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Pacific Coastal Laguna Zope

A regional center in the Terminal Formative hinterlands of Monte Albán

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Robert N. Zeitlin
Robert N. Zeitlin
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254, USA
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Abstract

Recent excavations at Laguna Zope, on the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, provide interesting insights into the nature of a regional center in the hinterlands of Monte Albán. The excavation focused on an elite-status area of the site dating to the Terminal Formative period, a time when the Monte Albán polity in the highland Valley of Oaxaca was thought to have embarked on an imperialist campaign to turn former exchange partners into tribute-paying subjects. In contrast to the evidence from some other regions of Oaxaca, there was little to suggest that Laguna Zope was ever subjugated. On the contrary, exchange between Pacific coastal Laguna Zope and Monte Albán seems to have flourished during the Terminal Formative despite the political unrest that apparently interfered with commerce elsewhere in Oaxaca. In maintaining its political independence and resilience as a center for long-distance exchange during this troubled period, Laguna Zope may have capitalized on its relative distance from the Valley of Oaxaca and on a geographic location that afforded it strategic access to other markets.

Type
Special Section: The Coast Beyond the Clouds: Coastal Highland Interaction in Pre-Hispanic Oaxaca
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 1993 , pp. 85 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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