Zapotec Digs in Mexico Show Clues to Rise and Fall

When it comes to pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztec and Maya—known for their spectacular pyramids and temples, hieroglyphic writing systems, and elaborate, violent rituals—often overshadow the Zapotec, their less familiar counterparts centered in southern Mexico.

But the Zapotec also played a vital role in ancient Mesoamerica, and archaeologists are seeking new clues to the rise and fall of their culture and civilization, which flourished and declined in the Valley of Oaxaca at roughly the same time as the ancient Maya.

Study in Sepia Photography at Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico

We arrived at Monte Alban in the chill of an early summer morning still overcast with filtered light that bathed this monumental Zapotec archeological site.  Our photography workshop assignment this day was to capture texture and pattern, and to use both the sepia and black and white settings on our digital cameras.

Monte Alban is featured in Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History as one of the most important civilizations of Mesoamerica.