Living...and Dying...and Living

After our visit to Teotitlan del Valle, we went on to visit the archeological zone of Mitla. A Spanish mangling of the word Nahuatl word Mictlan, which means "the place of the dead" or "the underworld." Despite the Nahuatl-derived named, this is a Zapotec...and Mixtec...site. In Zapotec the name is Lyobaa (place of rest). In Mixtec, the name is Ñuu Ndiyi (place of the dead). In reality, this site is both Zapotec at its deepest core, with some Mixtec influence in the architecture one can see today. And then a bunch of Catholic buildings over much of the area.

Oral traditions in the Zapotec community have always held that in ancient times Zapotec nobles and other important people were buried here. Once buried, these dead became the cloud people who could intercede on behalf of the people. Lyobaa was founded as a small village- perhaps as long ago as

900BCE but then became a vitally important religious center for the Zapotec people-- with its height being between 750CE and 1521CE. Local legends hold that this place was the (an?) entrance to the underworld and in addition to a burial ground, people could consult with the priest to ask their dead ancestors to intercede on their behalf. When the Mixtec took over the site in 1000CE, the sanctity of the site was preserved. Indeed, some of the elements we can see today are from the Mixtec area. including the fragmented remains of Mixtec-like codices painted on the lintels of some of the remaining buildings. Some scholarship holds that the codices told the stories of Zapotec and Mixtec and Nahua legends, which would represent a remarkable respect for a multitude of traditions.

The Spanish, however, were not so respectful, which will surprise exactly no one at this point. They were apparently frightened out of their wits by the underworld connections as well as by the importance of Mitla in terms of political power and religious belief. So, they set about demolishing and dismantling buildings and much of the codices and building a church right atop the site- the church is believed to literally keep demons from the underworld from escaping.

What remains today are a group of buildings- some reconstructed and some preserved and excavated. The best preserved buildings are ones adjacent to the church, that Spanish used to keep cattle in. these are the remains of palaces with central courtyards and passages that zigzag (so that the passage of royals and priests could not be seen/followed with ones eyes). This is the first thing that we visited. Here you can see many examples of the Mixtec & Zapotec building styles and the elaboration of lintels with painted scenes and the remarkable mosaic-like fretwork. There seems to be not a lot of agreement about what the fretwork is meant to represent- perhaps geneological lines of nobles, perhaps mimicking textile patterns, perhaps something(s) lost to time and willful destruction. No two sets of "grecas" are exactly the same. And these kinds of mosaic fretworks are unique in Mesoamerica.

Despite the Spaniards and their best efforts, Lyobaa is still sacred ground, it is still highly visited by humans and revered as a place of great power and as a place that those of the clouds visit (on the day we were there- almost literally, the clouds were very close). There's something rather powerful about the site, something humbling and awe-inspiring. Humbled by time and history and the weight of culture of generations upon generations of ancestors. Awesome in its engineering, architecture, and sheer mind-blowing artistry. I've run out of superlatives.

Here's some examples of the amazing "grecas" - which were made from many polished stones set together without mortar.  This first set of fotos are from the palace buildings near the church, that were used to house cattle. I suppose we should be thankful that the Spanish needed a place to keep their animals...

And here are some fotos of the remains of the painted lintels that appear to be very like the existant Mixtec codices that "we" (read: the British Museum and the Vatican Library) still have.
The destruction of these wall paintings by the Spanish makes me so freakin angry, I can't even speak, talk about cultural genocide... anyway... I mean, look at this beauty, look a the detail and the artistry, look what could have been preserved and kept for the connection between the past and the present, for the pride of the people whose culture this is? and for the edification of the rest of us, secondarily. F*ck religious imperialism...

There are also grecas on the buildings of other parts of the site- these buildings and mounds were ceremonial in function. And also the site of burials and tombs. A remarkable hall of columns (that I don't quite have pictures of), constructed of monolithic columns (holy moly!). Some of the stones used as lintels and columns weigh as much as 18 tons. Engineering, guau!!! Art, guau!!!

This is a lintel that has not been restored to its place on the building behind-- presumably left here so one might get a sense of just how massive some of these stones are?!

You can just make out one of the mono-lithic columns in this foto, through the open doorway.

 Here's some tomb fotos. Due to the recent rains, the ground was full of puddles and the height of the passages was very low...which meant I was squatting my way through (rather than the all out crawling I would normally resort to!) -- I thought for awhile I might just stay in the tombs, jajajajaja. Anyway, the tombs are also carved to look like the grecas that exist above-ground. As in life, as in death.

Thalia at the entrance to one of the tombs  you can visit

Here I am looking out towards the entrance to the tomb. Basically I took most of these fotos while squatting and trying not to fall down. It was a special look....