CHAPTER 1 ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION 53center in a neutral location. The hilltop site in the central part of the Valley was dis-
tant from the most productive farming lands, but it was centrally located and offered
a commanding observation point for the entire valley.
At this time other changes also took place in Oaxacan society. Population grew
at a rapid pace, a market system developed, agricultural intensification took place,
and Monte Albán became an urban center and capital of the Zapotec state. Political
domination by Monte Albán was achieved, in part, through violence: One building
at the site is adorned with carved stones depicting over 300 prisoners who had been
killed, and many of them had also been dismembered. Monte Albán was partially
protected by defensive walls.
Along the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala, a series of early states emerged
along the piedmont of the Sierra Madre mountains. The best known of these states
are Izapa and Takalik Abaj; both are large sites with scores of mounds forming court-
yards lined with carved stone stela and altars. The iconography found on these stone
sculptures was obviously derived from the Olmecs and provides evidence that most
of the conventions used in the subsequent Classic period, including a calendric sys-
tem and writing (see Box 1.2 and Chapter 11), had already been established at this
early time. Recent work has documented other large Late Formative centers along
the piedmont, including Ujuxte and Chocola. Other centers, such as Chalchuapa
and San Leticia, are located further south along the coast of El Salvador. Elsewhere,
Box 1.2 Mesoamerican CalendarsBeginning sometime in the Formative period, Mesoamerican peoples began making use of three
distinctive calendars. The ritual or sacred almanac consisted of a combination of two cycles, one
of thirteen numbers and a second of twenty named days, corresponding to deities, which to-
gether created a 260-day cycle (13 ×20). The specific names for the days varied from region to
region, depending on the language spoken, but the meanings for the day names were similar
across Mesoamerica. The 260-day sacred almanac was used (and still is used in some Maya com-
munities) for religious and divinitory purposes. An individual’s destiny was closely tied to his or
her birthday as expressed in the ritual almanac.
The second Mesoamerican calendar corresponded to the solar year. The solar calendar was
made up of eighteen months of twenty days plus an additional five-day period, which produces
a solar year of 365 days. The months in the solar calendar had patron deities who influenced peo-
ple and events.
For the ancient Mesoamericans, each day was named with reference to both the sacred al-
manac and the solar cycle. This method is not really so different from our own system, in which
we have one cycle of seven day names (Monday through Sunday) and a second cycle of twelve
months that have between 28 and 31 days. In our system, the most complete way to express a
particular day is to say “Friday, September 23.” Similarly, for the Yucatec Maya, for example, a par-
ticular day might be called “3 Imix” (for the ritual almanac) “15 Zac” (for the solar year). The com-
bination of the ritual and the solar cycles created a third calendrical cycle called the calendar
round, which was fifty-two years long. This arrangement means that a given combination of day
designations from the ritual and solar cycles—for example, “3 Imix, 15 Zac” occurs only once
every fifty-two years.