Video Transcript: Lesson 9

 Unit 06 01 Peru

Hello, welcome to today's class of the Christian leaders Institute history 101. My name is Rich hamstra, and I am the instructor for this class. Today we're going to cover even though briefly, some of the cultures from Peru, as well as Mesoamerica, from roughly 500 years BC through 1000 ad. And of course, as always mentioned, this is a very I won't say superficial that it's a very basic introduction to some of these civilizations. We may as well in this section then began to go back to the Mediterranean basin, and look at the Greco Roman cultures. So we begin with Peru. In a previous class, we've talked about the shaman culture, which was basically the primary culture in Peru up until about 200 BC. And so that's where we'll pick it up today. Though mo Chica culture is more in the northern part of Peru, whereas an Oscar culture is more in the desert south. And these were two of the primary cultures in Peru from 200 BC, until 600 ad. Your first reading assignment that I mentioned this morning is by Mr. Cartwright, the MO che civilization. And sometimes it's referred to as my chia and sometimes to as mo che. There, they refer to the same culture, you'll find that online at the website. So this is the area in Peru, where are the Bunche culture is was primarily you'll see that it's in the coastal region. And it had a couple of major towns but mostly in the Moccia. River Valley. It's a very mountainous area. And as opposed to some of the other places in Peru, and they are remembered particularly for their artistic expression. They, through their pottery and textiles, had great realism in their art. But also, as some people mentioned, they're the people who occur, their figures on their art are almost always in action. Do you see that particularly in their pottery, they also built temples and religion, of course, is very important as it is in all cultures. Primary buildings would be temples to the sun god, as well as temples to the moon god in mo che, this is the temple to the sun god, I believe. And you can see that it is that pyramidal style, which we see in South America as well as Mesoamerica. And it's about 40 meters tall. estimates were that that when it was built, it was about 50 meters tall. And one would watch the priests and shamans go up into the temple in order to perform their sacrifices. This is an example of butcher a art. This is Pottery and you'll see it very characteristic again, the high realism of the faces, as well as the characteristic stirrup carrying strap. It's called the stirrup straps from the MO che people, they traded with other people throughout Latin America, and particularly in South America. They were they lived during a period of time in which it was very important to have consistent water flow. And so they made extensive use of irrigation and in their towns and villages they had significant population often sometimes 20,000 people who would live in an area they were a warlike people and we're known to take many captives and turn them into slaves as mentioned their metal and pottery is extraordinary and and they were incredibly artistic people their primary religion had to do with the sun god I'll pop and the and see who is the moon goddess that governs all of life. See, seem to have been the more dominant the goddess of the moon because you could see her both during the day as well as the nighttime.

As was pretty common in Mesoamerica and in Peru, human sacrifice A major part in their religion, they would sacrifice not only captives, but also sometimes some of their own population. And generally, the notion is that with human sacrifice, the gods are honored by the blood that is let from the sacrificial victims. This is a demonstration of the commitment and seriousness of people to their gods. They showed around 600 BC a relatively quick decline in their cities and in their towns. This is most likely due to significant climate change in which sand, particularly from the ocean and all media blew in and really made agriculture and farming extremely difficult. We moved down the coast into the more desert region of Peru with the Nazca culture. And here's your reading assignment. It's the article on Alaska civilization written again by Mark Cartwright, one of our favorite authors in this class. Here's a map that shows where the daska culture is. Down here in the southern part of Peru, you'll see Nasca and appear was more of the area in which the most shade people were, and they are roughly contemporary civilizations going on in Peru. Obviously, with a desert climate, it's much drier. They did live a longer coastline, but it is a desert coastline. They are well known for is trading extensively with other parts of South America. artifacts that have been found in the burial chambers, for instance, show items that came from the Amazon Basin, as well as other places from South America. Their chief god is just known as the Oculus being Oculus, I believe beings having eyes. Often this creature is shown there. This God rather shown is flying through the air, with long tail feathers, and a serpent sort of head, but a necklace of human heads around its neck. These are most likely sacrificial victims and the taking of heads as trophies. They're found, like I said, representations of their God, the accurate being as well as sound in the tombs. People are buried with other people's heads, rather gruesome in our way of thinking. But this of course, showed great honor to these people. The naskah are remembered particularly for their the lines that they have, they left etched in the Earth's Earth. These are called geo glyphs or lines and they are made relatively easily. Modern people have tried to recreate these lines and find that in really very short amount of time, they can disturb the the ground a little bit and that will leave lines because it is a very dry, arid culture with very little rain. Those lines will stay for many, many years. The lines are huge and visible mostly from the air, although some places from mountain tops and their purpose is highly debated. This is an example of the Nazca lines as that exists still today. People didn't know about them really tell airplane started to fly over top. And this is of course a representation of a spider. Some of the lines are animal figures, signs, some are geometric, some are just straight lines, and some are made by humans are made to represent humans. Again, the purpose of the Nazca Lines is hotly debated and all sorts of theories exist. But it seems like maybe two of the best theories is one is that they were made for to represent a sacred pilgrimage or journey. So a person would walk along the lines and that would be a means of devotion. Sort of like a walk in a garden today or in a devotional labyrinth that some face us today. Other theories suggest that they is particularly the straight lines show direction to how to get to water. Follow these lines and eventually it will lead you to a well or a stream or a place of water.

There both the Nazca and the mochi culture seem to decline around 600 or 650 ad. And the period between 650 and 1470, with the coming of the Inca into Peru was a time in which there were just a number of various cultures some much more significant than others, but there is no unified or major culture in Peru during that relatively lengthy period of time. Some of the other important cultures are the Tiwanaku, or warry. We met Tiwanaku. Earlier, she is a goddess figure in the highlands of Peru as well as the Siyad or to move cultures, the cimo in particular, they have significance over a wider area of Peru. They're more closely oriented. And they both seem to descend from the Matu or marchais. The cimo eventually preside over all of Peru, and it is the Incas who come and really conquer them, and take control around 1400. And that leads us into the next part of this class, which we'll get to in a few sessions from now. This change gears now from Peru and move to Mesoamerica. During that same period of time between about 500 BC and 101,080. The reading assignment for this is the reading assignment is on the Zapotec civilization again by Bart cart, right? There's about the BowTech civilization had great significance almost for this entire length of time that we're talking about from about 500 DC to 900 ad. They were known other people call them the cloud people, for they lived up in the highlands. And in the mountains regions, one of their major sites is Mount Auburn in the Halacha Valley. They are remembered as fantastic period pyramid builders with a very much a priestly culture. As I mentioned, just about every ancient civilization, religion is a very significant part of that culture. But when we come to Mesoamerica, particularly in this period of time, it is religion that drives fundamentally all of the culture. They were very much in trade and Central America, Mexico and and even down into Peru, there is a there are trade routes that goes through and it is pretty impressive that these folks are able to trade their goods, their pottery, their metalwork, their textiles, up and down into in Latin America. They traded with the Olmecs people, and then who were a pre existing culture, and then later with the Mayans. The protec religion is a very significant part of it. But let's see first year, this is Mount Orban here, here, and this is the area that is roto Zapotec civilization was particularly significant. But like I said, they did trade with other regions, the Mayan here and another culture up here. Their religion is full of gods, there's a full range of gods and that they're almost all nature and fertility gods. prayers and sacrifices are significant. For ensuring fertility and victory at war. Very early in this course, we talked about how those two factors come up time and time and time again, in relationship to the gods sacrifice and prayers are offered so that the gods will be favorable to you, and will smile on you. There's no assumption of grace, there's no assumption that the Gods care for you love you. You have to win their favor and you have to stay in their favor.

Very significantly, the Zapotec seem to have developed one of the earliest alphabets in the Americas. And they were masters with their mathematical systems. Again, having a very complex calendar system they had three different calendars. One, very similar to the very similar to the Mayans, and it's very clear that there's a bull attack and the Mayan civilizations had lots of interconnections, major temple area and among others, Other places is Mount Auburn. And they would go there. It's unclear in some of these places whether or not people actually lived in these temple areas, or if these were just places that they would go and were reserved for the religious purposes. They didn't have lots of contact, as I mentioned with the Mayans, but also with a major city state, another culture that we're we'll come to in a moment to to walk on and I hope I'm pronouncing that a little bit like it's supposed to be pronounced. This is the old man God, just a figure from the VO tech civilization. And you'll see that it's very elaborate, very elaborate headdress. sitting cross legged, just one of many gods that they worshipped. And here is a temple this is at Mount

Well, I'm sorry, we have to go back. The old man God is Zapotec. I want to move on now a little bit farther north, actually into Mexico

displaces about 30 miles 40 miles north of Mexico City, current Mexico City to a major city in Central America to chill Lacan and here is the reading assignment of again, it's won by Mark Cartwright. This is a temple built at Mount Alban, so this is Zapotec. I'm getting a little confused here. My screens are split and I'm reading the wrong one sometimes. Sorry about that. We'll see if we can pick that up. Now we move to Teotihuacan.

As mentioned this is a large city in the Central Plains of Mexico, Central Valley, is the largest pre European city in the Americas, perhaps peaked around 200,000 residents, Salah 200,000 is a decent sized city in today's at least North American culture. But if one thinks about what it takes the infrastructure, the agriculture the amount of food to take care of a city of this size, one has a sense of how complicated and sophisticated such a city has to be. Particularly in areas where there isn't a great deal of agriculture possible. Lots of swamps in the area, they were able to create islands out of some in some of those swamps. And the city is in many respects built built on these islands and they were very much engaged in warfare and trade as well as a central religious center. Many temples and palaces are there. And it is a place known of great wealth. They had for about 1000 years, great cultural influence. Teotihuacan, and they influence particularly down south, the Mayans, as well later as the Aztecs, who are a group that come later down from the north. This is Teotihuacan and you'll see it. Here in the central here you'll remember is the Mount Auburn area of the Zapotec. And here is more of the Mayan area down here in Central America. Let's move to the Mayan culture. Here's your reading assignment. Again, this is by Joshua lark and it is a culture that is known for building massive, massive cities there's your article The Mayan culture. Here the Yucatan Peninsula, but it actually has influenced over almost all of Central America.

Mayan culture flourished. on almost all of this period of time, and these cultures are co temporalis with each other, so we should be alert that they probably were in trade with one another. They shared lots of cultural interaction. But also they were likely in warfare with one another. They flourished. The Mayans flourished from about 200 to 950 ad, so their post Christian era. And then we find that many of their cities are abandoned around 950. And is unclear exactly why that happened. There's some evidence of burning it, there's some evidence of just abandonment. The culture seems to have broken down whether or not there is plague, or some sort of epidemic, whether there is massive warfare, it doesn't appear that they're conquered by anyone. Those sites are later occupied by the Toltecs. And some later cultures assume that the Toltecs built the the Mayan culture, but we know differently today. But in some respects, the Mayan culture lasted well into the European conquest after Christopher Columbus and others, and in many ways still continues today. The cultures of Central America have many Mayan influences. As mentioned, the culture of the Mayans is driven significantly by its religion. The sacred writings, sacred temples, the sacred game that is played seems to be played with a stick and a ball. And it is a rough sport. The athletes are often are seriously injured if not killed during the plane of pocket attack. But it is a game played in honor of the gods. And of course, the sacred calendar. We know more about the Mayan religion than many of the other religions and one of the things that we understand is that it is very much tied to a cyclical understanding of nature, and what are their calendars they have three calendars one of the Mayan calendars does follow the cycles of nature. But they seem to have ballot balance that with a progressive nature of time, time moves forward. And it is very much a culture one might call of the afterlife. And very much a culture in which death is a kind of rules the religion. Upon death, a person journeys and goes on a long journey through the underworld. There are nine different stages or steps in the Mayan journey of the underworld Subala. And after one is completed, does that track then one goes through 13 different stages, you go down, and then you come back up again. And you reach paradise, taco mana calm. And that's located on a mountaintop, it's a literal place, it's a place where the gods live. And so the journey after death is to go down into the underworld, and then to rise back up and end up on the mountaintop. This is a journey that each person needs to take. And this is a journey that they prepare for on their life on Earth. The life before one dies is really getting ready, understanding knowing how to make this journey down into the underworld and back up into the mountain of the gods. There are ways that you can bypass that journey. You don't have to take it. For instance, if a woman dies in childbirth, or in if one commit suicide, or if in one dies in warfare or in the game pack Kotak or we have one dies as a sacrificial victim. And it's understood that these are desirable things to do, in many respects, in order to avoid needing to take this great journey.

So in their religion, places that represent the underworld are caves and dark places or places that represent the mountaintops or conversely, places that are light. And of course, mountaintops themselves, have very much of a sacred meeting. The temple pyramids that the Mayan built in there are many and there are some famous ones are all symbolic of the mountaintop on which the gods live. And so the priests and shamans would take the prayers and the sacrifices. And they would climb up to the tops of the pyramids, and present these to the gods on the behalf of the people, one of the famous places is to get eaten. Place that many people visit today you see in the picture, lots of tourists, lots of people investigating. And this is a extremely well preserved Mayan temple. One can just imagine these are all stairs. Steps, one can imagine the priests going up in order to offer the sacrifices. And often they are indeed, human sacrifices. That's where we're going to have to leave Peru and mezzo America for this section, we'll come back to them before this course, is finished to finish that off, but now I would like to go briefly into the beginnings of the Greco Roman culture. And let me suggest you that while we certainly could cover Greece, and Rome as two separate nations and two separate peoples, two separate cultures, two separate histories, I think it's useful, particularly in this period, and this course, as a, as an overview course, to try and understand them fundamentally is one culture. There are two civilizations of course, and yet there is much that unites them. For instance, coin, a Greek and coin a is just the Greek word for common. So common Greek becomes the major language, not only of the Greek world, but also in significant ways of the Roman world. All educated Roman people knew how to read Greek as well as their own Latin, the Greek religion and Greek mythology is fundamentally adopted by the Romans and the names are changed, but the gods retain the same characteristics. For instance, the Greek gods Zeus, who lives on the mountain and who is the primary male deity becomes Jupiter. In the Roman world, Zeus, his wife, Hera, becomes Juno. Artemis, the hunter goddess, becomes Diana, the Greek god Aphrodite, the goddess of love, becomes the Roman god, Venus. And many of these gods, therefore are just adopted by the Romans, and Greek culture, in many respects, follows Greek art and the artistic ideals of the Greeks, particularly in their sculpture, and in some respects, in their, in their literature. That's adopted, those forms are adopted by the Romans and passed on. A lot of the Greek love of theater and one thing so the Greek great Greek poets, theater writers, Aristophanes, for instance, Euripides, some others, the Romans loved their theater. They had their own writers, of course, but they also put on the plays of the Greeks.

The great epic of whole epics of Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, are basically repeated by Virgil in his Aeneid. And so the Romans adopt Greek culture in significant ways. Romans had their own authority, of course, in this Greco Roman culture, their military is unsurpassed in the ancient world for 1000 years. The Romans excelled in law and rhetoric, and this was seen as the highest achievement to serve in political office. And to be a rhetorician was seen as the highest goal that a boy or a man could have. Roman architecture takes giant leaps from Greek architecture, although it does also repeat a lot of the same form, so the columns and the like. But the Romans are our engineers, and they understand how to build the aqueducts they understand how to build the amphitheaters, they understand how to build the arch and the vaulted ceilings and the Romans make great advances there. There is a strange sort of interesting combination of in from the Greek political arrangements of the polis to the Roman Republic and later Empire, the Romans, I don't think it's quite accurate to say that they adopt Greek democratic values, but they do have great appreciation for the place of the people and the influence that the people should have. So I think with that introduction, next time, we'll pick it up with some of this beginning with ancient Greece and move on through this Greco Roman culture from 500 BC to 100 ad. Thanks very much. We'll see you next time.