I feel so lucky to be here in Mexico! And I absolutely love Oaxaca. Each time that I visit this favorite place of mine, I get to see a new place or archaeological site. This time I went to Lambityeco, a Zapotec site that is really quite small but fascinating. It's surrounded by mountains that just add to the site's mystique. I cannot stress how small this site is compared to other places that I have been to, but it was interesting and a quick visit. But, after all, I was in Oaxaca and I was so excited to be able to visit another ancient Zapotec site.
Lambityeco was one of the Zapotec city-states that flourished as Monte Alban began to collapse. It's located in the middle of the eastern Tlacolula arm of the Oaxaca Valley and probably had a population of about 4,000 by 800CE. The Zapotecs here also incorporated the pattern of having tombs as part of their residences. Lambityeco's ruler, the coqui, and the chief priest (or bigana), had elaborate residences here that followed the pattern of tombs underneath their own houses. The last occupants of the coqui's house seem to have been Lord 8 Death and Lady 5 Reed, whose remains were the last to be interred in the multi-occupant tomb. There are some plaster portraits of Lord 8 Death's grandparents and great-grandparents on the tomb's facade. Lambityeco's flourescence lasted only a bit after 800CE before its decline.
And here are the famous "mascarones" found at Lambityeco. Although it is a very small site, these two mascarones really made it a worthwhile visit. The more I learn about the Zapoteca, the more interested I am in this culture's iconography, religious, and ideological beliefs. Tami and Vicki alerted me to the fact that built into the low walls at Lambityeco were shards of pottery so I included a picture of that (we found that to be quite interesting). Also, what a setting for this small little site! I looked around and all that I could see were mountains off in the distance. It's very beautiful here in the Oaxaca Valley!
And here I am (again!) at Teotihuacan! I posted quite a lengthy entry last year on Teotihuacan so I won't go into the scholarly details of this great, ancient city, but I just wanted to post a few pics of the "city (or dwelling) of the gods". We still do not know what languages were spoken here (although Nahuatl may have been one of them, perhaps another would have been a language imported from Oaxaca), who the people were that lived here, etc. but I just find this place so fascinating (and I think Vicki and Tami did as well). I had to include a picture of the pyramid of the sun (the largest of the three pyramids at Teotihuacan), a picture of me with the pyramid of the moon behind me, and the incline that one has to ascend in order to get to the top of the pyramid of the sun (it's quite the climb!). I enjoyed being able to come here again. I am perpetually intrigued by this place; perhaps one day we'll have more answers than questions about Teotihuacan!
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