Monte Alban

Monte Albán 

a city in southern Mexico, in Oaxaca State. From the fourth century B.C. to the 16th century A.D. the region around Monte Alban was a political and cultural center, first of the Zapotecs and later of the Mixtecs. Archaeological excavations conducted here from the early 1930’s by the Mexican scholar A. Caso have uncovered palaces, pyramids, stelae with inscriptions, an amphitheater, a stone staircase 40 meters wide, and other structures built on the crest of a mountain range on artificial terraces. The walls of buildings were decorated with frescoes, mosaics, and human figures in relief. The excavations also uncovered about 150 tombs with funerary urns in the shape of men and animals. In one of the tombs belonging to a Mixtec chief were found many gold artifacts of high artistic quality.

REFERENCE

Kinzhalov, R. V. Iskusstvo drevnei Ameriki. Moscow, 1962.