Boca Island Memoirs

 

Civilization In the Boca island region began around 2500-2000 BCE and with it two markedly different cultures emerged. On the outer ring of the large, round island trees thrived and in them lived what we on this expedition and excavation team are calling the “tree people”. Due to the islands lack of a river system the central area became a barren desert-like wasteland almost completely devoid of vegetation. In this central area live what will be known, at least for the rest of this paper, the “sand people”.

 

The two sets of people lived separately and independently, almost seeming to be unaware of each others existence until around 1750 BCE. The culture of the tree people was very rich and evolved in its ways of thought and written language in comparison to other peoples of that time period. However, due to their esoteric and naturalistic lifestyles technological innovation remained somewhat stagnant. Among the only advanced concepts the culture understood in their pre-war period was the use of fired clay for pottery. However, in contrast, their understanding of nature was quite advanced. They understood the properties of fire, water and wood. Also they had a great collection of knowledge of nutrition and herbal therapies and medicines. It is thought that the tree people were rarely sick due to their understanding of food and herbs and their interactions with their bodies. It is also believed that herbs were used on an almost daily basis as preventative measures against sickness and disease. Originally, we had believed their use of herbs in preventative medicine showed an advanced understanding in genetics, as descendants took herbal cures for ill's that had plagued their close family, even if the descendants show no signs of having the ill's at all. However, after discovering religious texts we realize that this is actually done in respect to the departed family, and whether or not they realized that some issues were passed genetically has not yet been established.

 

It is from these people that we found the most artifacts, and all three of the artifacts featured in this exhibit are attributed to their people. I will explain the two older, pre-war artifacts here. Both pieces are made of Igneous rock, which was considered of spiritual importance to the tree people, quite likely because of its remarkably shiny exterior, uniqueness or perhaps rarity. A common artifact during our expedition were the small “coins” in this exhibit. All are engraved with their symbol for their god and all of the older ones are in more or less perfect condition, however, in the war/post-war period we began to find more and more of them broken or the engravings scratched out. We believe this was the sand peoples direct attack of the god of the tree people. The coins were found in concentrations near some of the better constructed housings, whether these were religious building of the housings of the wealthy is unknown, further confusing the debate over whether or not the coins served as currency or religious artifacts. Also on display is a somewhat crude carving of a bird in the same type of stone as the coins. Birds were also somewhat important in the tree people's religion, as they believed they birds carried away the souls of their fallen comrades to another island, which they believed to be paradise.

 

In contrast to our somewhat vast knowledge of the tree people, very little is known about the sand people as their artifacts are lost forever in the central desert. Here is what we believe about them in per-war context, they build no lasting structures and have left behind very few discernible relics, which leads us to believe they were a nomadic people who wandered to wherever the sustaining resources happened to be. As for the lack of pre-war artifacts, we believe any tools they must've used probably went largely unadapted, and they were uninnovative and just used what they found. Also, we believe their apparently small numbers were due to poor living conditions in the desert, which is what eventually lead the into the woods around 1475 BCE.

 

The tree people were perfectly willing to give apart of their land to the wandering tribes and even tried to teach them to use fire and other aspects of nature around them. However around 1425 BCE we start to see the sand people begin to spread through the woods and more and more of the bodies we uncover from this period look to be victims of war. In the beginning it's simply a brutal slaughter of tree people until the previously peaceful people turn to create previously undiscovered weapons of war combined with the same efficient and deadly trapping methods they used to capture prey. This is where our third exhibited artifact comes into play, a common tree persons spear, made by gently splitting local wood and inserting a antler, horn, or other type of bone then allowing the wood to swell around it by leaving it in a river for around a week then sealing the head with tar. Most were decorated with free-flowing esoteric designs usually incorporating their god symbol and several depiction's of birds, which were there to carry away the fallen warriors soul. Around 1400 BCE the numbers of the sand people reach an all time low, but it is here that they make a late, brilliant stand. Realizing that they could set fire to the trees, the sand people burn nearly every tree on the island, killing off all the tree people and a large number of the sand people. The remaining sand people soon died off from various breathing problems due to the heavy smoke that reached out even to the desert. By 1300 BCE life has ended completely on Boca.

 

But there is one last thing i have to mention before this paper can be complete, glass. This is the one technological advance that can be attributed to the sand people, although all components of the glass-makers design were stolen from the tree people. Glass begins to appear around 1450 BCE on Boca in the desert region. The glass maker itself is an adaptation of a ceremonial herbal incense burner, which is basically an stilt-elevated vase containing herbs that is set over fire to create a gentle smoke. (Note: at first we believed this was a sure sign of drug use by the tree people, but on further examination we have found the burners to be impractical for this purpose, despite their shocking similarity or vaporizers and water pipes of today.) The sand people enlarged this burner and added a bellowing system to provide the heat required to melt sand into glass, however the glass' practical use by the sand people in unknown.