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Monte Albán
The Zapotec are a people of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, and Monte Albán was their capital for over a thousand years. Zapotec script is among the oldest in Mesoamerica and remains only partly deciphered. The city's siting — high, central between three valleys, without water — points to a political founding: a neutral seat for an alliance rather than a town that grew where it was convenient. The so-called danzantes reliefs are probably depictions of slain enemies rather than dancers, and belong to the city's earliest phase.
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