Niccolo Caldararo
If a people came from outer
space and destroyed all the libraries on earth, the computers, video cassettes,
memory banks and tapes. Everything which recorded our history and culture and
all of our archives. Suppose they kept as examples of our books a magazine of
crossword puzzles, a sales catalogue of plumbing supplies, and a few TV Guides
from 1965 to 1970. Now suppose you are a historian 500 years in the future and
you are trying to describe the history of Earth.' This is similar to what occurred
possibly by accident to the literature of the Cretan Minoan civilization and the
rest of the Aegean world of the second millennium BC The only examples of writing
we have from this culture are on stone or clay. The clay has survived due to the
intensity of the fires which destroyed the cities of these peoples. If there were
books of papyrus or skin, wood or other organic materials, they were burned in
the fires, as William Taylour asserted. The clay tablets were an immediate method
of recording; the wet clay was simply scored with a stylus. This method of writing
on tablets led Taylour to speculate that writing on other materials was likely
among these peoples. The basis of this conjecture was the fact that permanent
records made of clay in neighboring kingdoms were written with a wedge and baked.
A stylus could be used on other materials like the Assyrian ivory tablets. Also,
the Aegean records Taylour refers to which survived. were day-to-day business
records which lends support to this view.
Likewise is the situation anthropologists,
art historians, and students of history of today are faced with when we try and
study pre-Columbian America. Actually things are worse, since research efforts
for the past 100 years have been confused by contemporary reports by unsympathetic
Westerners. When Hernan Cortes set foot on the coast of Mexico he had arrived
in a world that was as different from his European home as would the future depicted
in Star Wars be to a Yankee trapper in AD 1750. When we speak of science fiction,
we refer to writers who try to imagine worlds as different as possible from our
own. What we must realize of the period of Western 'discovery' of the 15th and
16th centuries is that given the dogma of the Church of 1490 there were no other
peoples on Earth than those already known. The fantastic world of the Americas
of 1492 was beyond the belief and imagination of the European mind. Some joined
this world, others fought to destroy and distort its memory. It was a living real
world of which our notions of science fiction are modest indeed.
The majority
of the Europeans arriving in the Americas at the time of contact regarded this
new world as either a land of demons (a hell) or a paradise on Earth. It is in
the context of the land they left that we can best understand the way they interpreted
what they saw. The Europe of 1492 was a land shattered by war and pestilence,
ravaged for more than a hundred years by the Black Death and other epidemics.
In Spain, two civilized peoples of great learning and culture, Arabs and Jews,
had just been driven out to Africa and beyond. Just 40 years before, the last
citadel of the Roman Empire (Byzantium) had expired, crushed by one of the many
peoples who had oppressed and overrun Europe for more than eight centuries. Europe
was an unstable mixture of peoples and borders, volatile in embryonic nationalism
and religion.
A great war, both intellectual and physical, had raged for
two centuries between a new enlightenment rising from the looted remains of classical
civilization, which had resided at Byzantium, and a religious backlash which sought
to suppress all change and to exterminate the remnants of this past world they
considered heathen, heretical and demonic.
Beginning in AD 1204. when a
Crusader army en route to Palestine stormed and sacked Byzantium, classical texts
of great literature, art, science and architecture began to breach the cloud of
barbarism that held sway over Western Europe since the fall of Rome. Among some
scholars, the continuous influence of Muslim intellectuals and teachers throughout
the Middle Ages provided the foundations for the Renaissance, both in the preservation
of Greek and Roman classics and new Arab interpretations of them (e.g. Averroes
on Aristotle) and the independent Muslim developments in science and humanities,
like the algebra and trigonometry of Al-Khwarizmi.
The effects of this literature
fueled curiosity, invention, and a questioning of the status quo which not only
sparked the intellectual foundation of the Renaissance but provided the basis
for men like Columbus to strike out against the common knowledge and the bonds
of ideology into the unknown. Paradoxically, this enlightenment also provided
a new outlet for a savage force which had been brewing in the turmoil of Europe
and Spain. The stage for the terrible events in the Americas was set in the merciless
conflict of the Crusades and the extermination of the Cathars and other heretical
groups in Europe. It is only fitting that by 1497 it was commonplace, as historian
Jacob Burckhart has pointed out, for European cities under the control of religious
influence to hold public bonfires, autos-da-fe, in which Classic texts, paintings,
and artifacts were destroyed. Father Cogolludo refers directly to these days of
cleansing in his description of the destruction of the Mayan libraries, especially
referring to volumes relating to Mayan ancient history.10 This force was exemplified
in the Americas by the exploits of men like Hernan Cortes.
In a remarkable
parallel of cultural history, the destruction of the native populations of the
Americas and the ravaging of the resources of Mesoamerica and South America -
and especially the extermination of the natives in mines Spain had endured a similar
fate at the hands of the Phoenicians. More than a thousand years before Christ
Phoenician traders landed on the shores of an unknown land: Spain. They encountered
a simple people to whom they appeared as gods and they exploited them mercilessly.
Spain provided first Phoenicia, then Carthage and finally Rome with a rich source
of copper, gold and silver, slaves and raw materials. Cortes and the other conquistadors
brought with them a method of conquest and colonization developed in the crusades
and especially in the wars to drive the Moors from Spain. The laws and process
of this method demanded the condemnation of the inhabitants as savages. heathen
and unbelievers. Their laws were void since they were not laws made under the
Christian god, or the Catholic sect. For Cortes, Diaz del Castillo, Gomara and
the other adventuring Spaniards, the world they found was peopled with strange
and frightening images, with unknown gods. But for generations men such as these
had won fortunes in the Mediterranean by ravaging civilized and cultured peoples.
The opportunity they faced in the Americas was dazzling.
To justify the
eradication of a culture and thus deprive not only the people of their history,
literature, etc., but also posterity, it was necessary to declare it evil incarnate.
The paintings, sculpture and literature of Mesoamerica was incomprehensible to
the Spanish men who encountered it, and even today many of the Mixtec glyphs and
a number of the Mayan remain enigmas. This did not prevent the friars and bishops
of the Inquisition from perceiving evil everywhere among these new peoples. Where
the pictographs depicted one figure crouched over another with an implement or
heart in his hand and an opening in the breast of the other, they saw ritual murder.
In depictions of the executions of men, they saw human sacrifice. In the context
of the mass executions and tortures inflicted on European populations by the Inquisition
for nearly 300 years prior to 1492 this was understandable, such images of human
cruelty were quite common in Spain and Italy in the Church's efforts to root out
heretics. The bishops saw and interpreted in the images of the native writing
systems what they themselves were familiar with and certainly the folklore of
pre-Christian Europe also provided a basis. If one simply glances through the
pages of Frazer's "The Golden Bough," tale after tale of ritual sacrifice is explained
in terms of rites for the renewal of life. That these are not literal murders
is discussed, but in Europe, as in the lands of the Aztec, these myths were enough
to condemn the native priests and healers to death. This is not to explain away
current sources concerning ritual sacrifice among Mesoamerican civilizations,
rather I wish to point out the denuded quality of the information.
This
is equivalent, in a naive sense, to the vision of aliens arriving on earth after
a nuclear war where all humans are dead. They see images of humans nailed to crosses
in gathering places, photographs in books of gas chambers, public hangings, heart
operations. Could they not believe that all these images translated into a culture
that worshipped death? In the Americas, rather than an uncivilized mass, Europeans
encountered lands of organized religions and urbanized nations. Hoping by sailing
west to find a way to China and India unfettered by Turks or Mongol, they encountered
the unexpected, Mesoamerica. Ironically, China - then the paramount sea-power
of the orient - was already in the process of attempting the same thing in the
fantastic voyages of discovery exemplified in the great expeditions of Cheng Ho
ending around 1433.
Europeans first encountered the peoples of the Caribbean,
who, with the exception of the Caribs who are depicted as cannibals, lived nearly
as if in paradise. But then came the Aztecs, not only a sophisticated people,
but in possession of a cosmopolitan empire with zoos, museums, and most disconcerting
to the Spanish, libraries. These libraries were the crux of a controversy which
would rage in the court of Spain because they contained proof of the native peoples
of the Americas' humanity: they were organized repositories of knowledge, a knowledge
which held a history of its people and of their religious beliefs. We can only
speculate on how these libraries were used, organized and founded since little
has come down to us in contemporary reports. We do know, as Terence Grieder has
shown. that almost all of the Native American forms of information retrieval (knotted
strings, accordion books, bark paper scrolls, and the birch bark books of the
North American tribes) also existed in Asia. We might assume that either the traditions
of these systems were a part of oral lore that persisted through the long trek
over the Bering Straits to Central America and Peru, or by vessel across the Pacific,
or that groups carried with them precious books, knotted strings or bark scrolls
from Asia. Perhaps these documents told the route of explorers before them. As
we can see, the route is consistent with known Chinese maritime history in the
14th and l5th century expansion toward India and Africa.
Theories of contact
between the civilizations of Asia and the Americas are legion and while various
archaeological theories contend for the antiquity of the first arrival of Amerindians
in the Americas, it is clear that there were several 'waves' of peoples. Alternative
to this view are the numerous trans-Pacific theories of contact which have found
some scientific support, for example, in the excavation done in Ecuador by Estrada,
Meggers and Evans, where pottery found at levels dated to 3,000 BC to 1,500 BC
shows similar form and design to the early and middle Jomon of Japan. Contact
is not necessary to explain the existence of these similar forms among the Asian
and Amerindian civilizations. The persistence of a common culture can go far to
explain many parallel developments, and, too, independent invention is always
a factor. For example, we do not need contact to explain the fact that only Arabic,
perhaps Hindu, but most certainly Mesoamerican Amerindian scholars invented the
zero.
The writings of Lao Kal show that knotted strings and notched sticks
were superseded by books in ancient China, and knotted strings were used in Polynesia.
The tradition of the book in China, and other methods of recording, were well
established by 1,000 BC Bark and silk for scrolls and screen-fold books were replaced
largely by the invention of paper. But in what can only be a bizarre coincidence
of history, the destruction of all books in China relating to history and philosophy
and almost everything else with the exception of utilitarian subjects by Emperor
Li Ssu took place, beginning in 213 BC The study of the evolution of book forms
has been severely limited, though many of the same traditions had existed in India
and southeast Asia. Reconstruction has been possible, as in the work done by Tsien,
and conjecture on the literature may be made from the substantial survival of
Japanese books. Even the critical historiography of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (died ca. 85
BC) had difficulty re constructing historical events from mythology as close as
he was to Li Ssu's acts. Any records of early Chinese geographers and explorers
were lost forever. The fact that the sea-voyages of the navies of the Ming Dynasty
could have been forgotten so completely substantially supports this assertion.
Since
the ancient Chinese had knotted strings that recorded information, it is not difficult
to assign some connection between them and the quipu of the Inca. These knotted
strings of multi-colored threads were read by trained quipu-camayocas. Unfortunately,
all the Inca archives of thousands of quipu were destroyed by Catholic priests
in the 17th century The camayocas were forbidden to teach the young to read the
few quipu that remained and now their knowledge is lost. The origin of the screen-fold
book may have been in Mesoamerica, southeast Asia, and Indonesia, as mentioned
above. In Mesoamerica, these are often referred to as the sacred texts of priests,
at least this is assumed from remaining information. Both in design and material
(bark) the Asian objects are remarkably similar to Mesoamerican codices although
some Mesoamerican screen-folds were made of deerskin and jaguar skin. Southeast
Asia and Indonesia, some of these objects were made of unfelted bark, others of
paper made of bark fibre, with wooden carved boards at the front and back as were
Mayan books. Tolstoy has shown the close similarity of methods, materials, and
techniques between the two areas in bark paper manufacture. Knowledge of the books
of the peoples of southeast Asia prior to Buddhism, the Chams, Khmers, Mons, Karens,
Yao, Shan and Thai, are usually characterized as magic incantations; perhaps,
as the four language translation of the Pali canon may indicate, these early documents
may have been historical and of other types of texts.
We know that the libraries
of the Mayan codices and scrolls were housed in buildings with elaborately carved
exteriors. We are ignorant as to whether these libraries were divided by function.
Were there separate libraries for the priesthood, separate from the temples located
at the observatories or were the libraries encyclopedic, containing all subjects
like those of Alexandria and Pergamum, or administrative like those archives of
Sumer at Lagas-Girsu or Alckad at Nippur. Perhaps they were restricted to the
functions of the priesthood, like the temple libraries of ancient Egypt, and yet
may there have been Mayan scholars like Aristotle, or Chinese scholars of the
same period, who founded their own collections of written matter? We know, at
least, that the Aztec library at Texcoco housed thousands of manuscripts of religious,
magical and historical subjects and was made up primarily of screen-fold books
of sacred subjects. Since our sources are largely the Spanish soldiers and priests
this information may be suspect. As Craine and Reindorp have stated:
The
Spanish copyists, apparently in an effort to expedite control of the Mayas by
the Spaniards. tend to modify the prophecies to make it appear that the Chilam
Balam and the other prophets were predicting the coming of the Spaniards and Christianity,
... but they lacked the ability to interpolate their thought successfully with
the abstract thought of the Mayas. Their doctoring of the Books of Chilam Balam
resulted in intermittent sections of absolute nonsense and frequent blurring of
the finer meaning as written by the Mayas.
We are told that in every manner
the Mesoamerican peoples regarded their books highly; when in pre-Columbian times
the Mayan rulers of Mayapan were driven out they are said to have carried away
their books. and that Mayan priests were buried with their books. This strikes
another consonant chord with China for the Tso Chuan records that in 517 BC, the
Chin drove out the late Chou king's son and the royal household, they carried
with them the archives of Chou. We know so little of how documents were used in
Mesoamerican societies, parallels are difficult to establish. For example, Boone
in her discussion of the 'religious/divinatory' manuscripts of Mesoamerica, describes
how readers consulted these almanacs to give prognostications for events on individual
days for specific events. For the Mayan these were subject-specific while those
from the central area of Mexico of the Aztec and others were less so, although
it is hard to generalize on so small a sample. In comparison with the activities
of the College of Pontiffs of Ancient Rome, the Mayan and Aztec counterparts may
have had similar functions. The Pontiffs were consulted for advice on which days
lawsuits could best be undertaken and had possession of secret formulas which
they used in relation to the calendar.
Historian Victor von Hagen has reasoned
from contemporary reports at the time of the conquest, that the huge Aztec government
archives at Tenochtitlan mainly contained scrolls of tribute lists. From other
chronicles we hear that the Toltecs and Aztecs had books on subjects as varied
as zoology to poetry, medicine and songs. Bernal Diaz tells of archives of maps
of all of Mexico. According to Brainerd, the design and execution of forms, figures
and glyphs is similar to that on the codices and ceramics, and the same artists
may have worked in both media. Of the Mixtec books there are similarities in coloring
and design on the recto of books and murals but the verso differs in substantial
aspects of color and outlining. These methods and materials share many aspects
with the manuscript illustrations of India and southeast Asia which were either
derived from or influenced the wall paintings of the area. Little can be made
of these comparisons since so few examples of books exist.
While Bishop
Landa in the 16th century condemned mountains of Native American texts to fire
for containing what he termed, "lies about the devil", might we conjecture they
possessed among their number the memoirs of hundreds of Mayan and Mixtec travelers
and merchants, Central American Thucydides who had recorded their visits to the
fabulous monolithic cities of the Mound Builders of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys,
or to the Amazon with its strange and exotic animals and vegetation. We can only
dream.
We may never know what was in the minds of men like Bishop Landa,
despite their few confessions, but we may soon find through the Landsat Project
that in the remote recesses of Yucatan and Quintana Roo there lie hidden and forgotten
cities of the Mayans. Perhaps a lucky archaeologist will uncover an untouched
library filled with fragile leaves of bark paper or deerskin formed into vividly
painted screen-folds and scrolls. And all at once, the misadventures of a dozen
Bishop Landas and a Li Ssu would be, in a small way, undone. Like the Dead Sea
Scrolls or the papyrus manuscripts of Nag Hammadi, the ancient world will be allowed
to speak again through the careful labors of patient modern scholars and scientists
who will painstakingly preserve the texts, translate them and open their secrets
to the voices of America's lost libraries.
See:
Tezcat's Invocation Kit
See also: Smoking Mirror
and the Shadow
