Santa María Atzompa is a town and municipality located in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, about five km from the state capital of Oaxaca. It is part of the Centro District in the Valles Centrales region. The town was founded between the 7th and 9th centuries as a satellite of the ancient Zapotec city of Monte Albán. Since its founding, pottery making has been a major economic activity and the town is currently known for its green-glazed pottery. This pottery used to be shipped all over Mexico and exported to the United States but today most of this pottery is sold locally. Beginning in 2009, there has been excavation at the Atzompa archeological site, leading to the discovery of a 45-meter Mesoamerican ball court, which has been determined to have been on the principal one for Monte Alban. Today, the town is rustic with the smoke of wood-fired pottery kilns ever present. Poverty has been a concern for the town, but innovations such as the use of lead-free glazing and a communal crafts market have been implemented to improve the craft's prospects.
History The town was founded between 650 and 850 C.E. as a satellite city to Monte Alban, along with other nearby communities such as Cerro del Gallo, El Plumaje, Monte Alban Chico and El Mogollito. These communities were created as a result of the expansion of the large Zapotec city, but were considered to be separate units, rather than neighborhoods of the city proper. The Atzompa community was established on a hill for strategic reasons, overlooking the fertile Valley of Etla below, partly as a bulwark against the neighboring Mixtec. There is also evidence that the town served as the last way station for quarried stone making its way to the construction of the last buildings in the city of Monte Alban. Objects found at the site include local barro negro pottery as well as obsidian and other objects showing trade connections with areas such as Teotihuacan, Sierra de las Navajas in Hidalgo and Guatemala. Atzompa has been a major producer of pottery since the Monte Alban period. Most of it at that time was the gray pottery typical of the surrounding area although there is a greater diversity of shapes, including jaguar heads and eagle claws. After the Spanish conquest, Santa Maria was added to its native name of Atzompa ("high water mark" in Nahuatl), and lead glazing techniques were introduced in the 16th century. In the mid 20th century, Atzompa was the main producer of ceramics for the region, and its products were shipped to all parts of Mexico and exported to the United States. However, concerns about the lead content in the glaze pummeled the Mexican pottery market. Today, most of the community's distinctive green-glazed pottery is sold in neighboring Oaxaca city, with most families here making a subsistence living through that and by growing corn. Recently, several innovations have been devised to try to help revive the pottery market. In the 1990s, the Mexican government developed lead-free glazes to be mass marketed. In the 2000s, a cooperative pottery market was created in the town, and the efforts of potter Dolores Porra, who created new designs and colors, has been recognized. Until the end of the 20th century, only men were permitted to be on the municipal council. The first women were elected to serve in 1999.
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