Amoltepec

Amoltepec lies in the mountainous Mixtec country of western Oaxaca, where steep ridges and pine-oak forest separate small river valleys. Mixtec communities farmed maize, beans and squash on the terraces and mined copper and other ores in the hills. A painted map from around 1580 records settlements, place names and features of the region, and it shows how Mixtec lords and their towns were organized before colonial reordering. Trails linked the valley to the Oaxaca basin and to the coast, carrying salt, cloth and metal goods between the highlands and the lowlands.