The Power of Monuments in Ruin in Prehispanic Oaxaca

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Vibrancy of Ruins: Ruination Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the materiality of two ruined monumental architectural complexes in prehispanic Oaxaca: the Main Plaza of the mountaintop city of Monte Albán in the Oaxaca Valley and the acropolis of Río Viejo located on the Río Verde’s coastal floodplain. Both of these impressive complexes were important political and ceremonial centers through which urban communities were assembled. Although both fell to ruin during the prehispanic era, they continued to be places of intensive affect that were central to the constitution and transformation of more-than-human communities. The paper considers how the material vibrancy of these ruins differed in ways that both brought together and destabilized communities. After its abandonment, the Main Plaza, now viewed from afar by the people in the valley below, continued to assemble substances important to human well-being including rain, clouds, and sky. The slow deterioration of the plaza’s durable stone masonry buildings was relatively rarely experienced by people, however. By contrast, the earthen architecture of the acropolis, still located in the center of the city, rapidly eroded and decayed in the tropical lowland climate. These processes of ruination actualized different capacities contributing to the coming together of some communities and the dissolution of others.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Vibrancy of Ruins: Ruination Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35641.0