#toponymic

I just made up a toponymic glyph for the Zapotec city-state of Zaachila!

The lower part is taken from a series of toponymic glyphs for conquered cities, carved in the archaeological site of Monte Albán. It indicates that the glyph above it is the name of a city.

"Zaa" means cloud in zapotec, so I added the cloud glyph (same I used for the Cloud Mountain’s glyph, Donaji’s village).

Finally, on top of the cloud I added a zapote tree, referencing the nahuatl name for the city: "Teozapotlan".

Curiously, zapotecs call themselves Binni Záa, “Cloud people”, while the name Zapotec, “Zapote people” is what Nahuas called them. Therefore, the glyph contains both distinctive symbols of the Zapotec people.

It kinda makes sense since it is popular belief that, after the fall of Monte Albán, the ancient city of Zaachila became the “capital” of a Zapotec empire, with Cosijoeza portrayed as the king of the Zapotec people. However, reality is that there was no such thing as a “Great Zapotec Nation”. From the beginning of the Postclassic to the “conquest”, Oaxaca was divided in countless city-states in constant conflict and with very complex relationships, based on a communitarian organization over any kind of ethnic unity.

I made yet another Zapotec Toponymic Glyph. This time for the city of Lyobaa, today known as Mitla in Oaxaca.

The nahua glyph for this city, called "Mictlan", represents a skull and a wrapped body. Lyobaa in Zapotec means "Place of Rest" and was the Zapotec religious capital (it’s described as some sort of “Vatican”) and also a burial site for the highest ranking nobles.