top of them. we´ll get one and all split it at dinner sometimes. i find them very funny and i´ll problably bring one back if i can, or at least a picture of me holding one.
the other wonderful part of mexican cuisine is the alcohol. imported alcohol here is amazingly expensive, but the types made in mexico are very cheap with even very nice mixed drinks only costing half of what they do in the states. the best local drink is mezcal, a tequila like beverage made from the sap of the maguey plant, a large spiny desert plant similar to the yucca in the american southwest. it is consumed straight and is very powerful but can be very smooth if you get a better variety. mezcal is also made into a variety of flavoured creams, think a tequila version of baileys, and comes in flavors like mint, coffee (excellent), passion fruit, and coconut. mezcal is also sometimes mixed with powder from chili peppers, something i find very enjoyable but others here find completely unbearble. i´ll bring a little back so you can see for yourself.
mexican beer is also excellent and comes in a large variety. corona and tecate are available in the states and considered pretty cheap and of low quality. of better quality are negro modelo, also available in the states and definately worth a try, and the mexico only indio and leon. possibly my favorite thing about beer is mexico are the ¨family size¨beers you can buy in local corner stores. they are liter or liter and a half bottles of beer, corona usually, that literally say ¨family size¨across the top of them. we´ll get one and all split it at dinner sometimes. i find them very funny and i´ll problably bring one back if i can, or at least a picture of me holding one.
work continues
work has been continuing steadily but we are making some very good progress. essentially what we are doing are going back through some of the first test units dug at the site and recording what we find through drawing and through notes. occassionally we also find a context with a good integrity which we get to analyze, and here´s what that means. most of the time when you dig a site you find what is called a mixed context, in essense it is a group of artifacts that span different time periods and are all mixed up. basically it is like finding a bag of coins with dates ranging from 2008 to 1937 while trying to study coins from the 1960s. it´s not totally useless, but you don´t want to spend too much time on it either. what you really want is a bag of coins all from the 1960´s and you want to find them in a good location, like say a cash register or a piggy bank. getting back from what may be a bad metaphor, as archaeologists with our project in mind we want to find pottery all from a single phase in a place like a trash dump, a house floor, or a storage pit. once we have one of those we can begin to analyze it. the analysis we are doing involves taking each piece from a good context, no matter how small, and recording things like the clay it is composed of, the form the vessel took, any decoration used, and any marks that indicate a production or finishing technique all using a numerical code, basically it´s like the matrix without laurence fishbourne. using this data in a spread sheet we can then observe larger trends across time periods. for example we can see how decoration decreases from one phase to another, but vessel uniformity increases. this tells us that people were putting greater emphasis on standardized manufacture and less on aesthetic values, and interesting shift in society to be sure, like the shift from hand made fabrics to mass produced ones in the united states, it represented a time of industrialization, decrease of individuality, and great societal change. pretty neat stuff to tell from a tiny little pottery fragment.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
monte alban
we went out to monte alban on sunday, a site i´ve been waiting to visit now for quite some time and it did not dissapoint. situated on top of a massive hill right in the center of the valley of oaxaca the massive main plaza offers stunning views of the entire valley and it quickly became apparent why the zapotecs stationed thier capital there. i´ve talked a little about zapotec imperialism and civilization before and while monte alban is certainly a stunning tribute to both it was another attribute entirely that struck me about the ruins of this ancient city. the main plaza, the center of the site and the location of the most tourist activity, was largely designed as a place for the performance of public religious rites and rituals. as monte alban grew nobles there had to find increasingly more complex and spectacular ways to legitimize their power and the architecture at monte alban is largely a tribute to this continuing struggle for political supremacy. generally the buildings become larger and grander over time as one would expect, but they also came complete with a series of architectural developments which would have only added to the drama and spectacle of public rituals and the legitimization of power. hidden tunnels were built connecting many of the buildings which would have allowed priests to miraculously appear at a completely seperate part of the site, surely an amazing sight to spiritually charged spectators in the crowd below. hidden chambers were built to emit smoke holes built in the pyramid walls, and carved figures depicting captives and ancestors were erected on the walls of the buildings to remind the people of monte alban of their history, heritage, and debt owed to the gods and ancestors for thier current success. however, the real development came not in grand pyramids or underground tunnels but instead from a complicated limiting of space. by limiting access to religious sites within the larger city, elites were able to display their own power and prestige to anyone watching, a sort of private club which everyone could see but only a few could take part in.
this dramatic limiting of space is most apparent in the north platform of the site, the last major architectural feature to be built there. it is a continuing series of pyramids that grows higher and higher as you go up though remarkably you can´t see this from the main plaza. you go up one level and think you are as high as you can go only to find another higher temple complex, and then another, and another still. anyone standing on the main plaza would not have been aware that this much architecture existed and admittance to the north platform would have suddenly afronted the viewer with a mass of tremendous religious architecture that would have appeared to have come from nowhere, each pyramid blocking the view of the higher one behind it. even to the modern viewer this illusion is true. as i climbed up the north platform i would continually believe that i had reached the highest point of the site, turn and take panoramic photos of the plaza below and the valley of oaxaca. upon turning back however i would only find another group of temple pyramids to climb. this sort of hidden architecture with highly controlled access (sort of the vip lounge of the ancient world) gave elites who routinely frequented the north platform an extreme amount of prestige in zapotec society. to maintain this power and prestige some elites were even able to build their palaces and tombs right next to the north platform to form an elite neighborhood closest to the best architecture in the city (professor blomster jokingly calls it the zapotec dupont circle).
perhaps the most stunning thing about monte alban however is its sheer size. at its height around 500 AD over 30,000 people lived there, spread out on terraces built over the contours of three huge hills. at the time few european cites rivaled monte alban´s size, architecture, and population. we, as westerners and particularly as americans, are often led to think of the new world as a vast span of open land only moderately populated by roving bands of indigenous peoples, but in reality, as monte alban attests, cities in the new world prior to european contact were often just as populated and developed as those of the old world, if not more so in some cases. i´ll talk more about this when i talk about the spanish conquest in another couple of days, but as i was climbing the ruins of monte alban i was struck by how incredible this city was and still is, and how little its place is in the story of our prehistory. surely such a massive and important place deserves greater attention and part of the aims of this summer are to draw more attention to the wonderful and fascinating civilizations that inhabited the new world long before the arrival of europeans.
this dramatic limiting of space is most apparent in the north platform of the site, the last major architectural feature to be built there. it is a continuing series of pyramids that grows higher and higher as you go up though remarkably you can´t see this from the main plaza. you go up one level and think you are as high as you can go only to find another higher temple complex, and then another, and another still. anyone standing on the main plaza would not have been aware that this much architecture existed and admittance to the north platform would have suddenly afronted the viewer with a mass of tremendous religious architecture that would have appeared to have come from nowhere, each pyramid blocking the view of the higher one behind it. even to the modern viewer this illusion is true. as i climbed up the north platform i would continually believe that i had reached the highest point of the site, turn and take panoramic photos of the plaza below and the valley of oaxaca. upon turning back however i would only find another group of temple pyramids to climb. this sort of hidden architecture with highly controlled access (sort of the vip lounge of the ancient world) gave elites who routinely frequented the north platform an extreme amount of prestige in zapotec society. to maintain this power and prestige some elites were even able to build their palaces and tombs right next to the north platform to form an elite neighborhood closest to the best architecture in the city (professor blomster jokingly calls it the zapotec dupont circle).
perhaps the most stunning thing about monte alban however is its sheer size. at its height around 500 AD over 30,000 people lived there, spread out on terraces built over the contours of three huge hills. at the time few european cites rivaled monte alban´s size, architecture, and population. we, as westerners and particularly as americans, are often led to think of the new world as a vast span of open land only moderately populated by roving bands of indigenous peoples, but in reality, as monte alban attests, cities in the new world prior to european contact were often just as populated and developed as those of the old world, if not more so in some cases. i´ll talk more about this when i talk about the spanish conquest in another couple of days, but as i was climbing the ruins of monte alban i was struck by how incredible this city was and still is, and how little its place is in the story of our prehistory. surely such a massive and important place deserves greater attention and part of the aims of this summer are to draw more attention to the wonderful and fascinating civilizations that inhabited the new world long before the arrival of europeans.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, July 4, 2008
ceramic chronologies
as promised here´s a few quick words about the work i´m currently doing:
working out of an old monk´s cell in the colonial era convent in cuilapan (qui-la-pan) just south of oaxaca city i´m going through boxes of pot sherds (pieces of broken pots) that were excavated from etlatongo in 1992 and recording them so that the smaller pieces can be disposed of. the goal of the project is to help refine and redefine existing ceramic chronolgies which archaeologists can use to date sites without more expensive and spotty techniques like radiocarbon dating (measuring years based on the deteriation of carbon 14 molecules) or dendrochronolgy (reading tree rings). eseentially a ceramic chronology is when an archaeolgists defines a set of criteria for styles of pottery made during a specific time period in a particular region. this is done examining factors such as vessel forms, decorations, manufacturing techniques, and material compostion. a well defined ceramic phase makes analyzation much easier but unfortunately the phases that exist for the mixteca (meesh-tech-ah) region where etlatongo is are broad and poorly defined. created by archaeologists in the 1960´s the original chronologies for this region were seen as a starting point for more research which due to a variety of factors never happened. now archaeologists are faced with outdated data whcih sorely needs to be updated. so that´s what i´m doing. it´s tedious work, most of the recording is done with meticulusly measured hand drawings, but it is important for the overall good of archaeological reasearch in oaxaca and there is something therapeudic about the technicalites of pottery drawing.
well, i´ve got to run, but expect more soon!
working out of an old monk´s cell in the colonial era convent in cuilapan (qui-la-pan) just south of oaxaca city i´m going through boxes of pot sherds (pieces of broken pots) that were excavated from etlatongo in 1992 and recording them so that the smaller pieces can be disposed of. the goal of the project is to help refine and redefine existing ceramic chronolgies which archaeologists can use to date sites without more expensive and spotty techniques like radiocarbon dating (measuring years based on the deteriation of carbon 14 molecules) or dendrochronolgy (reading tree rings). eseentially a ceramic chronology is when an archaeolgists defines a set of criteria for styles of pottery made during a specific time period in a particular region. this is done examining factors such as vessel forms, decorations, manufacturing techniques, and material compostion. a well defined ceramic phase makes analyzation much easier but unfortunately the phases that exist for the mixteca (meesh-tech-ah) region where etlatongo is are broad and poorly defined. created by archaeologists in the 1960´s the original chronologies for this region were seen as a starting point for more research which due to a variety of factors never happened. now archaeologists are faced with outdated data whcih sorely needs to be updated. so that´s what i´m doing. it´s tedious work, most of the recording is done with meticulusly measured hand drawings, but it is important for the overall good of archaeological reasearch in oaxaca and there is something therapeudic about the technicalites of pottery drawing.
well, i´ve got to run, but expect more soon!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Greetings from Mexico!
well i´m here safe and sound and so far it has already been an eventful couple of days. the city of oaxaca (wha-ha-ka) is absolutely magnificent, a wonderful blend of colonial and modern architecture which is endlessly colorful in the way that most latin america cities tend to be. the surrounding area is just as spectacular with huge mountains rising up to meet the clouds above the valley floor. being here it is not hard to understand why the ancient zaptocs (early inhabitants of the valley, we´ll get to this later on) called themselves the "cloud people." it is also the rainy season in oaxaca which means thunderstorms around 4 in the afternoon but it can be very spotty, pouring in one place and only a few drops in the next town over. this has not dampened our keen sense for adventure however and on tuesday we headed out of oaxaca into the mixteca alta, a complicated system of hills and valleys north of the valley of oaxaca, to see the site of achuitla (ah-shoot-la).
we were led out to the site by Jamie, a california native and doctoral student at the university of colorodo who hopes to turn achuitla into his dissertation project. achuitla, a fairly large hill top site which overlooks a small valley, is relatively well known in the historical record, colonial and contact era (the period when the spanish first arrived in mexico) sources speak often about an oracle who was situated there in pre-hispanic times. apparently montechuzoma II the last king of the aztecs sent an emissary there shortly after the arrival of the spanish in 1519, not suprisingly the oracles prognosis was negative. for being so well known however the site itself is virtually untouched. it´s remote location could be one reason, it is about a 2 and half hour drive over dirt roads from the city of oaxaca, but its remoteness did not stop the spanish who built not one, but two churches on the site mostly directly on top of pre-hispanic indigenous momuments. the first smaller church, more of a chapel really, built in the early 16002s still stands in ruins (impressively its dome and original wood door lintels are still intact) but the real draw at achuitla is the tremendous convent which was build in the mid 1600´s and still functions as a church today. interestingly enough both churches are built over large platform mounds which originally served as the bases for indigenous temples and other monumental and public architecture. while the site beyond the convent is largely overgrown today we tramped out across the two hills of the site to encounter a number of still standing terrace retainer walls and a number of building foundations which could have been a palace complex. jamie however is less impressed with the temples and palaces and is instead looking for commoner residences from the contact period, to study how the conquest affected local indigenous culture. the remaining monuments of both the spanish and the mixtecs before them at achuitla make this a perfect site for this kind of study.
i´ve got to run now, dinner is on the way, but i´ll have more soon, both about the work i'm doing and also a little more about the region, its people, and the archaeological record. see you next time!
we were led out to the site by Jamie, a california native and doctoral student at the university of colorodo who hopes to turn achuitla into his dissertation project. achuitla, a fairly large hill top site which overlooks a small valley, is relatively well known in the historical record, colonial and contact era (the period when the spanish first arrived in mexico) sources speak often about an oracle who was situated there in pre-hispanic times. apparently montechuzoma II the last king of the aztecs sent an emissary there shortly after the arrival of the spanish in 1519, not suprisingly the oracles prognosis was negative. for being so well known however the site itself is virtually untouched. it´s remote location could be one reason, it is about a 2 and half hour drive over dirt roads from the city of oaxaca, but its remoteness did not stop the spanish who built not one, but two churches on the site mostly directly on top of pre-hispanic indigenous momuments. the first smaller church, more of a chapel really, built in the early 16002s still stands in ruins (impressively its dome and original wood door lintels are still intact) but the real draw at achuitla is the tremendous convent which was build in the mid 1600´s and still functions as a church today. interestingly enough both churches are built over large platform mounds which originally served as the bases for indigenous temples and other monumental and public architecture. while the site beyond the convent is largely overgrown today we tramped out across the two hills of the site to encounter a number of still standing terrace retainer walls and a number of building foundations which could have been a palace complex. jamie however is less impressed with the temples and palaces and is instead looking for commoner residences from the contact period, to study how the conquest affected local indigenous culture. the remaining monuments of both the spanish and the mixtecs before them at achuitla make this a perfect site for this kind of study.
i´ve got to run now, dinner is on the way, but i´ll have more soon, both about the work i'm doing and also a little more about the region, its people, and the archaeological record. see you next time!
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