El paisaje sagrado del estado en Monte Albán

Abstract

The recognition of Monte Alban’s and Teotihuacan’s territorial hinterlands, and the means employed for their demarcation, depend on the iconographic analysis of the surviving material record. The designs carved on the building-slabs of Mound J at Monte Alban show that during this city’s second occupation period a well-conceived state iconography had developed. The component elements of these designs not only define a given geographic space, but also qualify other images and figures which played a key role in the settlement’s politics and religion. The headdress of some early Teotihuacan greenstone figurines demonstrates that similar iconographic devices were used by the ruling class of this city.