Hello to everyone, welcome to Travel In Oaxaca, in this post I will tell you about one of the most important and recognized archeological zones of Oaxaca, Monte Albán is also Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
WHERE DOES THE NAME OF MONTE ALBÁN COME FROM?
Its prehispanic name remains unknown and the actual name is believed that comes from a soldier that owned that land in the XVI century, the last name of the soldier is believed to be Montalbán or Monte Albán.
The Mixtec name of the city is Yucucuy that means Green Mountain and y Zapotec is Daniva that means Sacred Mountain.
WHEN DID MONTE ALBÁN ARISE?
Monte Albán archaeological site is not only the principal plaza, this complex covers 3 mountains: The Atzompa zone, El Gallo, and the mountain where the principal plaza is located.
We are going to take the origin of Monte Albán since the moment when the people started to move to this zones, this was in the Middle Pre-Classic (1000 to 500 years b.C.),some people that lived in Central Valleys started to move to this mountains and started to stay here.
The first settlements occurred between the 500 and 100 b.C. and were located close to the natural resources( water, dense vegetation, ).
The architecture of this sites was made of materials like, wood and straw, and then of adobe, rock, etc…, but I will tell you about the architecture in other post.
WHO OCCUPIED MONTE ALBÁN?
Like all Oaxaca, Monte Albán is a multicultural city that in different times was occupied by different cultures.
The culture that founded Monte Albán was the zapotec that thanks to the military power that had it went extending over a lot of populations and like that obtaining more people to work and expand the constructions. The maximum population that had was 35 000 inhabitants.
In the pre-classic the zapotecs didn´t use Monte Albán any more, the mixtecs influenced the region and used Monte Albán, reusing the site and even the tombs.
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