Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery's archaeological synthesis of Zapotec civilization in Oaxaca, Mexico, published by Thames and Hudson in 1996, tracing its urban and religious development from village society to the city of Monte Alban. It documents Cocijo, the Zapotec rain and lightning deity whose stylized goggle-eyed, forked-tongue image recurs on urns and reliefs across the Oaxaca valley from the Preclassic period onward, and situates his cult within the wider Zapotec state religion. Its strength is a synthesis grounded in decades of the authors' own excavation at Oaxacan sites. Its limit is a focus on political and urban development in which religion is treated as one thread among several rather than the book's central subject.
Facts
Citation
AuthorJoyce Marcus and Kent V. Flannery
PublisherThames and Hudson
Publication Year1996
Source Typeacademic monograph
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
A standard archaeological synthesis by two named, widely cited specialists in Oaxacan archaeology, grounded in their own excavations, though religion is one thread within a broader account of Zapotec political development. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Cocijo directly: "It documents Cocijo, the Zapotec rain and lightning deity whose stylized goggle-eyed, forked-tongue image recurs on urns and reliefs across the Oaxaca valley from the Preclassic period onward, and..."
This source names Monte Alban directly: "from village society to the city of Monte Alban."
Claims Backed By This Source (20 claims)
This source backs 20 claims across the atlas. As facts: 15 well-attested. As cited relationships: 4 holds. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Deities, 12 claims: 9 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 6 well-attested, 2 holds.
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