Zapotec Art I - Art and Sculpture

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Glyphic Stele

The great Zapotec city of Monte Albán existed, for the most part, contemporary to the metropolis of Teotihuacan to the northeast, and evidence for cross-cultural exchange is heavy. But while Teotihuacan enjoyed its greatest prosperity between the first century BCE and the tenth century CE, Monte Albán had been under Zapotec control from the fourth century B.C.E. to the tenth century - when the Mixtec tribes would then mass-migrate into the region. This stele is carved with glyphs of an incipient writing system similar to that which would grow in complexity through the Maya. Much work still remains for decoding this ancient writing.

Site Museum of Monte Albán


Monte Albán Stele 11

This piece depicts a king holding a fish and wearing a feline headdress that may suggest either association with a spirit animal or direct transformation into it. The king stands beneath the jaws of the sky and on a region-naming glyph shaped like a mountain. Its ritual context may be of some magical utterance, based on the flowing "word" rising from his mouth.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Elderly Deity

The figure depicts an deity from Tomb 1 of Loma Larga, dating to Monte Albán II (100 BCE - 200 CE). He wears an anthropomorphic headdress, and his eyebrows resemble stylized mountains. Like the elderly Fire God, this deity sits upon the center of the cosmic cords that run along the cardinal directions; at this mythical center stands the portal to the lands of the underworld.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Ave de Pico Ancho

This especially large urn illustrates the origin of our name for the 'Wide-Beaked Bird' deity. It has been dated to Monte Albán II (100 B.C.E.-200 C.E.), the most critical phase of the city's urban development in both population and architecture. The urn comes from Temple 7 Deer.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Animal-Masked Urn

By now the Zapotecs' emphasis on identifying humans with spirit animals or naguales should be clear. No other Mesoamerican civilization, in fact, has produced so much public display of this religious and spiritual phenomenon. Discovered at the patio of Monte Albán Tomb 137, this ceramic urn features a human face beneath several different animal motifs. The beak is of a bird, the ears are feline, and the mouth is fanged. It was made during the Monte Albán II Phase.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Funerary Urn

This is one of the many urns that had accompanied Zapotec tombs, such as Monte Albán Tomb 7, renowned as one of the richest tomb treasuries in the ancient world. Notice the elaborate curves and rain god mask upon this figure, which highlight the mystical connection between deceased kings and nature gods from which they were believed to have descended. This urn is dated to the Monte Albán Period III A, or 100 B.C.E. - 300 C.E.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca


Bat God

This human-sized clay statue was made in the image of the Bat God, known in Zapotec as Piquete Ziña. Interestingly, though, the statue was discovered in shards in the Aztec Great Temple - this was clearly a tributary from the Oaxaca Valley for the glory of the Aztec empire. It was under laborious archaeological work that the whole statue was reassembled into its original form, and that effort can be appreciated in the detail restored in this image.

Aztec Great Temple Museum


Details of Tomb 104 Interior

The royal tombs of Monte Albán and especially of Mitla are elaborate, filled with pottery and sculpture about the carefully laid corpse. The walls are layered in brightly colored murals, such as these details from the replica of Tomb 104 from Monte Albán. Some of the figures on the side walls may be glyphic representations of ancestral rulers, designated by calendar signs such as 5 Owl and 5 Lightning.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Danzantes

The Danzantes, or 'dancers', are common relief figures in the building walls around Monte Albán. They are actually imprisoned authorities from rival cities - the display is intended to glorify the military strength of Monte Albán as the life-sized figures appear along the walls of major buildings. This close-up is of such a procession of four.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Ceramic Jaguar

A life-sized sculpture of a jaguar, a symbol of the night and power. Around the neck a thick ribbon is tied, perhaps implying a former domestication of the jaguar by the Zapotecs. However, jaguars have been found in ritual burials, decorated with jade and other precious items. The red and green ribbon around the jaguar could have been such a burial item.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Crowned Figure

Now that would have been hard to carry on your head. Many Zapotec sculptures have highly decorated and almost unrealistically large headdresses for their sizes. The most likely explanation is that this is a god and/or deified ancestor king.

National Museum of Anthropology and History


Mezcala Figures

While these figures are not necessarily Zapotec or from Oaxaca, they come from the nearby state of Guerrero. These small sculptures are of metamorphic rock and typify the Mezcala design: very simple contours, smooth surfaces, and highly abstracted facial features. A virtual treasury of these figures has been found as tributaries to the Aztec Great Temple, where they can still be seen.

Worcester Art Museum