WINNER TAKES ALL-FROM THE FANS

Vigorous ball games played in walled courts were a regular part of Mayan and other Middle American religious festivals. Players were apparently not allowed to use their hands, but bounced the solid rubber ball off padded elbows and hips. Injuries seem to have been common, and sometimes fatal. Losing teams were sometimes sacrificed to the gods.

The Aztecs played a ball game known as tacitly, whose aim was to knock the ball into the opponents’ end of the court in much the same way as in  modern volleyball. Teams could also win the game outright by knocking the ball through either of two stone rings set on the side walls. Since the rings were often 20 feet off the ground and only just big enough for the ball, goals of this kind were rare. But any player who scored one was allowed to confiscate the clothes and possessions of any spectators he and his friends could catch.

ROCK OF AGES

The Aztecs believed that there had been four previous creations of the world, and that theirs was  the fifth and last. They carved this belief into a single stone-the Sun Stone, or Calendar Stone- a huge block 12 feet across. The stone was dug up in 1790 in the Ocala, the main square of both ancient Tenochtitlan and the modern capital of Mexico, Mexico City.

In the center of the stone is carved the sun god, and on the four panels around it are the four previous creations, their once-bright Aztec colors worn away by time. The stone is now in the city’s National Museum of Anthropology.

WELL OF DEATH

Chechen Itza, last outpost of the Mayan civilization, was built in the heart of the arid Yucatan Peninsula, unlike most of the earlier Mayan cities, which were built in rain forests farther south and east. The city was built  around two wells, known as centos, which were fed by underwater streams. The city folk drank from one well and used the other as a well of sacrifice. In times of crisis a maiden was hurled at dawn into the 60-foot-deep hole in the limestone rock. If she survived in the water at the bottom until midday, priests hauled her out to ask what the gods had told her. The Mayas also threw cherished possessions into the hole. Carved jade, gold, copper discs, and human skeletons have all been dredged out of it.

TEMPLES OF BLOOD

Aztecs believed that the sun died every night and needed human blood to give it strength to rise next  day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to their fearsome sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Most of the victims were prisoners taken in wars, which were often started solely to round up sacrificial victims.

DEATH ROW DELIGHT

A particularly handsome prisoner was chosen each year by the Aztecs as a sacrifice to their chief god, Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca was the god of matter- and archrival of the Aztecs’ god of wind and spirit, Quetzalcoatl. For 12 months the prisoner was allowed every luxury. He was taught to play the flute, feasted like a king, and was generally doted upon. He spent his last month with four lovely girls. Then he led a procession to the temple of Tezcatlipoca. Four men held him down over the sacrificial altar, and a priest, using a knife of obsidian, a glasslike volcanic stone, cut open his chest and tore out his heart.

Middle America

NO USE FOR WHEELS

All the pre-Columbian civilizations of Middle America set up  brilliantly organized states and trade systems without two developments considered vital in the Old World; they made no use of the wheel and had no draft animals, such as horses or oxen. However, they did have their own form of currency- cacao beans. The absence  of practical wheels is all the more remarkable because the principle of the wheel was known in Middle America. Wheeled clay models of animals-possibly toys or religious offerings- have been found in Mexican tombs dating from around the time of Christ. But although several Middle American peoples, in particular the Mayas,built flat, broad roads between their cities, the wheel was never used for transportation or in making pottery.

CLAY TOY

The wheel was not put to work in the Americas until the Spanish conquest. But the principle was known; this clay model was made in Mexico before A.D.100.

STAR STRUCK

Sky-gazing Mayan priests accurately calculated the 365-day solar year more than 1,500 years ago. They broke the year up into 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 odd days. Superimposed on the Mayan solar year was a sacred 260-day calendar  used to indicate days of  religious ritual. The Mayas had no clocks or telescopes, but  they could predict  solar and lunar eclipses and calculated the time Venus took to make a complete circuit of the sky to within 2 hours of the actual figure, 583.92 days.

OLMEC CERAMIC

Naked and hollow “babies” were a favorite subject of Olmec craftsmen, who fashioned them from the whitish clay called kaolin. This one dates from 1200-1000 B.C.

PIERCING STARE

Funerary masks, placed over the faces of the dead, were a common feature of South American civilizations. This hammered gold mask, painted and decorated with smaller pieces of gold-including two needles jutting menacingly from the eyes- was probably made for a wealthy Chimu nobleman. Found near the Chimu capaital of Chan Chan in northwestern Peru, it is thought to date from the early 15th century.

ROYAL HABIT

Centuries before cocaine became known in the West, the leaves of the coca plant(Erythroxylon coca), from which cocaine is derived, were being chewed by the  Incas. Originally reserved for the Inca kings and leading nobles, the habit spread to commoners after the Spanish conquest. Chewing the leaves diminishes hunger, increases stamina, and counteracts the effects of exertion at high elevations.Andean Indians today still chew coca leaves.

SKULL SURGERY

In the Inca empire, priests doubled as doctors and surgeons and appear to have been able to carry out some difficult operations. The remains of some Inca skulls, for instance, show that the  priests knew  how to  perform the operation known as trepanning – cutting a hole in the  skull. It is uncertain whether the operation was performed to relieve pressure caused by injury or to release evil spirits, but it seems likely that coca was used as an anesthetic.

SAY IT WITH KNOTS

Ignorant  of written numbers, the Incas devised an ingenious counting method based on knotted cords called quipus. The system, which is still used by Peruvian peasants, made use of single knots, double knots, and slip knots with loops to represent numbers. Different-colored cords  identified subjects, such as tax and census information, and even historical records.

Official messages were memorized and delivered by  relays of runners, or chasquis, who could cover 150 miles in a single day. In this postal service, established by Pachacuti Yupanqui and made possible by the empire’s efficient road network, pairs of chasquis were stationed in roadside huts about every 2 miles. When a runner approached a hut, he shouted out his message, and a relief chasqui took off for the next hut. Complex messages were sent by quipus

South America: land of gold

SHORT-LIVED EMPIRE

The Inca empire, which grew to control a 2,500-mile-long stretch of the Anded in South America, survived for less than 100 years. Until the reign of Pachacuti Yupanqui (c.1440-71) the Incas had  spent almost 250 years as a small tribal group centered around their  capital, Cuzco, in the Peruvian highlands. Then, after repelling an attack by neighboring Chanca warriors in 1438, Pachacuti and his successors, Tupac Yupanqui (1471-93) and Huayna Capac (1493-1525), launched a series of campaigns that established Inca rule from present-day southern Colombia through Ecuador and  Peru to central Chile, spilling over into Bolivia and Argentina.

The culture gets its name from the word Inca, a shortened form of Sapa Inca, meaning the “unique Inca.” The word which comes from the Quechua term inka (”king”), was used as a title by the rulers, who were worshiped as gods. The empire was toppled by a mere 180 Spanish soldiers uder Francisco Pizarro. Taking advantage of his men’s superior fire power, of epidemics introduced by the Spaniards to which the Indians had no immunity, and of divisions among  the Incas themselves after a 7-year civil war, Pizarro conquered the whole of the empire within 6 years of his arrival in 1532.

MUMMIFIED MONARCHS

Inca kings were worshiped even in death.This sketch, from a Spanish chronicle published in about 1610, shows how their mummified bodies were carried out into the main square of the capital, Cuzco,each day. There, the corpses were honored with prayers and the sacrifice of white llamas.

ancientRome_Full

Roman festivals were a mixture of public holiday and religious ritual. One of the oldest  was a fertility rite called the Lupercalia, which was celebrated every year on February 15.

The celebrations began with the ritual sacrifice of goats and a dog at the Lupercal,a cave on Rome’s chief hill, the Palatine, in  which Romulus and Remus,the legendary founders of Rome, were reputedly suckled by a she-wolf.

Two youths, naked except for leather girdles, were smeared with the blood from the sacrifices and then ran around the Palatine Hill, carrying thongs cut from the goats’s skins. By striking any woman they passed with the thongs, the runners were thought to confer the gift of fertility.

This particular ceremony was known as februa (”purification”). It is from this that the name of the second month of the year is derived.

VIRGIN PRIESTESSES

One of the chief rituals in the worship  of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, was  keeping a fire burning in her circular temple. This fire was allowed to go out  only once a year, on March 1, the Roman New Year’s Day.

Tending the fire was the responsibility of six priestesses, the vestal virgins. These were girls of noble birth, who were recruited between the ages of 6 and 10 and remained  in the service of the goddess for 30 years. They swore to remain chaste during that time, though at the end of it they could leave their order to marry if they wished.

Discipline could be severe. For even minor offenses a vestal was liable  to be flogged, but if she broke her oath of chastity a worse fate lay in store. She would be taken to an underground room beneath a mound near  one of the city gates. There, she was given a bed, a lamb, and some food. The entrance to the mound was then closed and covered with earth , and the unfortunate vestal was left, in theory, to starve to death. In some cases, however, condemned vestals were secretly released from their  underground tombs, perhaps by their families or lovers.

The story that the emperor Nero (A.D.54-68) deliberately started  the fire that roared through Rome  in A.D.64 is fiction. When the fire broke out, he was at his villa in Actium, 35 miles from the city. Far from celebrating the blaze by playing his favorite instrument, the lyre, Nero raced to the capital to take charge of the fire fighting. His concern was no doubt heightened by the news that his new palace was a fire.

The legend appears to have sprung from the resentment that the citizens of Rome felt about Nero’s behavior after the fire. He used the destruction as an excuse  to begin his most ambitious building project-the so called Golden House- which he intended as a palace fit for a god . Had it been finished, this monumental building would have covered one-thrid of the entire city of Rome.

FIGHT TO THE DEATH

Public fights between gladiators were among the msot popular spectator sports in ancient Rome. The first of these bloddy combats was recorded in 264 B.C. The spectacles continued until they were finally banned by the emperor Honorius (A.D. 395 -423) in 404. Most battles were fought to the death, and they were held  so often that several hundred gladiators were killed  in the arena every year. Some of the fighters were volunteers, but most were prisoners of war, slaves, or condemned criminals.

There were several categories of gladiator. The retiarius carried a net to entangle his opponent, and a trident, with which to kill him. The mirmillo was armed with a sword, shield, and helmet. The laqueator was armed with a noose. All gladiators were trained in their art at special schools.

WRITING ON THE WALL

Rome marketplace

The writing and drawing of graffiti is by no means new. It was rife in Roman times. The word graffiti itself is derived from the Latin graphium, meaning”stylus,” a pointed instrument for scratching letters onto tablets. Walls in the coastal town of Pompeii, for instance, preserved by ash from the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, are still daubed with inscriptions and scribblings of all kinds, from brief election addresses to offers of rewards for the return of stolen property. In addition, there are obscenities, rude drawings, and many complaints from lovers, such as: “what use to have a Venus, if she is made from marble?”

LEATHER BIKINI

The wearing of bikinis goes back at least to Roman times. Girls wearing similar two-piece costumes are  portrayed on a Roman mosaic that was found in the ruins of a villa near Piazza Armerina in Sicily. Apparently, the fashion spread as far north as Britain. A leather bikini made by the Romans in the late 1st century A.D. was found in a well in London.

BATHING BEAUTY A painted bikini adorns this statue of Venus from the town of Pompeii. Whether propriety or  fashion inspired the painter is not known.

A GIFT OF DEMOCRACY

The Greeks gave democracy to the world. The word itself comes from the Greek words demos, meaning “the people”, and kratos, meaning”rule.”  Begining in the 7th century B.C., democracy evolved from the mosaic of independent city-states that then covered Greece.

Not all the city-states were democratic. Sparta, for example, was ruled by landowning aristocrats. But some of the  city-states shared more power among more people than had any earlier civilizations. The leading democracy was Athens, which overthrew its aristocracy early in the 6th century and under the reformer Solon (c. 638-559 B.C.) established a constitution giving supreme power to a citizens’ assembly known as the ecclesia. The right to vote at the assembly’s meetings in the marketplace was by  no means universal, however. Only freeborn male citizens-about 40,000 people out of a total population of between 300,000 and 400,000 – had the vote. Women, slaves, freed slaves, and immigrants were all excluded.

BORN TO BE SOLDIERS

In the city-state of Sparta the elite male citizens, the Spartiates, were groomed for a life of military service. The Spartan existence beganat birth, when babies were inspected by the elders, and weak infants were put on a mountainside to die of exposure. From the time they were 7, boys were trained in the skills of a soldier. They  wore no clothes until they reached the age of 12; then they  were allowed one mantle a year. They lived in military barracks up to the age of 30 and moved into clubs until they were 60.

The men were encouraged to marry in order to produce storng and healthy children for  the state. But they were not allowed to spend the whole night with their wives. They had to slip out after dinner and then return to the barracks to sleep. Spartan girls also received physical training so that they would give birth to sturdy babies.

All the Spartiates’ work-including  farming and trading-was  done by  helots, serfs who were owned by the state.

BOUND FOR GLORY Success in athletic contests was a passport to fame for the ancient Greeks. Competition was  almost always between individuals rather than teams, and a champion could become a hero throughout the Greek world. Statues of him would  be made and songs composed about his exploits. Success in the Olympic Games-held every 4 years between 776 B.C. and A.D. 393 at Olympia in the western Peloponnesus- was particularly prestigious. Athens welcomed  its Olympic champions with  banquets. Some athletes were  exempted  from paying taxes. Theogenes of Thasos, a wrestler who competed in the Olympic Games for 22 years in the 4th century B.C., was  so revered that he was declared a descendant of the  legendary Heracles (Hercules). The chief events were running, wrestling, boxing, the  long jump, throwing the discus, throwing the javelin, and the pankration (a boxing and wrestling contest). Many Games also included horse and chariot races. This picture  of a footrace appears on a jar dating from about  350 B.C. Filled with oil from holy olives, the jar was one of the prizes at the Panathenaea, a religious and sporting festival held every year in Athens to celebrate the birth of the goddess Athena.

Athletes were traditionally portrayed naked, but many modern scholars believe that was an artistic convention , and Greek athletes may actually have stripped only for boxing and wrestling while remaining clothed for other events.

Greece: democracy’s birthplace

RISE AND FALL OF ALEXANDER’S EMPIRE

Alexander

Alexander the Great created the greatest empire the world had yet seen -and also the shortest-lived. He became king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. at the age of 20 and then subdued the Greek states. Two years later, in 334 he led a large army to conquer Persia. During the next 11 years Alexander conquered an area nearly as large as the United States. His empire extended from Greece and Egypt in the west to beyond the Indus River in the east. When his weary army refused to march farther eastward into India, Alexander retired to Babylon. He died there of a  fever in 323 B.C, at 33. The empire he had  built in13 years was broken up as quickly as it had been formed. Within13 years of his death, the countries Alexander had united were divided again, their territories carved up between his generals.

CONSULTING THE ORACLE

Delphi was the site of Greece’s  most important oracle, where the advice of the gods was sought. The answer was given by a Pythia, a priestess who went into a trance and shouted wildly. Her cries were “interpreted” by priests, who gave the answers, often very ambiguous, in doggerel verse.

It is said that Croesus, the king of Lydia, in Asia Minor, whose name has become a symbol of wealth,asked the oracle if he should attack the Persian Empire. He was  told  that if he did  he would destroy a great empire. Croesus duly attacked in 546 B.C. and did indeed destroy an  empire: his own. Cyrus the Great defeated his army, annexed his kingdom, and took Croesus hostage.

ANCIENT AND MODERN

The 220 sacred wooden buildings at Japan’s ancient Shinto shrine at Ise have been pulled down and replaced by identical buildings every 20 years since they were first put up in the 5th century A.D. Only unpainted cypress wood is used, and no nails- just dowels and joints. It is thought that the buildings are rebuilt every two decades to symbolize the coming of a new generations. The last rebuilding was in 1973.

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

Hara-kiri, or ritual suicide, was a custom of the feudal samurai warriors – and later, of officers in Japan’s imperial army- to avoid dishonour or capture by an enemy. Sometimes hara-kiri was committed to show loyalty to a dead or disgraced lord.

The term hara-kiri means, literally, “belly-cutting.” The victim first cut open his own stomach with a short sword or dagger and disemboweled himself. Then he was beheaded by a companion. The ceremony, known formally in Japan as seppuku, is still occasionally used as an extreme form of protest. The Japanese novelist and playwright Yukio Mishima committed hara-kiri in 1970 in protest against what he saw as the weakness of Japan as a nation.