Photo Collection of Stephanie Wood and Robert Haskett

Monte Albán

“Los Danzantes.” The Temple of the Danzantes is also called Building L. Some of these carvings were on stone panels on the external foundation of the building and some were found along an interior wall on the southeast corner. These may be dancers, mutilated war captives, or possibly even the skins of war captives. The Aztec deity Xipe Totec wore the flayed skin of a human being, and some colonial Spanish sources say he was the war god of the Zapotecs. [Source: John M.D. Pohl, Exploring Mesoamerica, Places in Time Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 46.]