Zapotec civilization

Be'ena'a  (Zapotec)
700 BC–1521 AD
Zapotec at greatest extent
Capital		Monte Albán (700 BC – 700 AD) Mitla (700–1400 AD) Zaachila-Yoo (1400–1521 AD)
Languages		Oto-Manguean languages
Religion		Polytheistic
Government		Hereditary monarchy
Monarch
•	1328–1361	Ozomatli
•	1361–1386	Huijatoo
•	1386–1415	Zaachila I
•	1415–1454	Zaachila II
•	1454–1487	Zaachila III
•	1487–1521	Cosijoeza
•	1518–1563	Cocijopij
Historical era		Pre-classic – Late post-classic
•	Fall of San José Mogote	700 BC
•	Conflict between Zapotecs and Mixtecs in the empire	1519–1521
•	Spanish Conquest	1521 AD
•	Last Zapotec resistance	1521–1563
Area
•	200 AD	80,000 km² (30,888 sq mi)
•	1520 AD	38,850 km² (15,000 sq mi)
Succeeded by Viceroyalty of New Spain
Today part of		Mexico

The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years. The Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica and the center of a Zapotec state that dominated much of the territory that today belongs to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Zapotec civilization had its beginnings in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the late 6th Century BC. The three valleys were divided between three different-sized societies, separated by 80 km² “no-man’s-land” in the middle, today occupied by the city of Oaxaca. Archaeological evidence from the period, such as burned temples and sacrificed captives, suggest 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 emerged in the “no-man’s-land”. That settlement, which was constructed on top of a mountain overlooking the three Central valleys was Monte Albán. Similarities between the pottery of San José Mogote and at early Monte Albán indicate that the people who populated Monte Albán were the same ones who had left San José Mogote. Archaeologists Joyce Marcus and Kent V. Flannery liken this process to what happened in ancient Greece - (synoikism): a centralization of smaller dispersed populations congregates in a central city to meet an external threat. Even though there is no direct evidence in the early phases of Monte Albán's history, walls and fortifications built around the site during the archaeological phase Monte Alban 2( ca.100 BC - AD 200), suggest that the construction of the city may have been in response to a military threat.