Archaeological culture · c. 1500–500 BCE
Early Zapotec villages (Valley of Oaxaca)
Farming villages of the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico before Monte Albán was founded, led by San José Mogote. Over a thousand years they built palisades, ceremonial platforms, adobe buildings, terraces and small irrigation ditches, and by about 600 BCE carved what may be the first Zapotec writing.
Around 500 BCE their people founded Monte Albán; from then the map's own 'Zapotec Civilization' state takes over.
See Early Zapotec villages (Valley of Oaxaca) on the map in 1500 BCE
- On the map
- 1500–500 BCE
How we know
Mostly archaeology; a carved stone of about 600 BCE may hold the first Zapotec glyphs, but it can barely be read.
Sites
- San José Mogote c. 1500–500 BCE