Mixtec culture
The Mixtec culture (also called Mixtec civilization) was a pre-Hispanic archaeological culture, corresponding to the ancestors of the Mixtec people; They called themselves ñuu Savi (a name that their descendants still keep), which means "people or people of the rain". It had its first manifestations in the Mesoamerican Middle Preclassic period (12th century BC-20th century BC) and ended with the Spanish conquest in the first decades of the century XVI. The historical territory of this town is the area known as La Mixteca (Ñuu Dzahui, in Old Mixtec), a mountainous region that lies between the current Mexican states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Guerrero.
The chronology of the Mixtec culture is one of the longest in Mesoamerica, due to its continuity and antiquity. It begins as a result of the cultural diversification of the Otomanguean-speaking peoples in the Oaxaca area. The Mixtecs shared numerous cultural traits with their Zapotec neighbors. In fact, both peoples call themselves "rain or cloud people." The divergent evolution of the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, favored by the ecological environment, encouraged urban concentration in the cities of San José Mogote and Monte Albán, while in the valleys of the Mixteca sierra urbanization followed a pattern of lower human concentrations in numerous populations. Relations between Mixtecs and Zapotecs were constant during the Preclassic, when the Mixtecs were also definitively incorporated into the Pan-Mesoamerican network of relations. Some Mixtec products are among the luxury objects found in the Olmec core area.
During the Mesoamerican Preclassic period, the heyday of Teotihuacán and Monte Albán stimulated the flourishing of the Ñuiñe region (Mixteca Baja). Stelae have been found in cities such as Cerro de las Minas that show a style of writing that combines elements of the writing of Monte Albán and Teotihuacan. The influence of the Zapotecs can be seen in the numerous urns found in the Mixteca Baja sites, which almost always represent the old god of fire. In that same context, the Mixteca Alta saw the collapse of Yucunundahua (Huamelulpan) and the Balkanization of the area. The concentration of power in Ñuiñe was the cause of conflicts between the cities of the region and the states of the Mixteca Alta, which explains the fortification of the Ñuiñe cities. The decline of the Ñuiñe culture coincides with that of Teotihuacan and Monte Albán. At the end of the Mesoamerican Classic (ss. VII and VIII) many elements of the classic culture of the Mixteca Baja fell into disuse and were forgotten.
As of the XIII century, the conditions that allowed the flourishing of the Mixtec culture occurred. Ocho Venado's political temperament led him to consolidate the Mixtec presence on the coast. There he founded the kingdom of Tututepec (Yucudzáa) and later undertook a military campaign to unify numerous states under his power, including such important sites as Tilantongo (Ñuu Tnoo Huahi Andehui). This would not have been possible without the alliance with Cuatro Jaguar, a lord of Nahua-Toltec affiliation who governed Ñuu Cohyo (Tollan-Chollollan). Eight Deer's reign ended with his assassination at the hands of the son of a noble lady who had in turn been murdered earlier by Eight Deer himself.
Throughout the Postclassic, the network of dynastic alliances between the Mixtec and Zapotec states intensified, although paradoxically the rivalry between the two peoples increased. However, they acted together to defend themselves against Mexica incursions. Mexico-Tenochtitlan and its allies would rise victorious over states as powerful as Coixtlahuaca (Yodzo Coo), which was incorporated as a tributary province of the Aztec Empire. However, Yucudzáa (Tututepec) maintained its independence and helped the Zapotecs resist on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. When the Spanish arrived in La Mixteca, many lords voluntarily submitted as vassals of Spain and retained some privileges. Other lordships tried to resist, but were defeated militarily.
The Mixteca
The historical territory of the Mixtecs is located in southern Mexico. With an area of more than 40,000 km², La Mixteca —as it is known today— occupies the south of Puebla, the east of Guerrero, and the west of Oaxaca. The Mixteca was called Mixtecapan by the Mexicas, a word that means Country of the Mixtecs in Nahuatl. In the ancient Mixtec language, the country received the name of Ñuu Dzahui, which Janssen and Pérez Jiménez translate as Country of Caneliata.
The Mixtecs never formed a political unit that integrated all the towns occupied by members of that people, although under the government of Ocho Venado in Tilantongo the largest political unit known to that pre-Columbian nation was formed. The Mixtec territory is very diverse from a geographical point of view, although it is unified by the presence of large mountain ranges such as the Sierra Mixteca itself or the Neovolcanic Axis. However, as Dahlgren observes, its limits are not precise, since its definition varies according to the approach adopted. From a cultural point of view, La Mixteca is the territory where all the peoples who have been called Mixtecs live. in various sources, although this delimitation is not without ambiguities as long as the Mixtec peoples were able to coexist with communities of other ethnic origin, although linguistically and culturally related. The tentative delimitation proposed by González Leyva indicates that...
The western edge of the Mixteca starts on the Pacific coast in Coahuitlán. From there, in a straight line, it addresses the villages of Ometepec and Igualapa (Guerrero), continues and reaches the Atoyac river of Puebla. It continues for him to Tuzantlán (Puebla) — northwest of Acatlán, Puebla. From here, towards the east, the confines touch the Largo hills, Palos Blancos, Pila and Gordo. In this river Gavilán, which passes through the town of Zapotitlán (Puebla), advances along the slopes of the hill Miahuatepec, meets the Zapotitlán River and, near Coxcatlán (Puebla), joins the river Salado (Puebla). Its shoreway arrives in Quiotepec (Oaxaca), extends to Cuicatlán, discharges in the Grande River and crosses the canyon of Tomellín. The river takes the name of this, restates its path in the south, changes its denomination to that of San Antonio, to conclude at the hill Camote. From this place, the border, again in a straight line, runs to San Francisco Telixtlahuaca and Huitzio (sic) (Oaxaca); it moves through the winding rods of La Culebra and Las Lomas de Alas, and roars the villages of Huitepec, Totomachapa and Theojomulco. It is headed towards the Chinche and La Rana hills, the rebase, crosses Mixtepec; it turns west towards Manialtepec, collids with this population, resumes its march and ends in the Pacific.
According to its characteristics, it is usually divided into several regions whose limits are equally imprecise. Despite this, the internal subdivision of the region is a topic that is popular among specialists. Since colonial times, a distinction was made between the different areas that made up La Mixteca. The simplest was divided into Mixteca Alta, corresponding to the Sierra Mixteca, and Mixteca Baja, which included the lands located at the foot of the Sierra Madre del Sur. Antonio de los Reyes indicates in his Arte en lengua mixteca that the Mixteca is divided into six regions: the one inhabited by the chochos, the eastern one that bordered Los Valles, the Mixteca Alta or Ñudzavuiñuhu, the Mixteca Baja or Ñuiñe, the region of the Sierra de Putla or Ñuñuma, and Nuñdaa, Ñundevi or Ñuñama in the Pacific coastal plain.
The Mixteca Alta is the area occupied by the intermontane valleys of Tlaxiaco, Nochixtlán, Putla and Coixtlahuaca, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Mixteca, a highly mountainous area that constitutes the point where the Sierra Madre del Sur approaches and the Neovolcanic Axis. The climate of this region ranges from temperate to cold, and it is relatively more humid than in the rest of the Mixtecs. In the Mixteca Alta several rivers are born that are tributaries of basins as important as the Balsas and Atoyac rivers.
To the north of the Mixteca Alta is the Mixteca Baja, which includes several municipalities in northwestern Oaxaca and southern Puebla. The Mixteca Baja is at a lower altitude than the Mixteca Alta, since the altitude of the terrain hardly exceeds 2000 m s. no. m.. Due to this characteristic, the Mixteca Baja is hotter and drier than the rest of the Mixtec territory, which is why it was called ñuiñe (from the Mixtec language: Ñuuniñei 'Hot Earth'). Most of the Mixteca Baja is part of the Balsas River basin, which receives water from the Atoyac, Acatlán, Mixteco and several other rivers. The climate is typically that of the low deciduous forest, an ecosystem characterized by a combination of xerophytic vegetation with other species that grow periodically in the rainy season.
Geographic location
The region where the Mixtec civilization settled is known as the Mixteca region, there are three zones that make up the Mixteca region:
- Mixteca Low: northwest of the state of Oaxaca and southeast of the state of Puebla.
- Mixteca Alta: northwest of the state of Guerrero and west of Oaxaca.
- Mixteca de la costa: corresponds to the Costa Chica, which is divided between the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.
The mythical origin of the Mixtecs
In the year and in the day |
Mixtec mythology shares many elements with other Mesoamerican traditions. As in the case of the Mexica or the Maya, the Mixtecs also believed that they lived in the "age" of a Fifth Sun and that, before their time, the world had gone through a series of creations and destructions. In the beginning, the earth was a chaos, in which everything was confused. The spirits of the creative forces flew in the air. They are known by their calendrical names, established in the codices produced by this people. These spirits were One Jaguar Deer-Serpent and One Puma Deer-Serpent. They are the Mixtec counterparts of Ometecuhtli and Omecíhuatl, the Lords Two, who represent the dual principle of the entire universe. In the Mixtec myth, these two divinities separate the light from the darkness, the earth from the water, the above from the below, and create the four creator gods that would give birth to the others and to humanity, which was created based on corn.
Legend has it that one of the four children of the original couple made a hole in a tree that was in the clouds and copulated with it. This character is identified with the calendrical name Nine Wind, one of the names of the Feathered Serpent. In this way, the tree gave birth shortly after. From him was born a man who was to challenge the sun, lord of the Mixteca, in a duel to the death. The myth of the Flechador del Sol relates that this character shot his arrows against the star, while the sun fought him with its rays. They spent this way until sunset, when the sun fell mortally wounded (and this would be the explanation for the crimson color of the sunsets) and hid behind the mountains. As the Sun Arrowr feared that the star would be reborn and reclaim its ancient lands, he brought the people and made them settle on the land he had won, and he hurried them to cultivate the milpas of corn that same night. In this way, when the Sun was reborn the next day, nothing could be done, and in this way, the Mixtecs became owners of the region by divine and military right.
According to their mythology, the Mixtecs were descendants of the children of the Apoala tree. One of these sons defeated the Sun and won the land for the Mixtec people. The main divinity of the Mixtecs in pre-Hispanic times was Dzahui, god of rain and patron of the Mixtec nation. Another divinity of great importance was Nine Wind-Coo Dzahui, a civilizing hero who gave them the knowledge of agriculture and civilization.
History
The Mixtecs are one of the oldest peoples in Mesoamerica. Their language belongs to the group of Mixtec languages, related to Zapotec and Otomi. There are signs of human occupation in the Mixteca since the fifth millennium before the Christian era; However, only after the development of agriculture in Mesoamerica did the process that gave rise to the pre-Hispanic Mixtec culture begin. Around the third millennium before the Christian era, the first agricultural towns appeared in the region, whose economy was based on the four basic Mesoamerican crops: chili, corn, beans and squash. Two thousand years later, in the middle of the Middle Preclassic period, the Mixteca was the scene of an urban revolution, where the population centers grew and integrated into the wide network of exchanges that united the Mesoamerican peoples. Like most Mesoamerican societies, the Mixtecs did not form a political unit in pre-Hispanic times, but were organized into small states made up of various populations linked by hierarchical relationships.
The history of the Mixteca in the Preclassic and Classic periods is little known, especially in relation to other contemporary Mesoamerican peoples or to the Postclassic period when the Mixteca flourished. At that time, the expansionism of Tututepec emerged, a city founded by Ocho Venado that came to dominate a large territory between the Mixteca de la Costa and the Mixteca Alta, while establishing a series of alliances with some states of central Mesoamerica.. Except for isolated cases, such as Tututepec, most of the Mixteca was peacefully occupied by the Spanish from the second decade of the century XVI.
Preclassic Period
In the Mixteca, the first sedentary populations began to appear from the XVI century before the Christian era. This stage in the history of the Mixtec people corresponds to the Cruz Phase in the Mixteca Alta, the Pre-Ñudée and Ñudée phases in the Mixteca Baja, and the Charco phase on the Coast. The development of these first agricultural villages in the region was contemporaneous with what was occurring in other areas of Mesoamerica, such as central Mexico, the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Mixtec communities of the Formative period never reached the dimensions of the proto-urban populations of the Central Valleys, such as San José Mogote and Monte Albán. The Mixtec settlement pattern in those years consisted of small communities dedicated to incipient agriculture, although there is evidence of their incorporation into the international exchange network of Mesoamerica.
An example of this link to other Mesoamerican societies is the influence of the Olmec style on Mixteca Alta ceramics. In places like Huamelulpan and Tayata, figurines have been found that have Olmec iconographic characteristics, a style widely spread in almost all of Mesoamerica during the first millennium before the Christian era. On the other hand, Red ceramic objects have been found in the Olmec core area. on Bayo that were undoubtedly produced in the Tayata region, according to the studies that have been carried out on the chemical composition of these archaeological materials. During the period of formation of the cultural traits of the Mixtecs, social stratification was incipient, as shown by the few differences that have been found in the remains of the houses corresponding to those times. On the other hand, the function of the buildings was not clearly differentiated either.
Towards the end of the Middle Preclassic —a time when Mesoamerica saw the flourishing of the Olmec style, which was widespread in the area— some towns began to appear in the Mixteca Alta, housing thousands of people in their heyday. Among them were Monte Negro and Huamelulpan, the former located near Tilantongo, which several hundred years later would be the head of one of the most powerful Mixtec states; and the second, in the Tlaxiaco area. On the other hand, in the Lower Mixteca the population of Cerro de las Minas began to flourish in the valley of the Mixteco River. In this era, spanning roughly the V century B.C. C. to II century d. C., Mixtec societies lived a process of social differentiation that is reflected in the appearance of some public buildings in towns such as Yucuita, Etlatongo, Tayata and Huamelulpan in the Mixteca Alta; and Cerro de las Minas and Huajuapan in the Lower Mixteca.. The political structure at the end of the Late Cruz phase in the Mixteca Alta was constituted by a series of States that dominated small territories where there were numerous populations organized in a hierarchical manner. The hierarchy of the populations has been observed in the number of architectural monuments that each town housed, which has allowed us to infer the type of relationships that existed between the center of regional relevance and the second-line towns. A well-known case is that of Huamelulpan, whose rapid growth relegated Tayata —which was one of the largest Mixtec towns in the Middle Preclassic— to a second position, causing population contraction and the cessation of architectural works in Tayata around the 3rd century. to. C..
The urban revolution in the Mixteca was contemporary with the process that led to the formation of the Zapotec state headed by Monte Albán. The Zapotec populations of Los Valles that emerged in the Middle Preclassic had comparable dimensions to the Mixtec populations of the sierra. However, the history of Monte Albán would mark several differences with the Mixtec señoríos, among them the spatial dimensions under state rule. In the Mixteca, the states dominated small territories that sometimes did not exceed one hundred square kilometers in area. In contrast, Monte Albán occupied a much larger territory and undertook an expansionist campaign early on that led him to occupy the Cañada de Cuicatlán and some regions of the Sierra de Juárez. The influence of Monte Albán in the Mixteca during the Preclassic period is evident: ceramic productions with characteristics similar to those of Los Valles Zapotec pottery appear in various localities of the Mixteca Alta: Huamelulpan produced urns that bore a certain resemblance to those produced in Monte Albán, and inscriptions in the Zapotec writing system have been found in that same region. However, there is no evidence that Monte Albán dominated the Mixtec politically, so it is plausible that these influences are a reflection of a single cultural process that gave rise to both civilizations.
Classic Period
In the Mixtec culture, the Classic Period roughly covers the time span between the 1st and 8th/9th centuries, with some variations depending on the local history of each cultural area. Throughout Mesoamerica, cities of considerable dimensions and populations appear, with a clear specialization in the use of space and a social differentiation that is reflected in the diverse characteristics of the remains of the buildings. The Teotihuacan cultural influence is felt throughout the region, although only in some localities has the political and military domination of this metropolis been proven. Commercial ties became stronger between the different towns, already specialized in the production of certain subsistence and luxury goods. As with the Preclassic period, the history of the Mixtec people in this phase of urbanization and emergence of the great states in Mesoamerica is little known. The Classic period in the Mixteca is marked by a process of substitution of the centers of political power throughout the region. Some characteristics of the Preclassic Mixtec states were inherited by their successors, among them the fragmentation of control over the territory among numerous hierarchically organized populations. In the Mixteca Alta, Yucuita was replaced by Yucuñudahui as the seat of political power in the Nochixtlán valley; In other areas of the Mixteca Alta, such as the Huamelulpan valley, this replacement did not occur, and Huamelulpan, which was one of the main towns during the Late Ramos phase, collapsed and lost an important part of its population, although the occupation of the city was continuous until the Postclassic. Throughout the Mixteca Alta, the population density increased, which caused the appearance of new urban localities in the valleys and mountains of the area. Among these are Monte Negro, Diquiyú, Cerro Jazmín in the center; and the Poblano river basin in the Coixtlahuaca valley.
Although during the Preclassic period the urbanization process in the Mixteca and Los Valles had similar characteristics, for the Classic period the situation is different. In some works, one wants to see in Yucuñudahui a Mixtec counterpart of Monte Albán. However, unlike the Zapotec society, with a single capital in Monte Albán; The Mixtecs were organized in small city-states that rarely exceeded twelve thousand inhabitants. According to Spores, Yucuñudahui was only one of the many states that had their headquarters in the Nochixtlán valley. On the other hand, in some cases the population density in the Mixteca was higher than in the valleys, as demonstrated by the study of settlement patterns in the Mixteca Alta. During the Mixtec Classic, signs of a clearly stratified society appeared and the characteristic features of the Mixtec religion were consolidated, among them, the cult of rain and lightning, condensed in the divinization of Dzahui.
On the other hand, in the Mixteca Baja a cultural complex with its own characteristics appeared that spread throughout that area and the eastern part of the current state of Guerrero. The main center of this culture —which Paddock called ñuiñe to differentiate it from the Mixtec culture— was Cerro de las Minas (north of Huajuapan de León), a population whose beginnings date back to the Late Preclassic, but whose flourishing occurred from the second century onwards. century of the Christian era. Cerro de las Minas has urban characteristics similar to the cities of the Mixteca Alta. It was built around a set of several small plazas around which the rest of the population was distributed —and this is one of the differences of Mixtec urbanism compared to other Mesoamerican towns whose cities were organized around a single, large main square-. The space on which it was built was modified by the construction of terraces, called coo yuu (lama-bordo), which is why the city has numerous stairways. Cerro de las Minas was embellished with numerous reliefs containing inscriptions in a writing system little known to date, called ñuiñe. The similarities between these inscriptions and those on the Zapotec stelae at Monte Albán suggest a very strong relationship between Los Valles and the Mixtec Baja during the Classic.
Other sites where vestiges of the Ñuiñe culture have been found in the Mixteca Baja are San Pedro and San Pablo Tequixtepec, the Tonalá cave and the Colossal Bridge in Oaxaca; Acatlán de Osorio, Hermengildo Galeana and San Pablo Anicano (Puebla); and in numerous sites in La Montaña de Guerrero, such as Copanatoyac, Malinaltepec, Zoyatlán, Metlatónoc and Huamuxtitlán. In many cases, they are ceramic samples with similar characteristics to that produced in Cerro de las Minas: fragments of vessels with little or no decoration, made with a brownish-orange paste whose composition is similar to the Thin Orange ceramic produced in Ixcaquixtla (Puebla), on the northern border of the Mixteca Baja. Other characteristic elements of the Ñuiñe culture are the so-called colossal heads, small stone sculptures that represent anthropomorphic heads —some of which are objects of worship by the indigenous communities of the Mixteca region of Guerrero—; as well as certain urns representing the god of fire and a local version of Dzahui, whose characteristics were similar to the contemporary effigies of Pitao Cocijo produced by the Los Valles Zapotecs.
During the Classic period, the Mixteca Baja was home to the main political centers of the Mixteca. The takeover of the Mixteca Alta states seems to have implied a series of events that politically destabilized the region, such that one of the main characteristics of the cities in Ñuiñe is their location at strategic points that facilitated their defense. In the same way that Huamelulpan and its satellites during the Late Preclassic; Cerro de las Minas, Diquiyú and other cities of the Mixteca Baja had fortifications and their administrative and religious buildings were built on the slopes of the hills, while the habitable areas they were built in areas with relatively easier access. The war in the Mixteca Baja during the Classic may have been caused not only by competition between the states of the region, but it is also likely that the rivalry with the Zapotecs of Los Valles may have been cause of conflict in the area. To this must be added that the war activity could also have been related to the ritualism of human sacrifices and the ball game.
Around the VII century of the Christian era, most of the Mesoamerican peoples faced serious crises that led to to the decline of several of the most powerful states, among them Teotihuacán and Monte Albán. The Mixtec states also faced these widespread disturbances. In the Mixteca Baja, the Ñuiñe culture disappeared towards the end of the Classic period and several of the most important cities were partially or completely abandoned, both in the Mixteca Baja and in the Mixteca Alta. However, there were not a few cities like Cerro Jazmín and Tilantongo that had a continuous occupation in the transition from the Classic to the Postclassic.
Postclassic Period
The Postclassic is by far the best-known period of pre-Hispanic Mixtec history, thanks to the preservation of oral history in colonial documents, but also to the codices that survived the destruction and the time after the arrival of the Spaniards to the Mixteca. In Mesoamerica, the postclassic period is marked by the flourishing of militaristic states. This does not mean that the societies of the previous stages had ignored war, since the city-States of the Mixteca were protected by walls since the first millennium before the Christian era. What happens is that in this period, military activity seems to have taken on greater importance, as evidenced by the proliferation of paraphernalia associated with war and the cult of warrior divinities throughout the region.
By the end of the VIII century, the Ñuiñe style began to decline in the Mixteca Baja, until it was gradually replaced due to the iconographic style typical of the Mixtec codices. The appearance of a new artistic style, accompanied by other cultural changes such as the deepening of the veneration of the Feathered Serpent and the construction of inter-ethnic alliances is not exclusive to the Mixtecs of the Early Postclassic and has its antecedents in the political and social changes of the end of the of the Classic in central Mexico. Throughout the Mixteca the population began to increase dramatically, although the most important demographic changes take place in the Mixteca Alta. According to archaeological investigations, in the Mixteca Alta the number of localities corresponding to the Natividad phase (X-century XVI AD) doubled with respect to those existing in the previous phase, that is, the Las Flores phase. In the same way, the surface occupied by these towns increased significantly, reaching 10,450 hectares of urban area. These populations were organized into small hostile states, each headed by a major city that governed over other towns subject to their authority. The construction of a hierarchical structure in the relations between the heads of Mixtec manors —called ñuu— and their satellites —called siqui— is constant in Mixtec history, although in this period is accentuated due to the increase in the population and the political strategies of the ruling elites.
Starting in the Postclassic, the Mixtecs had broader contacts with other peoples than what is now Oaxaca, even despite linguistic and ethnic differences. The case of relations between Mixtecs and Zapotecs, present in earlier times but now more intense, is special. These relations were not only a result of their proximity in the same region, they had economic and political purposes. The existence of a dense network of marriage alliances at the level of the Mixtec and Zapotec elites has been documented. For example, the Códice Nuttall reports the marriage of Tres Lagarto with a Zapotec noblewoman from Zaachila, from whose marriage Cocijoeza was born, the future lord of that city who forged a combined army of Mixtecs and Zapotecs and launched an expansionist campaign in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. There are numerous cities in Los Valles that show signs of a Mixtec presence, including Monte Albán itself, where Alfonso Caso rescued the treasure from Tomb 7. The existence of influential works Mixteca in Los Valles has been the subject of speculation by specialists. For some, it is evidence of Mixtec expansionism, such that the Zapotecs of Los Valles would have been politically dominated by the Mixtecs. However, it is also plausible that the marriage and political alliances between the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs have favored the diffusion of Mixtec art in the Zapotec territory, art that was used as a prestige element by the elite of the Zapotec cities. In addition to Monte Albán, other cities in Los Valles that show archaeological objects of Mixtec manufacture or influence are Mitla, Lambityeco, Yagul, Cuilapan and Zaachila; The latter was the most important of the Zapotec cities until its conquest by the Mexica in the 15th century.
Colonization of the Coast
Since the Preclassic, the coast of Oaxaca was occupied by Zapotec-speaking peoples. According to glottochronological analyses, the separation between the Chatino language and the rest of the languages of the Zapotec group must have occurred around the 5th century B.C. In contrast, the coastal varieties of Mixtec appear to have diverged from the rest of the Mixteca Alta speech around the X century. > u XI, from which it can be inferred that the presence of the Mixtecs on the coast is relatively late. Based on these data and from the analysis of the archaeological objects found in the region, it is likely that the linguistic identity of the inhabitants of the lower Río Verde valley during the Preclassic and Classic periods was Zapotec, displaced from the center of Oaxaca. Although relations between the lower Río Verde valley and the Mixteca Alta are not completely ruled out for reasons of geographic proximity, the presence of the Mixtecs in the La Costa region is the product of late colonization.
The massive movement of the Mixtecs to the towns of La Costa caused a change in power relations in these communities. The Zapotec peoples, like the Chatinos, came under the political domination of the Mixtec elites. The Mixtec cacicazgos of La Costa possessed, for this very reason, a multi-ethnic population as in the case of Tututepec. Although this town was occupied prior to the Postclassic, it shows signs of spectacular demographic growth between the 9th and 10th centuries, precisely related to the Mixtec migration from the highlands. From the XI, Tututepec would play a fundamental role in Mixtec history, being the first seat of Ocho Venado, a Mixtec lord who would dominate a territory of more than 40 thousand square kilometers after unifying numerous hostile states, already defeating them militarily, already establishing political alliances with them.
Chiefdom of Eight Deer
The political fragmentation of the Mixtec people in pre-Hispanic times was a constant that transcended the centuries. However, between the 11th and 12th centuries of the Common Era, numerous manors in the three Mixtecs formed a unit under the domain of Eight Deer-Jaguar Claw (in Mixtec, Iya Naacua Teyusi Ñaña; Tilantongo, 1063-1115). This character is fundamental in the post-classic history of Mesoamerica, not only because of the power he acquired in the Mixteca, but also because of the relationships he established with other peoples, especially with the Nahuatlacas of central Mexico.
Ocho Venado was born from the second marriage of Cinco Lagarto-Dzahui Ndicahndíí, a priest of the Temple of Heaven that was located in Tilantongo (in Mixtec, Ñuu Tnoo Huahi Andehui). He was, therefore, outside the line of succession to the throne of the lordship of Tilantongo. Thanks to the prestige obtained in the military campaigns —according to the Nuttall Codex, the first of these occurred in 1071, when Ocho Venado was eight years old—, Ocho Venado occupied the throne of Tututepec in 1083 (Mixtec: Yucudzáa), in the valley of the lower Río Verde, near the Pacific coast. Later, Ocho Venado sealed an alliance with the Toltecs, from whom he received the rank of tecuhtli in Ñuu Cohyo. On the 13th lizard day of the year 7 house (1097), Eight Deer met with Four Jaguar who was an important ally in his rise to power.
The alliance between Ocho Venado and Cuatro Jaguar helped legitimize the arrival of the former to the throne of Tilantongo after the death of Mr. Dos Lluvia, cacique of the place. To avoid likely claims by Two Rain's descendants, Eight Deer removed them all and became sole heir to the manor. Of special importance was the conquest of Lugar del Bulto de Xipe, where a branch of the royal lineage of Tilantongo resided. In Place of the Bundle of Xipe, Eleven Bloody Wind-Jaguar ruled, married to Seis Lizard-Jade Fan (eight deer's half-sister) and to Seis Monkey-Quexquémitl de Guerra (heiress to the throne of Jaltepec). 11 house (1101), Ocho Venado defeated the defenders of Lugar del Lulto de Xipe. It is unknown how Six Monkey and Eleven Wind died. His sons Ten Perro-Águila de Tabaco Ardiendo and Six Casa-Sarta de Pedernales were sacrificed, the first by gladiatorial sacrifice and the second by ritual arrow shooting. In this way, Ocho Venado added the important domains of Jaltepec and Lugar del Bulto de Xipe to the territories under his domain.
During his reign in Tilantongo, Ocho Venado managed to conquer around a hundred Mixtec manors. In addition, he established an important network of alliances through his marriages. Among others, his wives were Thirteen Snake-Snake of Flowers, daughter of the first marriage of Eleven Wind of the Place of the Lump of Xipe (year 13 reed, 1103); Six Eagle-Jaguar Cobweb and Ten Vulture-Quexquémitl de Conchas. His first child was born in the year 6 house (1109) of his marriage to Seis Águila and he was heir to the throne of Tilantongo. Eight Deer was sacrificed to death in 1115, after being defeated by a coalition of rebel lords under his rule. The rebel alliance was headed by Four Wind, the only son of Eleven Wind and Six Monkey who had escaped death after the fall of Xipe's Lump Place. The remains of Ocho Venado were probably deposited in the royal grotto of Chalcatongo. Upon his death, the Mixtec kingdom dissolved into numerous states, ending the only period of political unity in the region's pre-Hispanic history.
Mexica conquest
Upon the death of Ocho Venado, his sons inherited some of the most important estates that were part of the kingdom under the rule of Tilantongo. In other Mixtec cities, the old local elites regained their power. The restoration of the old system of political organization in small states implied the revival of conflicts between some of them or the establishment of alliances or confederations. At this time, the Mixteca—and especially the Mixteca Alta—was one of the most prosperous regions of Mesoamerica. It exported luxury items to other regions, such as polychrome ceramics, feather art, goldsmithing, rock crystal, bone, and wood carvings; as well as subsistence goods typical of tropical regions and temperate climate zones.
The Mixteca is strategically located between the central part of Mexico and the southeastern Mesoamerican, so in the era of expansionism of the Triple Alliance formed by Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan —a confederation called Excan Tlatoloyan—, quickly aroused the interests of the Mexica and their allies in the Lake Texcoco basin. By the second half of the 15th century, a large part of the Mixteca was under the political, as well as military power of Tenochtitlan. Some of the most important cities in the region were converted into concentration centers for the tribute demanded by the conquerors, among them Coixtlahuaca, which until before the Mexica conquest had become one of the largest cities in Mesoamerica. The advance of the Mexica in the Mixteca Alta allowed them to also dominate the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, in their eagerness to ensure their predominance in the trade routes between the Mexican highlands and the Pacific coast of Guatemala and Chiapas. The Mexicas also attempted to conquer the Mixtec coast and the Tehuantepec isthmus, but were defeated by an alliance between the Zapotecs and Mixtecs both in their campaigns against Tututepec —which at the time controlled a territory of approximately 25,000 square kilometers on the Costa Chica in Oaxaca—as in those carried out on the isthmus. Of special importance was the Mixtec-Zapotec victory in Guiengola, a fortress where the Mexicas were definitively defeated by the defenders of the Tehuantepec isthmus.
Spanish conquest
The arrival of the Spanish on the coast of Veracruz provoked various types of reactions. Several towns saw in the Spaniards the opportunity for liberation, among them, the Zempoaltecas and the Tlaxcaltecas. After the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Spanish and their indigenous allies concentrated their attacks on other peoples such as the Mixtecs. But unlike what happened in the central part of Mexico; Most of the Mixtecs established agreements with the Spanish, giving rise to a process of mutual cultural adaptation that in turn allowed the Mixtecs to preserve several of their traditions and customs, such as their language, commercial practices, agricultural methods, etc. Only some parts in the Mixteca militarily resisted the Spanish conquest as in the case of Tututepec.
Comparative chronology
Society
Kinship system
Based on available data, they have asserted that in the Postclassic, the Mixtecs had a Hawaiian-type kinship system. 2001: 317. This means that it was a bilateral system that allowed, among other things, for people to have inheritance rights over the assets and titles of their two parents, as well as the participation of women in high spheres of power., as shown by the 951 noblewomen recorded in pre-Columbian Mixtec codices. In a Hawaiian kinship system, a person designates his father and all his male uncles by the same term. In the same way, he uses the same term to refer to his mother and all his aunts. As a consequence of this, his brothers and the children of his uncles are designated with the same word.
Social classes
During pre-Hispanic times, Mixtec society was characterized by its high hierarchy. However, the differences did not appear spontaneously. The stratification process paralleled the development of Mixtec society. The strata of the Mixtec society have their origin in the sedentarization of this town and were influenced by the political, historical, economic and cultural processes that occurred in the Mixteca since the century XVI a. C. At the beginning, the Mixtec populations had an incipient stratification. The remains of the Late and Middle Preclassic populations do not present great differences when comparing some houses with others, and the use of the constructions of these settlements does not seem to be too specialized. The assets available to the Mixtecs in those centuries seem to have been limited, and there is no evidence to clearly distinguish the habitable areas of the elite with respect to the rest of the population, although it is possible to admit the existence of a gradation in the levels of well-being among the inhabitants of the same locality.
The transition to the Classic marks the development of full urban life in this region and in most of the Mesoamerican territory. The consolidation of state organizations in the Mixteca implied a process of greater differentiation that tended to be legitimized through the use of ideology and alliances at the elite level with the purpose of reproducing inequalities between the strata of society. The emergence of the ñuiñe style in the Mixteca Baja —the most prosperous area of the Mixteca in the Classic— is a sign of the willingness of the ruling groups to make clear the differences between themselves and the rest of the people. Spanish colonial chronicles speak of numerous strata of Mixtec society, however, all of them can be reduced to the following large groups:
- yya is the title received by the lord of each mixed cacyclazgo;
- dzayya yya was the group made up of the Mixtec nobility, forming the same category with the king;
- tay ñuufree people;
- tay situndayu, stubborn;
- tay siquachi and dahasahaservants and slaves respectively.
Overall, there wasn't much of a chance to move up the social ladder. Marriages between the dzayya yya implied that this group would always retain their privileged position and pass it on to their offspring. The nobles of different Mixtec towns practiced endogamy, which also generated a complicated network of alliances at the elite level that served as a means of reproducing social inequality as well as maintaining order in the region. The free people, the tay ñuu, owned themselves and the product of their work on the land, whose property was communal. The terrazgueros, for their part, were people who, because of the war, had lost control over the product of their work and had to pay tribute to the nobles. The last groups in the social scale of the Mixtecs had fewer rights than the others and their lives could be arranged by the nobility for whatever purpose was necessary.
Political organization
One of the most accentuated characteristics of the political system of the pre-Columbian Mixtecs was the fragmentation into numerous states that dominated small territories and that on several occasions were in conflict with each other. Since the Middle Preclassic, a hierarchical structure appears between the populations that were part of the same State. The place that each community occupied in this structure is manifested in the number of monumental constructions that each of them possessed. On the other hand, the power of each small city or town was not static, but was in constant play in the face of competition between the different population centers. In this way, it can be understood that in the transition from the Preclassic to the Classic some populations ceded their privileged position to others, as happened with Yucuita, replaced by Yucuñudahui.
The ñuu (Mixtec: town, community) were the primary unit of political relations among the Postclassic Mixtecs. A wildebeest could or could not be the head of a State. The political life of the Mixtec states unfolded in a network known as yuhuitayu (the seat, the mat). This political unit consisted of the dynastic union of two local lineages through the marriage of a yya toniñe (noble lord) and a yya dzehe toniñe (noble lady). The ruling elites resorted to numerous strategies in order to maintain their power. One of them was the establishment of elite alliances. Alliances were usually sealed by marriage between members of noble lineages, which often involved incestuous marriages. The establishment of kinship affinities used to be carried out with the purpose of relating to the most prestigious lineages of the Mixtec nation and, even, with the foreign nobility, as shown by the recurring marriages between members of the Mixtec and Zapotec royalty throughout the most of twenty centuries of pre-Hispanic history of these towns.
Militarism
The Mixtecs developed their own arts of warfare, invented their own weapons and made their own conquests, as well as defended their territories from any invaders. Their conflicts and alliances were mainly between Mixtec cities and Zapotec towns. The most prominent hero in Mixtec history was 8 Venado, ruler of Tututepec and conqueror; his exploits are recounted in the Nuttal Codex.
The codices give us a glimpse of the weapons and uniforms used by the Mixtecs:
- Remote attack weapons: Among the distance attack weapons used by the Mixtecs were the typical arches and arrows, whose tips should have been obsidian, pedernal or silex. Also present was the use of athlatl, a common weapon in all Mesoamerica.
- Body-to-body attack weapons: Among the weapons of body-to-body attack, the Mixtecs fought with a variety of claws and spears, some similar to tepoztopilli mexica, but smaller. The attention is drawn to a weapon that frequently appears in the codex, which is a wooden stick bent at an angle of 90°, with stone leaves (it has already been sylex, pedernal or obsidian) at the top; this weapon appears to have been representative of the Mixteca and Zapotec area.
- Military dress: The warriors are represented in the codex wearing zoomorphic costumes, from jaguar skins, to yelmos in the form of eagle head, to deer skins. The zoomorphic uniforms were common in Mesoamerica, the most representative examples were the mexic orders of the eagle warriors and jaguar.
Gallery:
Mixed warrior released darts with an atlatl. Colombino codex. Lam. 1
A mixed warrior wearing a jaguar skin and a helmet shaped like a bald eagle head. Codex Selden, p. 17.
Mixed archer disguised as a deer, as appears in the Bodley Codex.
A ruler is executed by a priest of Xipe-totec. Nuttal Codex.
Economic activities
Economy
Like the rest of the peoples of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the subsistence of the Mixtecs was based on agriculture. The ecological and topographic conditions of the territory of this town conditioned the development of certain crops adapted to the diversity of environments in the Mixteca. Of course, the most important crop of this people was corn, which was associated with other crops of vital importance in the Mesoamerican diet. Among them, we must point out various varieties of beans, chili and pumpkin. In places where the climate allowed it, there were crops of species that were not necessarily used for food. Among them, it is worth noting cotton —adapted to the semitropical climates of the Mixteca Baja, Cañada de Cuicatlán and the Oaxaca Coast—, and cocoa, typical of areas with higher humidity.
One of the great problems that the Mixtecs faced in pre-Columbian times is the abrupt relief of the Mixteca and the scarcity of water in the region. Agriculture offered better yields in the intermontane valleys of the Mixteca Alta, at least in comparison with the hotter and drier Mixteca Baja and the Mixteca de la Costa. Indications of artificial terraces have been found on the slopes of the mountains surrounding valleys such as Tlaxiaco. The purpose of the terraces was to expand the scarce cultivable area by intentionally flattening the slopes; as well as the best use of available water. On the other hand, in the drier areas, alternative crops were developed, such as pitayo.
The rugged geography of La Mixteca forced its inhabitants to develop a set of technologies that would allow profitable agriculture. On the slopes of the Mixteca sierra they built terraces called coo yuu (lama-bordo). To do this, they used masonry dykes that allowed the washed-out soil of the mountain slopes to be preserved. According to the modern peasants of the Nochixtlán valley, the use of the Mixtec terraces allows the formation of a platform that produces good maize crops after 3 or 4 years. The coo yuu required maintenance, as erosion and agricultural use of the terraces caused the erosion of the nutritious soil. For these tasks, in the Mixteca Alta, caliche obtained from mines in the region was used. The ancient Mixtecs used the tumba-slash-burn system to gain land for crops. That is, they dismantled the original vegetation on the slopes of the mountains and proceeded to burn it to use the plant remains as fertilizer for their crops. This caused serious deforestation that affected a large part of the Mixtec territory, considered one of the most eroded in the Mexican Republic.
Complementary activities
In Mesoamerica, a very small number of animal species were domesticated. The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and the xoloitzcuintle are two of them, and their presence has been proven in all directions of Mesoamerica. Both constituted a source of meat that was consumed on a small scale in indigenous societies. In the Mixteca, additionally, cochineal breeding was developed, a parasite used by the textile industry. The species is a parasite of the cactus. It still breeds in the temperate climates of the Mixteca Alta and other parts of northern and central Oaxaca. A dye called carmine or grana cochineal is obtained from it, appreciated for its intense red color. Cochineal farming continued as one of the main activities in the region until the XIX century, when the discovery of dyes synthetics displaced it.
The basis of the economy of all Mesoamerican peoples was agriculture. The Mixtecs, like the rest of the Mesoamerican peoples, resorted to hunting, gathering, and fishing to supplement their diet and cover other needs. One of the advantages of the Mixtec territory was its great diversity of microclimates, which is why many of the manors that developed in the area were practically self-sufficient in terms of subsistence.
The inhabitants of the Mixteca were incorporated into the extensive network of Mesoamerican trade. In addition to the fruits of agricultural work and cochineal, the Mixtecs traded precious materials and manufactured goods. From very early dates, they were integrated as mineral producers, including magnetite. It has been proven that during the Middle Preclassic (12th-5th c. BC), Red on Bayo ceramics from Tayata (Mixteca Alta) were a product of trade with the Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico coast.
Culture
Language and writing
By the arrival of the Spanish, the Mixtec already spoke numerous varieties of the Mixtec language, already with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. According to Spores (1967 and 2007), towards the Preclassic the language spoken in the region was the Proto-Mixtec language, from which not only all the Mixtec languages known today derive, but also Triqui, which is spoken by the members of the homonymous people in the southern part of the Mixteca Alta. The degrees of divergence among the many Mixtec languages of today are a product of the history of their speakers: for example, according to glottochronological analyses, the coastal variety of Mixtec diverged from core highland Mixtec around the X or XI, whichever matches with the late colonization of the Costa Chica by the Mixtecs.
The Dominican friars who were in charge of the evangelization of Oaxaca established for the first time a phonetic writing of the Mixtec language. To the friars Antonio de los Reyes and Francisco de Alvarado we owe the edition of the first grammar in the language that was spoken in the Mixteca Alta at the time of the Conquest. The variety collected by the Dominicans seems to correspond to that used in Yucundaa (Teposcolula), which may have served as the lingua franca in the region. The spelling of the Teposcolula variety was later adapted to write the language Mixtec, whose name at the time of the Conquest was dzaha dzahui.
Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the Mixtecs also cultivated literary forms. They had pictographic writing, of which pre-Hispanic testimonies are preserved such as the Nuttall (Tonindeye), Selden, Vindobonensis codices. i>, Becker I and Colombino. Except for the latter, which is found in Mexico, the rest of the pre-Columbian codices created by the Mixtecs that survived the destruction are found in museums and libraries in Europe. These codices served as mnemonic instruments, so that the paintings that appear on their pages could be translated into an oral text by the act of someone who knows the keys to interpret them.
Writing
Like almost all Mesoamerican societies, the Mixtecs developed a writing system. The first indications of the use of writing in the Mixtec area correspond to the Mixteca Alta, in the Late Preclassic (V century a C.-I d. C.). In Huamelulpan some lintels have been found with calendrical inscriptions that could be the names of some leaders of the ancient Mixtec city. These inscriptions, however, are made in the Zapotec writing system, from which originated the various systems used later in central Mesoamerica into the Classic and Postclassic periods. The flowering of the Mixtec Baja in the Classic It also brought the development of the Ñuiñe script, although its similarity to the Zapotec script of Monte Albán complicates the identification of its area of diffusion. Towards the beginning of the Postclassic (IX) appears the so-called Mixtec script, which is part of a great stylistic current called Mixteca-Puebla style or International style of the Mesoamerican Postclassic. This writing is basically pictographic, although there are many hieroglyphic and ideographic elements that complement it. Mixtec writing served as a channel for the preservation of the beliefs of this people and some aspects of their history. Alfonso Caso is responsible for demonstrating the Mixtec authorship of the codices that today form part of the so-called Mixtec group, which for a long time were attributed to the Mexicas or the Mayas.
Religion
Mixtecs of pre-Hispanic times had an animist religion. According to the information that has been obtained from the pictographic documents produced by this people, the origin of historical colonial sources and the analysis of archaeological evidence, it can be said that it shares with other Mesoamerican religions some very characteristic traits, among them, the belief in a dual-primary principle that gave origin to the world as it is known. Another common feature between the Mixtec religion and the rest of the Mesoamerican religions is the belief that the world has been created and destroyed on several occasions. According to the Codex Vindobonensis, 
One Venado-Serpiente de Jaguar and 
One Venado-Serpiente de Puma created the first beings of the world, the ñuhu (AFI: [.uŭu]), who helped order it. All the beings of the first creation were petrified when the Sun — sold in the Mixteca with the names of Yya Ndicahndíí and Taandoco— he rose above the firmament, although some of them took refuge in the caves and did not perish. Them ñuhu They embodied the very elements of nature: fire, wind, water, land, vegetation, fauna. As some of them were believed to have taken refuge in the caves not to be petrified, one of the distinctive elements of the Mixtec religion was the worship of the mountains and the caves. Some of them were—and still remain—the destination of pious pilgrimages of the Mixtecs, among the most conspicuous of these underground galleries are the caves of Chalcatongo in the Alta Mixteca, where the sanctuary of Nine Herba, the goddess of the death of the Mixtecs.
The tutelary god of the Mixtecs was Dzahui —literally Rain—, divinity of rain and celestial water. So important was the cult of rain for the Mixtecs that their native name qualifies them as the people of the rain, that is, the people chosen by Dzahui. It shares many attributes with the Tláloc of central Mesoamerica, revered by the Teotihuacans, Toltecs and Mexicas and who appears on numerous effigy vessels found especially in the Mixteca Alta. The cult of Dzahui in the Mixtec is very old, its appearance dates back to the end of the Late Preclassic, that is, between the V centuries B.C. C. and II d. c.
On the other hand, in the Lower Mixteca, the Ñuiñe society was characterized by the cult of the old god of fire, Huehuetéotl, venerated since ancient times throughout the Mesoamerican area. It has been speculated that the cult of Huehuetéotl may have been one of the first to take shape in Mesoamerica, since its representations have been found in populations as old as Cuicuilco up to the great Postclassic cities such as Tenochtitlan itself. The worship of fire in the Mixteca Baja is also reflected in the place names of the region: Ñuiñe, which is the Mixtec place name of the area, and which means Hot Earth. The Ñuiñe representations of the divinity of fire share several attributes with other Mesoamerican representations of the same divinity. He is represented as an old man in a seated position, carrying a large brazier on his head. In some effigies obtained in Cerro de las Minas, the Mixtec god of fire appears holding incense burners or special vessels to light tobacco in his hands. In the Mixteca Baja, the cult of fire coexisted with the cult of rain during the flourishing period of the Ñuiñe style (3rd-7th centuries AD); The decline of this society also implied the decline of the cult of fire in the Mixteca Baja, as indicated by the smaller number of representations of this divinity in the region.
Human sacrifice among the Mixtecs was a ritual practice of considerable antiquity. In the archaeological zone of Huamelulpan, the remains of some skulls have been found that must have been part of a tzompantli. human beings, as several important events in the chronicles of the pre-Columbian past of the Mixtecs demonstrate. A particular case is the sacrifice of the descendants of the lords of Bulto de Xipe and Jaltepec, sacrificed by order of Ocho Venado through gladiatorial sacrifice and ritual arrow shooting. Both forms of human sacrifice were related to the cult of Xipe Tótec, the god of fertility and patron of the reigning lineage in Lugar del Bulto de Xipe.
Like the rest of Mixtec society, the religious also maintained a fairly stable hierarchical structure. The high priests of the cult of a divinity were called yaha yahui (eagle-snake of fire) According to the beliefs of the Mixtecs, the yaha yahui possessed the ability to transmute into animals and were feared for the power they possessed over the world of the supernatural.
Arts
Pre-Hispanic Mixtec art is widely related to religion and worship, some of the most sumptuous pieces were destined for temple altars or for ritual uses. However, there are also other objects that were used by the political and religious elite and that were intended for everyday enjoyment. Most of the Mixtec artistic pieces that are known today correspond to the Postclassic Period (ss. X-XVI), which is also the highest peak in La Mixteca and most of it. The Mixtec society favored the development of minor arts, reaching a remarkable precision within the framework of the severity of Mesoamerican art. The weak development of architecture and sculpture in stone, particularly when comparing the Mixtecs with neighboring towns such as the Zapotecs, made Barbro Dahlgren think that the artists of this town simply dedicated themselves to collecting the artistic traditions of previous cultures..
Mixtec architecture is relatively simple, according to what is known about it from excavations. In the archaeological sites of the area, vestiges of ancient constructions that never reached great importance have been found. From the pre-Columbian codices of this town, it is known that the temples were located on pyramidal platforms that had access stairs. The civil buildings were organized around large squares and inside the rooms were organized around patios. In the case of the houses destined for the lower strata of society, the prevailing materials were not very resistant, among them was the bajareque for the walls and the palm for the roofs.
Many of the known Mixtec pieces are ceramic pieces, whose durable material has withstood the passage of time. Some of the oldest correspond to the Middle Preclassic. These are pieces that reflect the influence of the Olmec and Zapotec styles, as in the case of the pottery found in Monte Negro. The Ñuiñe style, which developed in the Mixteca Baja during the Classic, also shows a strong Zapotec influence, combined with some Teotihuacan-inspired elements. In that area and during that period, the representations of the god of fire enjoyed popularity. Other characteristic pieces of the Ñuiñe style are the colossal little heads that have been found in Acatlán, Anicano and other towns in the Mixteca of Puebla., Tlapanecos and Mixtecs that inhabit that region.
The stage of greatest flourishing of pre-Hispanic Mixtec pottery was the Postclassic Period. During this time, an iconographic style spread in the Mixteca that is heir to previous Mesoamerican traditions, coming from Teotihuacán, the Zapotec region and the Mayan area. Originally it was thought that this style was typical of the region that includes Cholula, Tlaxcala and La Mixteca, for which reason it was called Mixteca-Puebla. However, when other regions of Mesoamerica were explored, it was understood that the local Mixtec style is part of a pan-Mesoamerican iconographic style. Postclassic Mixtec ceramics have a very fine finish and great decorative richness. The thickness of the clay with which these pieces were made is very thin, its color is generally reddish or brown with a high-quality burnish that produces a varnished effect on the pieces. The surface of these was profusely decorated, with themes and colors similar to those found in Mixtec codices. Mixtec polychrome ceramics were intended for elite use. Some pieces of this type of ceramic have been found outside the Mixtec region.
Samples of sculpture in the Mixtec region are ancient. Stelae have been found in various localities, for example in Yucuita and Yucuñudahui, which show the same Teotihuacan and Zapotec cultural influence that reached ceramics during the Preclassic and Classic periods. The Yucuita stelae were little worked, they practically consist of large stones with little worked surfaces and shapes where dates and calendrical names of important people were inscribed. In some Ñuiñe traditional sites such as Cerro de las Minas and Huajuapan, lintels have been found that adorned the entrances of some buildings. However, the best Mixtec sculptures are small pieces carved with the same virtuosity and profusion as the ceramic finishes. The Mixtecs produced small luxury objects made of bone, wood, rock crystal and semi-precious stones such as jade and turquoise, of such exquisiteness that Alfonso Caso came to compare them with the "best Chinese carvings". Many of these objects have been found in funerary contexts, as in the case of tomb 7 from Monte Albán, which gave the world a remarkable sample of the artistic refinement of the Mixtec society.
Clothing
The Mixtec woman
The clothing for the Mixtec woman includes: a blanket blouse which is embroidered around the neck and sleeves as well as a "holán al aire" skirt, made of poplin with printed flowers and adorned with three ribbons of Colors; symbolizing the three Mixtecs on the left side, a bundle of seven strikingly colored ribbons shines. Under it she wears a blanket slip. She uses a black shawl as a girdle, which symbolizes marital status and motherhood. The scarf, which the woman wears around her neck, is used to wipe the sweat that emanates from her face due to the effort made, because she is a hard-working woman. She wears "paper" necklaces of different shades. In her hairstyle, she makes braids, which she adorns with four colored ribbons, and a red carnation is placed in her hair. To protect her delicate feet, she wears white two-strap sandals.
The Mixtec Man
The man wears shorts and a blanket shirt, and he wears a bandana around his waist and another around his neck; On his shoulder, he carries a woolen cotton, and wears a palm hat, in the style of four stones, with a wide brim, and also wears sandals with three white straps.
Metallurgy
Metallurgy was an activity that developed late in Mesoamerica. Christian Duverger argues that this is the result of a cultural choice of the peoples of the region, which turned Mesoamerica into a "civilization of stone". The oldest evidence of metallurgy in Mesoamerica dates from the end of the Classic period and comes from Western Mesoamerica. It is known that this technology was imported from Central and South America, where it was developed much earlier than in Mesoamerica. At the time of the Conquest, the Tarascans of Michoacán worked with great skill with copper and other metals, with which they made tools of daily use and luxury objects.
In the Oaxacan area, the Mixtecs also adopted metallurgy during the Postclassic period. Copper axes have been found in the area, showing that the work of metals in pre-Hispanic Oaxaca was not only for ornamental reasons. The best-known pieces of Mixtec goldsmithing are gold pieces. Gold was considered by the Mesoamericans as excrement of the gods and during the Postclassic it became a sign of the Sun. For this reason, some of the most exquisite pieces of Mixtec goldsmithing combine gold with turquoise, the solar stone par excellence in Mesoamerican culture. This is the case of the Shield of Yanhuitlán, one of the best-known pieces of Mixtec goldsmithing.
Gold pieces in the Mixtec culture were part of the set of objects whose use was reserved for the leaders. The clothing of the Postclassic rulers incorporated numerous gold elements, which were combined with a wide variety of objects made of jade, turquoise, feathers, and fine fabrics. Upon the arrival of the Spanish, many pieces of gold from La Mixteca were melted down to form ingots. Some of them were sent to Europe and escaped destruction. Archaeological excavations have allowed the recovery of a significant number of pieces in the archaeological sites of the entire Mixteca. The findings of Zaachila and Tomb 7 of Monte Albán are notable. In this last place, the largest number of gold and silver pieces found in Mesoamerica was found in a single site.
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