Button books £12.99
ISBN-13: 9781787081840
We have all heard of Aztecs, Incas and Mayans but apart from saying South America have no way of knowing where they came from and how they lived or worshipped. Lurid tales of sacrifice have been passed down and embellished over the centuries. Now in the Factology series, which although aimed at the Junior School age range are pretty good for adults too, we begin to peel back some of the layers.
This is laid out in the standard factology method with hundreds of facts and graphics and photographs but in concise sections within three main headings (Pre classical, classical and post classical). Naturally there is the by now famous big quiz at the end with twenty qustions covering all the book (what did they count in if not in 10’s) and this is found before the glossary (Cenote anybody?)
So where did they live? Around the thin bit between the two big American continents so a bit of modern day Mexico, Belize, Guatamala and a part of Honduras. It’s also true that like many others they could not cope with the Spanish conquistadors (though they put up a good fight), but surprisingly they had pretty much abandoned cities before the arrival of the Spanish under Cortes and Alvarado, so maybe not as much plunder as they had hoped for. Why they left is still being debated but one probability with echoes in modern day Tehran is that the cities grew too big to sustain themselves.
An important part of life was something called the Ball Game. Surprisingly there is something similar today but the original rules and tactics are lost to time (they also varied from region to region) but it does involve a solid rubber ball (which can cause injury in itself) and a curious concept (to us anyway) of no throwing or kicking but using other parts of the body. There are some youtube videos available which show the hip being used extensively in modern day games.
Sacrifice
Okay everyone wants to know about this and yes it was a part of the culture but apparently an honour for the (victim?). Some would have been participants in the aforementioned ball game.
In the food section see just how important the crop maize was and how it even featured in statues and of course they were the first to grow cacao trees for food and how the beans were used as a currency, but beware of fakes!
The calendar has great prominence although technically there were four of them, 260 days, 365 days a combination of the those which ran for fifty two years and and then the long count of 5,125 years. Nobody knew what happened at the end (calculated to be 21/12/12) but it may just have started again.
Whatever your background unless you are a history professor you should be able to get a better understanding of this mysterious civilisation and see what their descendants are like today. It is vividly coloured with photos, maps and graphics.