Okay, I'm not really looking for a wank here (
), but I'd like to find a way to bolster the mysterious civilization of Marajó Island of Pará State in Brazil, and make it at least on par with the other great American civilizations of the Andes and Mesoamerica. This culture at the mouth of the Amazon flourished between 800 AD and appears to have collapsed a century or two before the arrival of the Portuguese, the causes unknown. The arrival of European disease wiped out any knowledgeable survivors, thus leaving archaeology as the sole authority to inform us about what happened to this once-thriving society.
The Marajoara people built their villages on top of huge, partially natural mounds that they fortified to protect themselves from the constant flooding from the Amazon River. They fished and practiced agriculture, but it appears their crops were limited to small seed grasses that have yet to be identified - They didn't recieve the great starches of corn, potatoes, or manioc that other indigenous civilizations of the Americas thrived on. They appear to have achieved a complex chiefdom level of sophistication, with gendered heirarchies. Their most outstanding legacy is their skill at forging ornately-decorated ceramics, which have impressed modern observer enough to become prized artifacts on display in museum collections around the world.
Ultimately, we don't know very much about the Marajoara or their fate aside from a few clues uncovered by archaeologists. This makes an AH of this culture both a blessing and a curse - We don't know enough to speculate, yet we can make our own creative inferences to fill the the gaps.
What can be done with Marajoara to put it on par with Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations?
- Can we give the Marajoara some better crops to give them better gains? Perhaps we can give them a seed crop with better output and larger harvests, or perhaps we can have them recieve crops from other regions? Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the growing environment of Pará State or Marajó.
- Pará is well-known for its iron deposits. Can we have an iron age take off here with the Marajoara as the catalyst? Can iron-smelting Marajoaras export their influence to other regions?
- The complex symbols of Marajoara pottery suggest potential for the invention of writing. This didn't happen in OTL, but perhaps in an ATL it could happen?
- The location of Marajoara culture gives it some very interesting potential. Its currents go north to the Caribbean and cross the Atlantic to Europe and Africa. Could a more advanced society based on the coast of Brazil establish a seafaring tradition and export its culture to the Antilles and perhaps as far as the Azores, given enough of a headstart? Could a more advanced Marajoara civilization reach the Old World before the Old World reaches them?
I'd love to see if someone could take the Marajoara and make a timeline on par with great ones like Jared's wonderful "Lands of Red and Gold". There's so much potential here.
), but I'd like to find a way to bolster the mysterious civilization of Marajó Island of Pará State in Brazil, and make it at least on par with the other great American civilizations of the Andes and Mesoamerica. This culture at the mouth of the Amazon flourished between 800 AD and appears to have collapsed a century or two before the arrival of the Portuguese, the causes unknown. The arrival of European disease wiped out any knowledgeable survivors, thus leaving archaeology as the sole authority to inform us about what happened to this once-thriving society.The Marajoara people built their villages on top of huge, partially natural mounds that they fortified to protect themselves from the constant flooding from the Amazon River. They fished and practiced agriculture, but it appears their crops were limited to small seed grasses that have yet to be identified - They didn't recieve the great starches of corn, potatoes, or manioc that other indigenous civilizations of the Americas thrived on. They appear to have achieved a complex chiefdom level of sophistication, with gendered heirarchies. Their most outstanding legacy is their skill at forging ornately-decorated ceramics, which have impressed modern observer enough to become prized artifacts on display in museum collections around the world.
Ultimately, we don't know very much about the Marajoara or their fate aside from a few clues uncovered by archaeologists. This makes an AH of this culture both a blessing and a curse - We don't know enough to speculate, yet we can make our own creative inferences to fill the the gaps.
What can be done with Marajoara to put it on par with Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations?
- Can we give the Marajoara some better crops to give them better gains? Perhaps we can give them a seed crop with better output and larger harvests, or perhaps we can have them recieve crops from other regions? Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the growing environment of Pará State or Marajó.
- Pará is well-known for its iron deposits. Can we have an iron age take off here with the Marajoara as the catalyst? Can iron-smelting Marajoaras export their influence to other regions?
- The complex symbols of Marajoara pottery suggest potential for the invention of writing. This didn't happen in OTL, but perhaps in an ATL it could happen?
- The location of Marajoara culture gives it some very interesting potential. Its currents go north to the Caribbean and cross the Atlantic to Europe and Africa. Could a more advanced society based on the coast of Brazil establish a seafaring tradition and export its culture to the Antilles and perhaps as far as the Azores, given enough of a headstart? Could a more advanced Marajoara civilization reach the Old World before the Old World reaches them?
I'd love to see if someone could take the Marajoara and make a timeline on par with great ones like Jared's wonderful "Lands of Red and Gold". There's so much potential here.