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Archaeological Sites
San José el Mogote
Description
The Zapotecs were one of the first Meso-American nations to construct public buildings, develop hieroglyphics and construct urban centres. It is likely that Oaxaca's Central Valleys were the cradle for this culture. Archaeological remnants found in this site show continuous sequence for more than 1,000 years.
San José el Mogote has existed for over 3,500 years. It was probably the first settlement founded during the village age, and was the largest community of its time. It covers land belonging to the Guadalupe Etla region, the entire municipality of San José Mogote and land in San Sebastian Etla. Here, for the first time, the predecessors of the famous city of Monte Albán were defined. During its peak, San José Mogote was the leading centre of the Etla Valley region. It also had its palace, ball court, and temples. It was abandoned around 400 BC. Shortly before the arrival of the Spanish, it was occupied again as a small rural community.
The Zapotec Calendar
Zapotec people used to believe that time was not linear, but cyclic. Important incidents were supposed to happen repeatedly at predictable intervals.
The Zapotecos developed two calendars, the solar and the ritual. The former was composed of 18 "months", each with twenty-days, plus 5 additional days completing a total of 365. The ritual calendar had 20 hieroglyphics representing the "Signs of the Day", which was combined with 13 different numbers, forming a 260 day cycle.
Children were named according to the date on the ritual calendar on which they were born. For example, names such as One Tiger and Five Flower were commonplace in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.
One of the oldest applications for the 260 day calendar, was found in the San José el Mogote archaeological zone: Monument 3, which bears the name: "Earthquake One". In addition, two recipients engraved with the names " One Tiger " and "Two 'J'" were found.
Location
• San José el Mogote: Is located 7.5 miles (12 kilometres) Northwest of the City of Oaxaca via highway 190 to Villa de Etla. Turn left at the Guadalupe and Soledad Etla detour. Continue another mile (two kilometres) via the paved road and turn left. Approximate travel time: [0:25]
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