<P> By the beginning of the Terminal Formative (Monte Albán II phase, ca . 100 BCE - CE 200) Monte Albán had an estimated population of 17,200, making it one of the largest Mesoamerican cities at the time . The city has excellent views all the way around . As its political power grew, Monte Albán expanded militarily, through cooption, and via outright colonization into several areas outside the Valley of Oaxaca, including the Cañada de Cuicatlán to the north and the southern Ejutla and Sola de Vega valleys. (Feinman and Nicholas 1990) During this period and into the subsequent Early Classic (Monte Albán IIIA phase, ca . CE 200 - 500) Monte Albán was the capital of a major regional polity that exerted a dominating influence over the Valley of Oaxaca and across much of the Oaxacan highlands . As mentioned earlier, evidence at Monte Albán is suggestive of high - level contacts between the site's elites and those at the powerful central Mexican city of Teotihuacan, where archaeologists have identified a neighbourhood inhabited by ethnic Zapotecs from the valley of Oaxaca (Paddock 1983). By the Late Classic (Monte Albán IIIB / IV, ca . CE 500 - 1000) the site's influence outside and inside the valley declined, and elites at several other centers, once part of the Monte Albán state, began to assert their autonomy, including sites such as Cuilapan and Zaachila in the Valle Grande and Lambityeco, Mitla, and El Palmillo in the eastern Tlacolula arm . The latter is the focus of an ongoing project by Gary Feinman and Linda Nicholas of Chicago's Field Museum (Feinman and Nicholas 2002). By the end of the same period (ca . AD 900 - 1000) the ancient capital was largely abandoned, and the once powerful Monte Albán state was replaced by dozens of competing smaller polities, a situation that lasted up to the Spanish conquest . </P> <P> The monumental center of Monte Albán is the Main Plaza, which measures approximately 300 meters by 200 meters . The site's main civic - ceremonial and elite - residential structures are located around it or in its immediate vicinity, and most of these have been explored and restored by Alfonso Caso and his colleagues . To the north and south the Main Plaza is delimited by large platforms accessible from the plaza via monumental staircases . On its eastern and western sides the plaza is similarly bounded by a number of smaller platform mounds on which stood temples and elite residences, as well as one of two ballcourts known to have existed at the site . A north - south spine of mounds occupies the center of the plaza and similarly served as platforms for ceremonial structures . </P> <P> One characteristic of Monte Albán is the large number of carved stone monuments one encounters throughout the plaza . The earliest examples are the so - called "Danzantes" (literally, dancers), found mostly in the vicinity of Building L and which represent naked men in contorted and twisted poses, some of them genitally mutilated . The figures are said to represent sacrificial victims, which explains the morbid characteristics of the figures . The Danzantes feature physical traits characteristic of Olmec culture . The 19th century notion that they depict dancers is now largely discredited, and these monuments, dating to the earliest period of occupation at the site (Monte Albán I), are now seen to clearly represent tortured, sacrificed war prisoners, some identified by name, and may depict leaders of competing centers and villages captured by Monte Albán. (Blanton et al. 1996) Over 300 "Danzantes" stones have been recorded to date, and some of the better preserved ones can be viewed at the site's museum . There is some indication that the Zapotecs had writing and calendrical notation . </P> <P> A different type of carved stones is found on the nearby Building J in the center of the Main Plaza, a building characterized by an unusual arrow - like shape and an orientation that differs from most other structures at the site . Inserted within the building walls are over 40 large carved slabs dating to Monte Albán II and depicting place - names, occasionally accompanied by additional writing and in many cases characterized by upside - down heads . Alfonso Caso was the first to identify these stones as "conquest slabs", likely listing places the Monte Albán elites claimed to have conquered and / or controlled . Some of the places listed on Building J slabs have been tentatively identified, and in one case (the Cañada de Cuicatlán region in northern Oaxaca) Zapotec conquest has been confirmed through archaeological survey and excavations . </P>

What do the dazante figures from monte alban depict