Origin and Collapse of Complex Societies in Oaxaca (Mexico): Evaluating the Era from 1965 to the Present

I summarize recent archaeological work in Oaxaca, Mexico, with a focus on questions central to world prehistory: the origin and collapse of complex societies. Monte Albán was the capital of an emerging civilization in the southern highlands of Mexico during the second half of the first millennium B....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of world prehistory 1998-12, Vol.12 (4), p.451-493
Main Author: Balkansky, Andrew K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
America and Arctic regions
Anthropological museums
Ceramic cultures
Cities
Divergent evolution
Excavations
Highlands
Mexico and Central America
Polities
Prehistory and protohistory
Settlement patterns
Social evolution
Spores
Valleys
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Summary:I summarize recent archaeological work in Oaxaca, Mexico, with a focus on questions central to world prehistory: the origin and collapse of complex societies. Monte Albán was the capital of an emerging civilization in the southern highlands of Mexico during the second half of the first millennium B.C. Soon after the foundation of the ancient city, there is evidence for state formation and a political expansion into regions outside the Valley of Oaxaca. Centuries later, Monte Albán went into decline, giving way to the competing small polities found throughout Oaxaca at the time of the Spanish conquest. Since the late 1960s, our knowledge of these changes has been transformed by study of Oaxaca's pre—Monte Albán past, regional settlement surveys, and processual model building. Evolutionary and historical perspectives allow for significant refinement of current debates surrounding the rise and fall of complex societies in Oaxaca.
ISSN:0892-7537
1573-7802
DOI:10.1023/A:1022870516264