 Heads turned upside down are believed to represent the rulers killed and whose provinces were taken by force, while the upright ones may represent those who did not resist colonization and had their lives spared.For this reason, Building J is also referred to by archeologists as “The Conquest Slab”.Marcus and Flannery write about the subsequent dramatic expansion of the Monte Albán state, noting when there is 
"a great disparity in populations between the core of a state and its periphery, it may only be necessary for the former to send colonists to the latter.