Professor Montgomery “Gummy” Vance sat at his desk sipping coffee while he waited for his graduate students to get settled down. Once quills and parchments were out and they looked ready to take notes, he began. “Last semester we talked about Egyptian witches and wizards. As I’m sure you recall, their skills and abilities made pyramid building faster, safer, and easier than Muggle Egyptologists could ever dream of. But what did the talented wizards do when it was decreed that they must no longer openly assist Muggles? Well, a number of them packed up and moved elsewhere.
”Muggle archaeologists have some amusing theories as to why pyramids can be found all over the world and why surprising similarities can be found in societies and locations separated by great distances. Wizarding migrations are the key to understanding so much... ah, but I digress. The topic for today is the Mayan culture and its unusual downfall.” Professor Vance stood up and moved to stand next to the windows. It was a grey day outside and there was a chill inside the castle that could only be described as the feeling of February.
Gummy pulled out his wand, pointed it toward the board and made a complicated series of twists. A bluish-green light flashed briefly and then the board was covered with a map of Central America. The extent of the Mayan empire during its heyday was superimposed over modern country boundary lines.
“As you can see, the Mayan culture extended south into what is now El Salvador and Honduras and north into the area around Mexico City. In fact, Teotihuacan, northeast of Mexico City, was a very important city-state, especially in the earlier portion of Mayan history. Who can tell me what a city-state is?” he asked the class.
A very small, thin girl in the corner raised her hand. As the Professor nodded to her, he wondered if she had just transferred in or if she was so small that he really had not noticed her during the entire first semester. “It’s a city that has its own ruler and laws. It governs and defends the area around it, but that’s it. During the Renaissance, Italy was filled with city-states, like in Shakespeare’s plays.”
“Excellent! 10 point for Ravenclaw. Sometimes city-states play well together and sometimes they fight. They are all part of the same culture and have political connections often through marriage, but each is its own sovereign entity. And that is exactly how it was with the Maya.
”In general, they were fantastic traders – the cacao trade, for example, was enormous. In fact, the earliest interaction between Mayan wizards and other cultures was through their extensive trade efforts. They were also great builders and architects. It was natural that some of the Egyptian wizards who specialized in pyramid, temple and monument building would relocate to a culture equally fascinated by the potential uses of cut and carved stone. The first Mayan pyramid was begun about two thousand years ago. But there were far more engineering and architectural projects than just pyramids. The cityof Tikal, for example, constructed a sophisticated water management system that included three huge reservoirs connected by ravines.”
”The large cities of the Maya were beautiful and efficient hubs of sophisticated culture, trade and agricultural achievement. Tikal had a population of around 100,000 which included a small magical community. A wizard named Cadmael lived there along with his wife Ixazaluoh. They had two children. One was a young wizard named Eadrich and the other a beautiful daughter named Itzel who, as it happened, had no magical abilities. Little is known about Cadmael and his family before 788 AD. Cadmael and his son Eadrich were in Africa, trading cacao for other goods with which to stock their store in Tikal. What we know of these events comes from the journal of Eadrich. It’s unclear whether he ever knew why, but somehow Itzel was chosen to be a sacrifice.”
“Oh, no!” gasped the small, thin girl in the corner.
She must be new, Gummy thought. Certainly he couldn’t have failed to notice a student for an entire semester. “So you know about Mayan sacrifices, too?” he asked encouragingly.
The girl nodded and pushed her dark hair behind one ear before speaking. “Yes, Professor. The Mayans ritually killed people as sacrifices to their gods. They did it for good harvests or when they started building a new temple or when a king died or was born or was officially named. They usually sacrificed enemies they had captured in battle, but not always.”
“True, true, well said,” Gummy replied solemnly. “It wasn’t always captured warriors who were sacrificed and we don’t know enough about their religious beliefs to understand how it all worked. But on this occasion they chose a beautiful young girl to sacrifice. Itzel was killed and her mother, Ixazaluoh, was also killed trying to save her daughter. There is a great deal of debate over whether Ixazaluoh had magical abilities, but I won’t go into that. For the purposes of today’s lesson, it is enough to know that both mother and daughter died.
“Cadmael learned of these events and was understandably grief-stricken. He fell into a devastating depression so deep that he never spoke again. Eadrich was angry – very, very angry. He was also a wizard, a trader, and in Africa. This proved to be a dangerous combination because he was able to easily procure what he needed to exact his revenge. Have you learned about the Fwooper in any of your classes?”
Gummy flicked his wand. The image of a pair of brightly colored Fwooper birds sitting on a branch appeared above him and an enchantingly beautiful bird song filled the classroom. It lasted only a moment. The students exclaimed in protest as the song faded. “It’s beautiful, but the Fwooper’s song will drive you insane. Eadrich traded for and captured some of these birds. He spent the rest of his life raising huge numbers of Fwoopers. Each time he had assembled enough for a good sized flock, he magically transported them to one Mayan city-state after another. The birds took up residence in the palaces and temples of the cities. The Fwoopers’ song drove the kings and priests mad. Unable to get rid of the birds or stop them from singing, Mayans who survived the madness fled the cities. One by one the great cities were abandoned.”
Gummy paused for a moment while the students took notes. The lesson was basically over anyway. “As it happens, Fwoopers don’t survive very well in the jungles of Central America. There is little evidence of the birds ever having been there – except for in the abandoned cities, of course. Muggles don’t know what to look for, of course, so they continue to make up theories to explain the abandoned cities. But the reason for the collapse of the Mayan civilization was revenge.
With a broad swipe of the Professor’s wand, the image of the Fwoopers and the map of Central America faded. They were immediately replaced by a list of homework questions. “Copy those down, please. Homework needs to be turned in by February 27th.”
No comments:
Post a Comment