Mitla Place of the dead

Mitla Place of the dead, Photos by Jose Mata.

Mitla Oaxaca “The place of the dead” or “Place of rest” the Zapotec Culture

Mitla is one of the most important archaeological sites of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mitla's archaeological zone, which is about 30 miles east of Oaxaca City, lies within the modern Zapotec town of San Pablo Villa de Mitla.

Mitla was most important in Oaxaca during the Postclassical period, although evidence of earlier occupations, dating to the Late Preclassic and Classic times, has also been found. The site was an important religious center and, according to indigenous sources, it was not only the center of a powerful oracle and priest, but also the place where Zapotec kings and nobles were buried.

The name of the site is a Spanish corruption of the Nahuatl the language spoken by the Aztecs term Mictlan, which means “The Place of the Dead”. Its Zapotec name was Lyobaa which means “Place of Rest”.

The ancient town of Mitla probably covered an area of about one square mile and was surrounded by a wider cultivated area that supported the community. The hills around Mitla were terraced in order to provide farming land. It is logical to suppose that much of the remains of the ancient settlement still lies under modern construction.

The archaeological zone includes five groups that are incorporated into the modern town, and a hilltop fortress, only partially explored, that seems to date to the 8th and 11thcenturies AD, when some political instability affected the Valley of Oaxaca and the residents felt the need of more protected location.

Five groups form the bulk of the accessible structures at Mitla, and include different buildings organized around central patios. These are the Church Group, the Group of the Columns, the Arroyo Group, the Adobe Group and the South Group. These structures include elegant residential complexes, temples and several burials located underneath the patios and buildings.
These residential groups are characterized by friezes of stone mosaics, applied without mortar, that decorate Mitla's internal and external walls. These friezes are considered among the most elegant examples of stone works of all ancient Mesoamerica.

Group of the Columns
The Group of Columns is probably the most famous and visited complex of Mitla. It is formed by two patios, a smaller one on the south and a bigger one on the north. The group is so called because of the series of huge columns that were built to support the roof of the front room of the main building. This room, called the Hall of Columns, leads through a narrow passageway to the interior of the building which was, according to indigenous sources, the residence of the powerful oracle-priest, called “The Great Seer”.

The other buildings around the patio sit over high platforms, and their facades present the typical decorations with stone mosaics. On both patios, in front of the building access ways, there were subterranean tombs accessible through narrow stairways. Most of these subterranean tombs had a cruciform shape and were decorated with additional elegant stone mosaics and painted in vivid colors. These were the places where the funerary bundles of the Zapotec noble ancestors were kept and attended by the priests.

The Church Group
The northern sector of the site is occupied by the Church Group, a multi-patio group so called because it was the place where the Spanish constructed the church of San Pablo in the 17th century. The church is attached to one of the patios and its construction covered one of the pre-Hispanic buildings. This complex was probably another residential compound with both private and public spaces, and was decorated with stone mosaics with geometric motifs

In the Church Group as well as in the most southern Arroyo Group there are rooms with mural paintings. John Pohl, an expert on ancient codices and Oaxaca iconography, suggests (2002) that these paintings, now badly deteriorated, could represent scenes from Zapotec and Mixtec creation stories. According to his idea, in the Postclassic period, Zapotec and Mixtec ruling dynasties used these images as a form of social bonding as well as to reinforce political alliances among the groups whose rulers were periodically meeting in the sacred city of Mitla.