The Professors Crypt

The Professor’s book which you are helping to write is coming along really well. He has come over from Spain to oversee the final research.

The Professor’s work is attracting a lot of unwelcome attention. The Spanish conquerors don’t want the Professor shining a light on their dodgy practices. The Aztecs think he is just another white man out to harm them. He has had to take his work underground. He is now operating out of a crypt hidden under the governor’s house on the island of Cuba, just off the coast of Central America.

He has some extra special work he needs doing by groups of scholars. TO complete these missions, you must be at least Level 6 and get in a group with one or two other Level 6 scholars.

Mission Rank A – 800XP EACH

Collaborating to design a research programThe Professor is trying to develop some research questions to help guide his research. They will also help him come up with chapters for his book. Your task is to work out from the list of questions two ‘research programs’ (800XP for each one). Each research program should have one open-ended specific question, and three sub-questions that help answer it. Write your answers in your exercise book and show the Professor.

The next page has a big list of questions. You have to work a set: Main question (open-ended and specific) and 3 sub-questions that help answer that main question. Rewrite your question set in your exercise book and show the professor. Like this:

Did Cortes and Columbus meet?

Did the Aztecs and Mayans battle each other?

Main question (open-ended,

specific)

sub-question 1 sub-question 2 sub-question 3

How did Aztec religious beliefs influence their artwork?

How did the Mayans eat?

What did the Aztecs eat?

What did the Mayans eat?

What drew conquerors to the New World?

What images were common in Aztec artwork?

What influences how indigenous people make art?

What is the New World?

What religious beliefs did Aztecs have?

What resources were there in central America?

What was Hernan Cortes interested in?

When did Hernan Cortes die?

When did the Aztecs build Tenochtitlan?

When did the Aztecs get defeated?

When did the Mayans die out?

Where did Columbus sail?

Where did Cortes live?

Where did the Mayans live?

Where is Central America?

Why did Aztecs fight?

Why did Columbus sail?

Why did Cortes die?

Why did Cortes want to explore central America?

Mission Rank b – 1,500 XP

Collaborating to determine the reliability of sources, the “Triangle of Truth”The Professor has to look through huge amounts of evidence to decide what to use to help him with his research. He gets way too much for one person. He invites you and a fellow scholar back to his crypt on the island of Cuba to look through the huge piles of evidence he has. He asks you to decide what he should use and what is biased or unreliable. Cut out these six images. Stick them in your exercise book in a triangle shape, like so Below each image include an explanation of why you think it is the most reliable, second-equal most reliable or least reliable.

When the dance was loveliest and when song was linked to song, the Spaniards were seized with an urge to kill the celebrants. They all ran forward, armed as if for battle. They closed the entrances and passageways...then [they] rushed into the Sacred Patio to slaughter the inhabitants...they attacked the man who was drumming and cut off his arms. Then they cut off his head, and it rolled across the floor. They attacked all the celebrants stabbing them, spearing them, striking them with swords...others they beheaded...or split their heads to pieces...The blood of the warriors flowed like water and gathered into pools...They invaded every room, hunting and killing...

Primary Source: Aztec account of the massacre at the temple in May 1520; Florentine codex

most useful/reliable

least useful/reliable

least useful/reliable

least useful/reliable

second most useful/reliable

second most useful/reliable

Source: Bernardino de Sahagún. “Of how the Spaniards entered Moteucçoma's private home, and what happened there." Book 12, Chap. 18, p.125 in Florentine Codex. ca. 1570-1585

Chapter Eighteen, of how the Spaniards entered Moteucçoma's private home, and what happened there. When the above had been done, [the Spaniards] attempted to find out about the special storehouse of Moteucçoma, and he took them to his storehouse, named Totocalco, which means "bird house." The Spaniards went along very joyfully, thinking that they would find much gold there; on arrival they took everything out of Moteucçoma's own storehouse, where there were many precious items of gold, silver, and precious stones, and they took it all. They removed all the gold and stones from the rich feather-pieces and put the feathers in the middle of the courtyard for their friends to take.