Monte Alban IIIB and IV

  General Description   General description
During the Monte Alban IIIB and IV periods (500-900 CE) in the Valley of Oaxaca Monte Alban and the capital of the neighbouring state, Teotihuacaln declined, with public buildings no longer being maintained and the population of the capitals declining. A mixture of internal and external reasons for this decline are suggested, and has been summed up by Flannery and Marcus: ‘...without the ever-present competitive threat of Teotihuacan, there was one less reason to support what already had become a maladaptive concentration of population on an unproductive 400-m mountaintop.’ ^[1] Unfortunately, detailed chronological data from this period is not present as the ceramic sequences of the IIIB and IV phases are very difficult to differentiate and radiocarbon dates have yet to refine the sequence. ^[2] The IIIb and IV phases have therefore been combined as one phase on this page. During this phase the population which had previously occupied the capital dispersed into smaller settlements throughout the valley and the valley became occupied by a series of militaristic ‘city states, ^[3] which lasted until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1520s. ^[4]
Population and political organization
As the Zapotec state was in a process of fragmentation into smaller polities, the actual extent of any polity in the Valley of Oaxaca is very difficult to determine for this period. ^{[5] [6]} Although the polity was politically fragmented, nobles continued to occupy hereditary positions of power, which were legitimated through their relationship with their ancestors. ^[7] Nobles continued to have control over and exclusive access to resources and exercised rights not available to commoners “Members of ruling houses, for example, had the right to engage in warfare, take captives, play the ballgame, and offer human sacrifices.” ^[8]
The overall population of the valley grew during this period, although people were no longer unified under one polity. ^[9] The population of the whole valley has been estimated at 90,000-200,000 people. ^[10]

[1]: (Flannery & Marcus 1983, 183) Flannery, Kent and Marcus, Joyce. 1983. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Museum of Anthropology. New York: Academic Press. p.183https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/CNG67KKA

[2]: (Flannery & Marcus 1983, 184) Flannery, Kent and Marcus, Joyce. 1983. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Museum of Anthropology. New York: Academic Press. p.184 https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/CNG67KKA

[3]: (Flannery & Marcus 1983, 184) Flannery, Kent and Marcus, Joyce. 1983. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Museum of Anthropology. New York: Academic Press. p.184https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/CNG67KKA

[4]: (Flannery & Marcus 1976, 376) Flannery, Kent V. and Joyce. Marcus. 1976. ‘Formative Oaxaca and Zapotec Cosmos.’ American Scientist 64(4): 374-383. p.376 https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/QKPEF5Q8

[5]: (Marcus & Flannery 1996) Marcus, Kent and Flannery, Joyce. 1996. Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Thames and Hudson. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/SHF4S8D7

[6]: (Flannery & Marcus 1983) Flannery, Kent and Marcus, Joyce. 1983. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Museum of Anthropology. New York: Academic Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/CNG67KKA

[7]: (Joyce 2009, 198) Joyce, A.A. 2009. ’Peoples of America: Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico’. Hoboken, GB: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 198. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/JPXCWSSG

[8]: (Joyce 2009, 215-217) Joyce, A.A. 2009. Peoples of America : Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico. Hoboken, GB: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 215-217 https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/JPXCWSSG

[9]: (Flannery & Marcus 1983) Flannery, Kent and Marcus, Joyce. 1983. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Museum of Anthropology. New York: Academic Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/CNG67KKA.</

[10]: (Kowalewski et al. 1989) Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. 1989. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/F76EVNU3/itemKey/JH54I6Q3