Archeological Ruins

We had a rough start to our day yesterday. I think the uninterrupted family togetherness is getting to all of us. Rafael, who hasn’t been homesick, has finally decided he’s ready to go home. Thankfully, my parents are flying to Oaxaca tomorrow and I’m sure they will provide some much needed distraction (and hopefully babysitting!) for all of us.

We drove east to view three separate archeological ruins, all of them much smaller in scope than Monte Alban. Our first stop was Yagul. Yagul was another Zapotec city, which was populated for about a thousand years.

The picture above is taken from inside a T-shaped tomb. You can see Rafael on the stairs and Isa peering into one part of the T; the other parts are on my left and behind me. As in other ancient cultures, death was quite ritualized and people were buried with items they’d need in the afterlife. Unfortunately, the tombs at Yagul were looted before the Spanish conquest.

Yagul is home to the Oaxaca’s Valley’s largest ball court and the second largest in Mesoamerica (after Chichen Izta on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, which Selso and I visited on our honeymoon). The ball courts in Oaxaca are all in the shape on an I. The slanted walls are part of the court, not a seating area. The game is thought to have religious importance. Although there is speculation that some tribes decapitated the loser (most notably the Aztecs) in the Oaxaca Valley there is no evidence of this. For more information on pre-Hispanic ballgames, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame (thanks, L!).

Yagul is also noted for its Palace of Six Patios, which are actually three separate complexes of two patios each. This part of the ruins is like a maze, and the kids had a fabulous time running around them.

We had a cheap and delicious lunch of tacos in Tlacolula before going to Lambityeco. This site is only about 100 yards in area and right off the highway. There are many mounds in the area which are suspected to be additional ruins, however they haven’t been excavated yet. Lambityeco was home to the Yegui people who made salt.

The site is home to the Valley’s earliest known temazcal, an ancient steam bath. It also contains a number of fascinating sculptures, most of them decorating tombs.

Our last stop of the day was Dainzu, home to yet another ball court, as well as over 30 bas-reliefs of ball players (above). Today was much warmer than our visit to Monte Alban, so we were ready to find some shade.

In the evening we all took much needed showers. This is notable only because we’ve had problems with our water since we arrived here. It stunk terribly! We tried to live with it at first however, after showering we’d stink worse than before! Even washing dishes left an odor in the kitchen. The water for the property is held in large cisterns and when the water runs out, a large truck comes up and refills them. The care taker was finally able to switch our water to the second cistern and we are so thankful! Sorry – no pictures of anyone bathing!