Walls of Power: An Analysis of Defensive and Social Functions of the Fortified Zapotec Site of Guiengola

Summary

This is an abstract from the "For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Guiengola Archaeological Project has successfully mapped the pre-Columbian fortified city of Guiengola in Oaxaca, Mexico, using both pedestrian survey techniques and airborne LiDAR scanning. Known as the garrison where the Zapotec people defended their territory against the Mexica (Aztec) armies in 1490—an event documented in both oral histories and colonial records—Guiengola has now been revealed as a sprawling city covering 360 hectares, featuring internal social complexity and serving as an autonomous political capital of the Zapotec state. The city’s layout includes a 3.5-kilometer system of walls that provided defensive capabilities. However, some of these walls also functioned to control movement within the city and create social divisions among its inhabitants.

This paper analyzes the multiple roles of Guiengola’s military architecture by contrasting it with the 16th-century Zapotec vocabulary recorded by Juan de Córdova. Understanding how the Zapotec people described their military architecture allows us to better address the different functions and categories of military structures in Postclassic contexts, ultimately providing deeper insights into the defensive logic of this fortified city.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52509