Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Inca Stinka

The two things I find amazing about the Incas is how recent they are, 500 years (after all, they fought the Spanish) and, especially considering that, how little we seem to know about them. Every answer a guide gives seems to start with "Well..." For example I wanted to know why or how the Incas seem to have done so well against a Spanish army presumably armed with much more advanced weapons, and what weapons the Incas used against them. The answers went something like this "Well... there was probably ten Incas to every one Spaniard." and "Well... they might have used clubs with star headed stone heads and slings, we still use them today." We know what ancient civilisations believed created the moon, earth and stars, but did the Incas know that the earth goes around the sun? "Well... they had this sun dial to tell what time of year it was, and when to plant the crops so maybe they did, but maybe they didn't."

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