I'm getting way behind with this blog. We have been to quite a few interesting places, but I haven't had much internet access where I can upload photos and blogging over cellular data using Michelle's ipad hasn't been working that well.
Mitla has probably the most well-preserved ruins in the valley. That's partly because it's (relatively) new: Mitla was the dominant Zapotec city in the late post-classic period, i.e. from ~1250AD until the Spanish arrived. The Zapotecs didn't leave Mitla even then: the ruins are in the middle of the modern town. The church was built partly on top of a palace, using stones from the palace of course. The remainder of the palace was converted for use as the priest's house and stables. You can see bits of broken pottery in the walls where the conversion work was done.
The rulers of Mitla had remembered or re-discovered how to write and had the resources to build palaces and pyramids, though not on the scale nor to the standards of Monte Alban. The palace complex was made of stone, but outlying pyramids were made from adobe and haven't lasted nearly as well. Someone had built a house into one complex and was using the court for a goat enclosure.
We've finished lunch and I should give up the table, so I'll cut this short. I've put a few photos of Mitla at https://picasaweb.google.com/100719842898341494426/20111222Mitla . I have lots more, including some details of well-preserved murals, but don't have time to post them right now.
Hasta luego!
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