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The Zapotec Civilization. The Zapotec civilization was an advanced Mesoamerican culture centered in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, flourishing from roughly 500 BCE to 900 CE. Operating out of their magnificent hilltop capital at Monte Albán, they built one of the earliest urbanized state societies in the region. This civilization matters immensely because they developed one of the oldest writing systems and calendar systems in Mesoamerica, carving detailed hieroglyphs into stone monuments to record royal genealogies and military victories.
Monte Albán sat on a flattened mountain ridge, featuring grand plazas, astronomical observatories, step-pyramids, and elaborate underground tombs. The Zapotecs controlled regional trade and agricultural terraces across Oaxaca, defending their territory against surrounding rival tribes. As central authority at Monte Albán began to weaken around 700 CE, the population gradually dispersed into smaller, fragmented city-states like Mitla, leaving the region open to eventual infiltration by the neighboring Mixtec culture.