-LXXX-
"Merchant Kings of a Distant Shore"
Eishou-ji (永勝寺) Ishikari Province, May 1500
The cool sea-breeze lapped Jikken's face as he arose from hours of meditation on a cliff not far from the monastery. The sun hung low in the sky above the endless expanse of blue stretching toward the horizon. Nightfall would soon be here, bringing about a strange chill even so close to summer, and returning to the warm temple meant quite a walk through the forest back toward Eishou-ji.
Gaiyuchul sat motionless beside him, still in meditation. He said not a word or a single sutra, perhaps reflecting on them in his head and sat oblivious to the world in his perfect meditative pose, ignoring the distant cries of seagulls, the occasional gusts of wind, or Jikken's shadow casting over him. Jikken reflected solemnly on the man, a former warrior and prince who now made a perfect model of a man approaching enlightenment.
"Is it right to rouse Gaiyuchul when he's like this?" Jikken thought to himself. "Perhaps he seeks to endure the suffering of exposure, hunger, thirst, and wild animals to find a new understanding. And perhaps he doesn't care if he dies."
But Jikken purged that thought from his head at once, as Gaiyuchul seemed still tied to this world. He continued his occasional painting, and lately even started composing a new text in that arcane, difficult to read script the
Soui wrote their languages in that he refused to let Jikken see, only giving him promises of its importance. The man remained a complete enigma as ever, and reflecting on that made Jikken less guilty about gently shaking him.
"Waking me from meditation, what sort of monk are you?" Gaiyuchul grumbled as he clutched Jikken's arm with a wrinkled hand. Jikken helped him to his feet and handed him his well-carved cane.
"I'm so sorry, brother, but it is getting late and it is still quite a walk back," Jikken replied, bowing in apology.
Gaiyuchul folded his arms and turned his attention toward the sea and sky, gazing at it with that thoughtful look he so often had.
"Perhaps I wanted to pass beyond the horizon into the west like so many great men I've known," he muttered.
"I've been around you long enough, there are things you feel you need to do before you leave this life," Jikken said, ignoring the pang of worry at the fact Gaiyuchul might leave him soon.
"Indeed, indeed there is." Gaiyuchul nodded, his attention remaining on the horizon. He raised a withered hand and arm, pointing toward it. "Isn't it strange how little we know nothing about what lies beyond the horizon? Before I came to Japan, I would have been certain sailing this far would bring me to that place, yet now I know it's even further, for if I sail toward the sunset I only find the land of the Jurchens and other Northern Barbarians. Yet what is beyond that horizon? Would I finally find the Land of the Dead?"
"Like the texts say, India, where Shakyamuni himself lived" Jikken answered, the only thing he might say to Gaiyuchul's musing. "And beyond there, Persia, and even further beyond there, Daqin [1]. Maybe the Land of the Dead lays beyond even Daqin."
"When you say it like that, it recalls how I foolishly believed all my life that I knew all about the world from my travels in the service of my masters, yet clearly I knew nothing," Gaiyuchul said. "Perhaps I was just a fool, and the most wild tales T'ashatlinhl Qwinishtis told held truth."
"T'ashatlinhl Qwinishtis?" Jikken sputtered, trying to copy the throaty
Soui name of the man Gaiyuchul pronounced. "
Saga of the Peoples of the World mentions him, was he another man who knew all about those distant places?" Jikken asked. He was certain Gaiyuchul knew interesting stories about him.
"They called him the 'Pathfinder' and other names," Gaiyuchul started. "He was a brilliant scout who might find anything, inheritor of his father's great skills. Qwinishtis vanished for many years after I returned from the Plains in the far east, off on a mission from the Pillar King to proclaim his dominion in ever land, yet in my older years he reappeared after so many years, telling all manner of stories that sounded exactly what the merchants at the ports might tell, yet the goods he brought back proved there was something to it."
Gaiyuchul grew misty-eyed as nostalgia took him. "Ah, I'll never forget the peculiar earthy taste of that dark drink and how it kept me up for a day and night perfectly alert, or that strange bitter mealy drink he prepared from those odd beans which went down so fine with pine syrup, the one you Japanese call
kegama." [2]
"Was that that tea one of your companions brought?" Jikken said, thinking back to that strange Fusanian drink some of the monks at Eishou-ji drank.
"Indeed it was.
Kiyuuchi, as you Japanese call it nowadays, a precious drink of strength from lands far away.
Kegama,
kiyuuchi, the most fragrant incense and wood, the brightest clothes, pelts of strange beasts, brilliant gems, so many things come from that place. Golden statues and implements abound at all corners of that society and all but the poorest men stand as nobles might."
Jikken nodded, thinking the place sounded like descriptions he read about India in the writings of the wise pilgrim Xuanzang who traveled to that country, the birthplace of Buddha.
"This country must be a wealthy and bountiful land indeed, then, blessed by the heavens," Jikken mused.
Gaiyuchul shook his head.
"Wealthy and bountiful yes, but blessed by the heavens I do not believe, for they eat the Hillman's food and grow weak [3] not just physically, but in spirit as well. The merchants tell lurid tales of cannibal feasts, and Qwinishtis claims he witnessed eight thousand men sacrificed on a single occasion, great racks of skulls that dwarf all the whaling shrines of the Coastmen, and rivers of blood flowing down great mountains of stone. Something about that land is strange."
"Are they barbarians?" Jikken asked. Images of a strange society flickered through his head at Gaiyuchul's vivid words, one that seemed at once exotic and wonderful
Gaiyuchul didn't answer, pondering a difficult question he no doubt pondered to himself many times.
"I do not know, but would like to," he spoke at last. "If they are, I must know why these barbarians seem so wise in so many ways. If they are not, I must know why they hold so little semblance of civilised morality and treat the sacrifice of a human being with such callousness."
"I suppose we don't need to think of a place as far as the afterlife to reach a place we'll never understand without visiting and living there," Jikken said.
"That is true," Gaiyuchul said. "Now let us return to the monastery before it gets colder."
As the two set off through the trail in the woods, Jikken reflected on their conversation and wanted to ask Gaiyuchul one more question.
"By the way, what is the furthest land you know that exists on this earth?"
Gaiyuchul gave him a brief glance before focusing his gaze ahead in thought, saying nothing as he concentrated on walking straight, clutching his staff at all times.
"Those lands in the furthest south stretch on forever, full of new countries with equally puzzling habits. Perhaps somewhere the lands bend west and connect with China and India much as the country of the Ringitsu in the north bends west and connects so near to Japan [4]."
"Maybe you're right. I wonder what those lands are like?" Jikken never heard of any lands laying beyond the islands south of Vietnam, or any lands south of India.
"I've heard little. Qwinishtis claims he met sailors of a strong nation called Shanshan in these far southern ports who live in an empire of gold and silver. They live so far south the sun stands still throughout the year. Qwinishtis claims they breed strange towey goats with very long necks and legs but no horns, animals he witnessed sold in the markets of Aztatlan to only the wealthiest men. [5]"
Jikken could scarcely picture such a strange creature--the strange goat-looking creatures Gaiyuchul drew in his paintings appeared odd enough.
As the trees thinned and the monastery drew near, Gaiyuchul sighed, still deep in thought.
"Although our world fell into chaos countless years ago, it retains much in the way of balance. There are four primordial divisions of society, divided in two and two [6]. Much as that, there are two centers of civilisation and two peripheries of barbarism. Yet they must differ from each other. Are there barbaric civilised people? Are there civilised Hillmen? May I discover these answers one day so I might spread knowledge of the Buddha of Infinite Light to all alive."
---
In a land called Aztatlan, the harsh deserts and mountains of Oasisamerica gave way for the exotic jungles and hills of Mesoamerica, rimmed by the Pacific coast on the east. Like many borderlands, a unique culture budded in this area influenced by both yet entirely unto itself. The products of rich mines to the east and north, the fertile soils of their homeland and those to the south, and the boundless sea collided to produce a people for whom global trade seemed as natural as eating. While Mesoamericans considered Aztatlan a backwater full of greedy merchants, for the people of the north it was an unimaginably wealthy paradise, a gateway to the heart of Mesoamerica and beyond.
Aztatlan's origins lay in its distinction from both Chichimeca to the east and Mesoamerica to the south. Like much of the immediate area north of Mesoamerica, Uto-Aztecan speakers [7] formed the main inhabitants, indeed located not far from the very origin of these cultures. They developed largely independently as among the first outside Mesoamerica to farm maize and appear linked to the spread of Uto-Aztecan languages. Their architecture and societal models based on wealthy, prestigious headmen thus vaguely resembled those of the northern areas of Oasisamerica yet evolved in a far different direction.
The mangrove swamps ringing Aztatlan's ever shifting shores were rich in plant life and especially shellfish to harvest. Canoes set out along these barrier islands, harvesting further sustenance from the Gulf of Anquon and providing transit between villages. These links down the coast, accompanied with land-based trails made them natural traders. As early as 1200 BC, influence of their civilisation in the form of art appeared as far away as northwestern South America [8], in later centuries expanded toward shared innovations like similar approaches to bronze-working and the construction of shaft tombs.
Each area of Aztatlan remained distinct in language and culture, with many varied traditions emerging such as famous circular pyramids or deep shaft tombs with rich grave offerings. No large political or cultural entities formed in this region for many centuries, even as societies like Teotihuacan spread its influence to every corner of Mesoamerica. Aztatlan remained a collection of city-states and confederations, who united their valleys under a charismatic and wealthy noble class who maintained power through their acquisition of rare and expensive goods.
Over time, Aztatlan became drawn into Mesoamerica as a whole thanks to its elites' pursuit of wealth. The era of Teotihuacan marks the beginnings of this, yet it seems true regional integration only occurred in the tumultuous times at the end of the Classic Period in the 9th century. Here emerged the powerful city of Amapa at the rich delta of the Chignahuapan [9], followed by others (from north to south): Tzalahua, Tomatlán, Ixtapa, Chametla, Colhuacán, and Guasave [10].
By 1000 AD, the area known as Aztatlan had fully emerged, stretching along the coast from the Kingdom of Tzalahua in the south to the Kingdom of Guasave in the north. Two regional divisions caused by economic factors, culture, and climate existed--northern Aztatlan, from the coastal marshes between Amapa and Chametla to Guasave's domain and southern Aztatlan from those marshes to the coastal strip near Tzalahua [11]. Despite the vast distances and distinct climates ranging from semi-arid to tropical, this area possessed remarkable unity thanks to cultural and economic connections.
The revival of Mesoamerica (along with the ending of a lengthy drought) during the early Postclassic accelerated Aztatlan's development. The aforementioned cities grew in size and specialization and begun spreading their connections far and wide. By the 11th century, it seems likely they were in contact with the growing centers of Oasisamerica and the many villages and towns in-between, acting as middlemen for sending north Mesoamerican goods like cacao, dyed cotton, copal, jade, parrots, and shells north in exchange for turquoise, bison pelts, incense, antler, whalebone, ivory, and copper plates.
Aztatlan produced many goods locally--the entire region grew much in the way of cotton, importing or locally producing various dyes which gave it rich and famed hues. The southerly and wealthier cities such as Ixtapa grew cacao, a highly valued good in the rich, fertile soil that produced great crops of maize and beans. They produced salt from the sea and harvested shells and shellfish which they traded deep inland. From the mountains they obtained obsidian and copper, shaping it into typical bladed tools, ornaments, and weapons. Skilled craftsmen produced fine ceramics exported widely in Mesoamerica. All of these came together in the cities, resulting in a proliferation of different craftsmen producing finished goods for trade elsewhere.
The wealth and strength of Aztatlan lay in the broad specialisation of each valley. Climate, local conditions, and culture led to certain valleys growing primarily one cash crop (with cotton somewhat of an exception). For instance, the Kingdom of Ixtapa grew much cacao, while Colhuacán grew tobacco. This extended toward manufactures as well,such as how Amapa served as the center for manufacturing shell jewelry, which was not manufactured in large amounts in other Aztatlan cities. Smaller, poorer valleys tended to focus on food production. This even extended toward their trade goods, where Guasave was famed for Fusanian goods and Chametla for exporting the rare green stones they obtained from the Chichimec trade center of Chalchihuitl.
Unlike the pochteca of Central Mexico, the traders of Aztatlan ranked among the nobility and eagerly showed it. They acquired goods for their extended family, hoping to win themselves or a relative political office, carrying it on the backs of porters who might carry over 60 kilograms up to 60 kilometers a day. Their journeys took them to distant towns where they forged connections with local elite and often acted as advisors. They defused elements from Mesoamerica such as ballcourts and Tlaloc worship across Aztatlan and Chichimeca and into Oasisamerica.
In this era, the trade routes north from Mesoamerica either followed the coast until they reached Guasave, or turned inward toward Chichimeca and reached Chalchiuitl [12], a prominent trade center of that region. From either point, the route continued inward, crossing through the desert valleys of Chichimeca until it reached Puebloan lands and cities like Paquime and Piasihlito, thereafter following local trading routes and the roads of Sh'idiichi and other cities that might lead to the Hohokam cities and Fusania.
The increasing development of South Fusania in the 11th and 12th centuries resulted in new land trade routes developing. They stretched north along the coast, running through incredibly dry and rugged desert. It passed through the lands of the hunter-gatherer Kunke (sometimes called the Seri) and the Soba people of the Trincheras culture directly toward the Hohokam cities and the Anquon River. Unfortunately, relations between the Soba and Hohokam tended to be fraught with intrigue over the issue of payment for the shells brought through this area (and turned into shell jewelry by the Soba), and the Aztatlan merchants found themselves caught in the midst of this. Although a few integrated themselves into this trade, many perished and avoided the area due to banditry.
Fusanian merchants proved equally eager for the goods of Mesoamerica, spurring the development of the maritime segment of the Turquoise Road in the mid-12th century. With sailing technology inspired by the sails of the Chuma to their west, Patayan sailors built new sorts of rafts and started navigating the seas to both Kunke lands for their wealth in shells and eventually all the way to Guasave. They utilised the North American monsoon for their trade, using the northerly winds to sail south and sailing home with the arrival of the southerly winds in June.
With its far greater economy and competitive elite, Aztatlan took rapidly toward these ship designs and innovated their own craft. The shape of the raft grew more narrow and evolved into a sewn ship akin to a dhow, with the planks secured by sturdy willows, ropes, or for the largest ships, wooden nails. Like Patayan boats but unlike Fusanian craft, they were monohulled vessels. The most common was called
chasimek in Guasave, Colhuacán, and nearby cities (and related words in other areas), a design of Patayan origin that grew far larger, typically appearing in sizes up to 10 meters long and carried 20 tons of cargo.
As Aztatlan's merchants lived among the Patayans from June to September during the monsoon, inevitably Fusanian elements spread to Aztatlan. Mesquite groves appeared in the drier north of Aztatlan alongside Fusanian crops like ricegrass and Hohokam agave. They grew tehi for its fiber, although unlike in Fusania made no clothes of it and instead used it for sacks, ropes, nets, and sails. Perhaps out of love for the exotic, even irrigated fields of omodaka appeared by the 13th century, populated with domesticated geese and ducks in a scene that might look strangely familiar to a visitor from as far away as Wayam, yet just as alien from the common presence of sizable chuckwallas (a popular meat in Aztatlan yet taboo for the Wayamese) basking on the shore of the pond.
Their ships arrived at ports further south as a more efficient means of trading goods than by land. Beyond Aztatlan, they traveled to ports all along the coast of Mesoamerica, with the main focus of their activity trade with powerful states like the Tlapanecs of Yopitzinco, the Mixtecs of Yucu Dzaa, and the Huave of Guisisi Gui on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec [13]. Their wide-ranging trade brought great wealth to this mountainous coast. Beyond that, Aztatlan ships were rare, even during their initial period of dominance in the late 12th century. However, it is clear that Aztatlan merchants acquired goods from further afield among the Maya and Central American peoples.
In the early Postclassic, none in Mesoamerica excelled at seafaring as much as the Aztatecs with their remarkably developed ship designs and navigation skills. Trained at reading the coast, knowing the winds, and marking latitude through study of the sky, they seemlessly navigated both coast and open ocean in their ships. Ironically, their skills and habit of settling for months in cities and advising local elites ensured Aztatec skills spread rapidly enough that by 1300 they were widespread across the Pacific as far south as South America. Coastal kingdoms like the Yucu Dzaa and Guisisi Gui emerged as powerful rivals to the Aztatecs.
Aztatlan's technology and merchants brought about the beginning of widespread coastal trade, reorienting markets and economies across Mesoamerica toward the coast from the 13th century onward. Newfound wealth turned once-weak coastal states like Guisisi Gui emerge into strong regional contendors, letting them battle powerful neighbours like Yucu Dzaa and the Zapotecs of Zaachila on even footing.
By the late 13th century, a few travelers came from even further afield, drawn by this concentration of wealth and cultural exchange. A century before the great Chimu Empire arose in South America, sailors such as those of the Manta city-states like Jocay paved the way for this South America-Mesoamerica trade, visiting the great cities of southern Aztatlan like Ixtapa and Tzalahua. The only non-Fusanian society to natively invent the sail, they sailed across the distance on balsa rafts that by the end of the 13th century developed outriggers in a parallel to Fusanian ship design. These merchants largely traded gold, but also brought rare goods like balsa wood, coca, llama wool, finely embroidered cloth, and prized spondylus shells.
Political shifts accompanied these technological and economic shifts. Clear centers emerged in each valley as city-states united their valleys. The loose confederations united into tight-knit kingdoms, with one city-state ruling a host of small lordships centered around a town or village which itself might rule smaller villages. If another large city in a valley existed, it was the port of the valley, ruled by a trusted relative of the king. These kings collected tribute from the many towns in their valley, and occasionally towns in minor valleys, but with few exceptions never ruled over the entirety of more than one valleys due to inevitable military opposition from neighbours.
Archaeologists refer to this period, that era from 1150 to 1300, as the Late Aztatlan culture, the culmination of the early Aztatlan culture in prior centuries. The golden age of Aztatec civilisation, it is marked by a uniformity in the economics, politics, and religion of the entire area brought about by the intense specialisation and international trade. The area reached new heights of population and wealth and commanded stunning influence across the Pacific Coast.
The greatest ports lay in southern Aztatlan, where they attracted pochteca from across Mesoamerica as well as merchants from northern Aztatlan seeking to buy goods like chocolate to trade in exchange for Fusanian goods. They possessed large manufactories producing goods from copper, bronze, gold, and silver, produced much in the way of jewelry, and exported salt into the interior of Mesoamerica. The largest cities might have populations of over 15,000 with the wealthiest city, Ixtapa, with its 20,000 people being practically unrivaled in size of any city on the Pacific Coast.
Northern Aztatlan lagged behind in wealth due to the poorer periphery and lands incapable of growing cacao and other tropical goods, although they grew much cotton and tobacco. Smaller, drier valleys served as important centers for growing subsistence crops, a much needed export to Aztatlan's cities. Their trade connections lay with the Chichimecs and Oasisamerica and to a degree, Fusania. Linguistically the region was more homogenous than southern Aztatlan, speaking mostly Cahitan languages, although at Chametla they spoke the Totorame language (an increasingly Cahitanised form of Cora). While Nahuatl was understood as elsewhere in Aztatlan, the primary trade language was known simply as Cahita and mostly blended the Cahitan languages of Guasave and Colhuacán.
During the 12th century, Guasave became the wealthiest city of Northern Aztatlan due to its rulers exploiting its proximity to Fusania and Oasisamerica. The city exported local shells, copper bells, and imported Mesoamerican goods in exchange for turquoise and exotic goods from Fusania. By the early 13th century, Guasave became undoubtedly the wealthiest city of northern Aztatlan, surpassing rivals like Colhuacán and even Chametla. Perhaps 15,000 people lived in Guasave, drawn by the city's rare Fusanian goods.
Naturally, Guasave's merchants expanded northwards along the coast as they sought to seize more of both the shell trade and Fusania trade. The coastal towns of the Yoreme and Yoeme people (closely related Cahitan) submitted to Guasave's influence, and even the nomadic Kunke joined Guasave's growing confederacy. As elsewhere in Aztatlan, Guasave recognised local rulers (or in the case of the egalitarian Kunke, created a new class of wealthy elite) by tributing them exotic goods in exchange for tribute and rights to their community's resources.
This trading sphere practically controlled by Guasave brought about increasing intermarriage, settlement, and acculturation, pushing Aztatlan's borders north along the coast. At the behest of ambitious merchant clans, towns populated almost entirely by those from Guasave sprang up in the better watered lands of the Mayo and Yaqui Rivers and became sizable centers in their own right. Even further north, the port of Wahema formed around a Kunke camp and grew into a city of nearly a thousand people thanks to its sheltered bay and nearby mountains that made for a distinct landmark. Guasave colonisation expanded as far north as the village of Hakewiktoh around Acaguito Bay [14], these smaller communities thriving as trading posts for Kunke nomads.
These colonies faced challenges such as drought and conflicts with the Kunke or small-scale farmers and pastoralists in the hills, yet Guasave--or often Wahema's--military strength and mediation helped deter these conflicts. Typically the Aztatec merchants and nobles arranged alliances and strategic marriages with local elites and paid them off in goods. If these actions failed, they launched ruthless raids aimed at enslaving women and children and seizing livestock. The drought and epidemics of the 13th century brought hardship to these colonies and the Aztatecs responded through increased warfare against the Kunke that brought disaster to their people--of the 5,000 Kunke in 1200, perhaps only 1,000 survived by 1300.
Across the Gulf of Anquon lay the arid Chingan Peninsula, sparsely populated by nomadic hunter-gatherers and fishing cultures. Enterprising merchants from Guasave sought out these people for trading opportunities, in particular those further north who occasionally had rare South Fusanian goods like turquoise. While some trade in hides, shells, and slaves occurred, the main commodity was pearls. Guasave's merchants paid locals in food and occasionally live ducks or towey goats to dive for pearls. A few of these pearl diving camps evolved into permanent villages, sustained by pastoralism and food imports.
Towey goats appear in Aztatlan by around 1150, obviously imported from Oasisamerica and first appearing at Guasave. By the early 13th century, they were revolutionising local trade thanks to their capacity as draft animals. While it took 4-5 goats to carry as much as a single porter, the goats could live off the land, didn't take up valuable food resources, and worked for free. They became vital components of expeditions, with merchant clans who owned goats invariably outcompeting their rivals.
Towey goats increased the distinction between north and south Aztatlan. In the warmer, humid south, the goats suffered excess disease and remained restricted to imported prestige animals and meat sources. Yet northern Aztatlan possessed large flocks which they raised for meat, wool, and leather. The meat and milk gave better nutrition to their people and wool and leather became important exports. Their efficiency as draft animals allowed the northern Aztatlan cities to seize control over much of the land trade in the drier interior and north, forcing southern Aztatlan to totally reorient itself toward sea trade and trade with Mesoamerica.
Relations between Aztatec states were often poor--kings vigorously enforced their spheres of influence over their vassal villages and towns and dethroned any ruler who stepped out of line. They raided each others' valleys, burning villages and taking captives whom they sold as slaves or sacrificed to the gods. However, they rarely attacked major cities directly, as the fortifications proved too strong and the campaign season too short.
The Aztatecs fought in a mix of Mesoamerican and Chichimec fashion, using bows, slings, and atlatl darts before closing with obsidian-tipped spears and clubs. Because of the hot climate, armor tended to be simple pads meant to absorb blows. Elites signified their status with bronze spears and helmets and capes made from the pelts of jaguars or mountain lions. Because of their wealth, the Aztatecs often hired mercenaries to bolster their fighting power. These soldiers came from nearby regions and were paid in local goods, usually shells or in southerly areas cacao beans. The diversity of these mercenaries spanned as far as trade networks permitted, with Southern Aztatec armies full of Mixtecs, Tlapenecs, and Nahuas while Guasave's armies included many nomadic Kunke, Oasisamericans, and Haiyi.
The growth of the cities and increase of visiting pochteca brought about cultural changes and new styles within Aztatlan, including the introduction of Mesoamerican writing during the mid-13th century. It appears influenced by both the Central Mexican writing of Cholollan and the Mixtec system further south, areas often visiting and visited by the Aztatecs. In this era, Aztatec writing proved simple, vague, and limited, focused mainly on keeping records of goods and establishing geneologies (perhaps in response to various epidemics that caused disputes in ownership). Oral records remained supreme in telling the stories behind things.
Religiously, Aztatlan followed broadly Mesoamerican customs, albeit peculiar local forms. They followed typical rites of bloodletting and human sacrifice in the name of their gods such as local variants of Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, and especially the sun god Tonatiuh. The obscure ocean god Chalchiuhtlatónal (brother of the more famous water goddess Chalchiuitlicue, Tlaloc's consort) became patron of sailors and fishermen in Aztatlan and thus held a prominent cult while his father, who corresponded to South Fusanian Quaoar, was a feared god of floods who threatened to devour all the world's maize.
The local Quaoar ritual borrowed elements from his cult elsewhere yet became distinctly Mesoamerican. A group of twenty men (twelve priests and eight initiates) consumed sacred datura and danced themselves into a frenzy in a temporary shrine built in an open air temple. All men were ritually forbidden from consuming maize for one month prior. Much bloodletting was involved, placed in sacred chacmools. They gathered up humans and towey goats, gorging them on maize and tesguino (maize beer) for a month prior before placing them face down in a stream and slicing them open as they drowned. The priests sprinkled maize pollen in the stream, mingling it with the blood of the sacrificed people and animals. This offering sated Quaoar's desire for maize, stopping his floodwaters from ruining the crop.
Like Oasisamerica to the north, northern Aztatlan suffered extensively from the drought of the late 13th century, a drought which mostly spared rainier southern Aztatlan. Over-reliance on cotton farming brought about famine as the cotton harvest failed and farmers could not buy food. These famines and continued demands for cotton produced intense revolts that in some places depopulated vast swathes of river valleys and overthrew local dynasties. Migratory Chichimecs, their mobility aided by their flocks of towey goats, invaded the valleys and assumed control, using vast plundered wealth to become the new rulers of the dominant cities. The trade with Fusania and Oasisamerica dried up, bringing about further economic hardship.
Guasave's colonial sphere collapsed by 1280 thanks to drought, epidemic, the collapse of trade, and increasing conflict with the pastoralists in the hills. Those nascent settlements on the Anquon Peninsula fell abandoned except for limited trade for pearls, as did all settlements north of Wahema, which declined from a thriving port to a mere fishing village. Warfare tore Guasave's colonies, resulting in the secession of the cities on the Yaqui and Mayo which organised into the typical Aztatlan model of city-states dominating smaller towns. Two new kingdoms, Vahkom on the Yaqui and Huatabampo on the Mayo, rose by 1300 and became Guasave's foremost rivals, ending Guasave's monopoly on the Fusanian trade.
Of the challenges toward southern Aztatlan, invasion and epidemic figured more heavily than drought. The ports of Aztatlan played an important role in spreading the four epidemics--chickenpox, mumps, whooping cough, and seal flu--toward every corner of Mesoamerica during the 1240s and 1250s. Around 10% of the population died, bringing about severe social upheavals in the region as experienced elsewhere. In abandoned fields, migratory nomads from the mountainous interior with their flocks of towey goats settled in the lowlands, overtaking local populations. However, as a whole, southern Aztatlan weathered these crises much better due to the reduced effects of drought and sustained trade routes.
All of these events resulted in the sundering of the Aztatlan cultural area. The specialisation of the valleys collapsed and local manufactures took over. Food crops replaced cash crops in many villages, and towey goat herding became dominant, especially in the north. Two new cultures emerged by 1300--in northern Aztatlan the Bácum culture (called after the Spanish name of Vahkom) emerges, characterised by Oasisamerican and Far South Fusanian influences, towey goat herding, and use of the Cahita language, while in southern Aztatlan the Ixtapa culture emerges, characterised by increased Mesoamerican influences, return to cash crop farming, use of Nahuatl, and extensive pyramid building.
Yet even as Aztatlan's golden era ended, the area remained critical. As the drought ended and a new era dawned in Oasisamerica and Fusania, Aztatlan was fated to recover and rise to new heights. With the increasing interconnection of the Americas with Mesoamerica at its center, Aztatlan's future looked bright as the great connecting node between so many separate and vibrant cultural realms.
Author's notes
---
Aztatlan (whose people are the Aztatecs, not to be confused with Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs) is an interesting area, long appreciated as a connection point between Mesoamerican and the Southwest. Yet it isn't just a periphery or an outpost of Mesoamerica (as archaeologists long described it as), but its own set of cultural areas, broadly linked to both each other and the rest of northern Mexico, fading into the American Southwest and Mesoamerica depending on the direction one moves.
For reasons of time and space, I've chosen to focus mostly on the coastal trading cultures and have restricted the term "Aztatlan" to mean those, casting them as distinct from their neighbours in the hills and those further beyond in the rest of the Mexican north ("Chichimeca"). I've written about the region from a largely Fusanian/Oasisamerican perspective, due to the focus on the timeline. I extensively relied on
Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mexico as a source for this chapter, so if it doesn't sound overtly related to the changes brought about by this TL then it's summarizing modern theories on how this culture functioned.
I focused most heavily on Guasave as I've routinely mentioned that city and with its proximity to Fusania, it would be the most changed of any part of Aztatlan. Due to lack of time, I can't go into as much detail about Mesoamerica as might be incredibly interesting.
This chapter in particular owes a great deal of thanks to the TL here
Land of Sweetness which is the only reason I've ever even heard of this part of Mesoamerica to begin with, along with pointed me in the right direction of sources. Aztatlan will naturally return in a much later chapter. My next entry will be a brief overview of the rest of Mesoamerica and probably also Central America and South America. It will serve as an introduction as to how that region functions TTL, although as this entry makes clear, sails are relatively new so the changes won't be as dramatic as you'd expect.
As always, thank you for reading!
[1] - Jikken's knowledge derives from common old Chinese (mostly Han Dynasty) and Buddhist texts (like Xuanzong's writings) available in Japan rather than more specialised knowledge a learned Chinese scholar of 1500 might have on India, Persia, or "Daqin" (the Roman Empire). Admittedly I'm not sure what a Japanese scholar of that era might have access to, but I think it's plenty plausible that Jikken has only encountered particular texts.
[2] - Gaiyuchul is describing chocolate and yaupon respectively using their ATL Japanese terms that derive from Purepecha (k'ekua) and Wakashan (qiyuuchsihii) respectively. I'll describe how yaupon arrives in Mesoamerica in a later chapter.
[3] - North Fusanians stereotypically associate maize with barbarians and due to improper understanding of nixtamalisation, believe it makes people weak. Worse, Mesoamericans eat insects, dogs, and other tabooed food among "civilised" North Fusanians that is typically associated with the Hillmen
[4] - Essentially akin to the medieval Norse belief Vinland (or Greenland) stretched as far south and east as Africa. Gaiyuchul believes it is like Alaska, whose coast indeed bends west, a fact known in Fusanian geographic knowledge
[5] - Referring to the Chimu/Chimor capital Chan Chan, where a well-traveled sailor would have knowledge how the sun differs in Aztatlan than, say, Chan Chan south of the equator. The "towey goats" Gaiyuchul refers to are of course llamas.
[6] - Gaiyuchul is referring to the division of Fusanian societies into phratries (Eagle, Wolf, Raven, Bear/Orca) of which clans and people are associated with. Two phratries are "allied" and opposite the other two--these distinctions determine marriage and kinship and are related to the dualistic beliefs found in Fusanian culture.
[7] - I'll use the OTL term for this, although I called the ATL Utes "Yuta" in previous chapters. There is of course plenty of variation in how outsiders (including scholars) spelled indigenous ethnonyms over time so it's plenty plausible.
[8] - It's been noted for decades the similarities in ceramics and other remains in northwest Mexico (including Aztatlan) and those of Ecuador, for instance like with contemporary Capacha and Machalilla cultures. Other shared cultural traits include features such as the distinctive shaft timbs.
[9] - The Chignahuapan is the Lerma-Santiago River in western Mexico
[10] - Aside from Guasave (a Hispanicised local toponym), these are Nahuatl forms of the names used by archaeologists. Guasave is OTL Guasave, Sinaloa, Culhuacan is Culiacan, Sinaloa, Chametla is near Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Amapa is OTL Amapa, Nayarit (a small town near Santiago Ixcuintla, in-between Chametla and Ixtapa), Ixtapa (not to be confused with Ixtapa, Guerrero) is today part of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Tomatlan is OTL Tomatlan, Jalisco, and Tzalahua is Manzanillo, Colima.
[11] - The OTL borders of Aztatlan based on archaeology, roughly from modern Manzanillo, Colima (Tzalahua) to Guasave in northern Sinaloa. Some archaeologists consider the Tomatlán valley the southern border. The north/south distinction appears vague and artificial OTL (although Guasave was certainly far poorer than, say, Tomatlán or Ixtapa) but TTL is more meaningful.
[12] - Chalchiuitl is better known by the Hispanicised name Chalchihuites among archaeologists--it was a large Chichimec trading center located in the modern town of the same name in Zacatecas. I should note that I will be using Nahuatl terminology instead of the Hispanicised form (i.e. "Tollan" and "Cholollan" instead of Tula and Cholula).
[13] - Guisisi Gui is Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, which was formerly inhabited by Huave people in the 12th century before their partial displacement by the Zapotecs
[14] - Wahema is Guaymas, Sonora and Hakewiktoh is Bahia Kino, Sonora, while Acaguito Bay would be the body of water itself (the latter a Hispanicised form)
