Responding to the recommendation of a friend, my wife and I visited Denver's beautiful Botanical Gardens this morning to see a traveling exhibit of eight sculptures, representing figures from the spirit world of the Zapotec Civilization. This culture arose in southern Mexico about 2500 years ago, stretching across the territory now occupied by the State of Oaxaca.
The colorful figures, molded from fiberglass and colored with acrylic paint, are spaced throughout the Botanical Gardens, featuring hybrid animals that played a role in Zapotec astrology. Whether visitors are interested in anthropology or not, the artwork from Jacobo and Maria Angeles' Oaxaca workshop is stunning.
As with other Pre-Columbian, early Mesoamerican cultures, the Zapotec Civilization was a polytheistic, symbol-oriented society that engaged in rituals, including human sacrifice. However, the culture was also technologically sophisticated, utilizing irrigation, writing, art and architectural design. It ended with the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in 1521.
