Books

Egypt Revisited
Acoma
German Aircraft Carrier "Graf Zeppelin"
German Armoured Trains in World War II: v. 2
Passenger Liners from Germany, 1816-1990
Tiger Ace: Life Story of Panzer Commander Michael Wittmann
Red Army Tank Commanders: The Armored Guards
This Was Sawmilling
The Age of Sutton Hoo: The Seventh Century in North-western Europe
United States Navy Wings of Gold: From 1917 to the Present
Luftwaffe Codes, Markings and Units 1939-1945
The Normans and the Norman Conquest
Germany's Panther Tank: The Quest for Combat Supremacy, Development Modifications, Rare Variants, Characteristics, Combat Accounts
The Cavalry of the Wehrmacht, 1941-1945
Oak Island Secret
Guide to Rocks and Minerals of the Northwest
Those Born at Koona: Totem Poles of the Haida Village Skedans Queen Charlotte Islands
Gold! Gold!: A Beginner's Handbook - How to Prospect for Gold
Art of the Totem: Totem Poles of the Northwest Coastal Plains
Hunters of the Northern Forest
Hunters of the Buffalo
Hunters of the Eastern Forest
Hunters of the Ice
Indian Hunters: Hunting and Fishing Methods of the North American Indians
Spirit Quest: The Inititation of an Indian Boy

The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited

Average customer rating:

Excellent
Another fascinating Romer Book

The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited
John Romer
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Egypt | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Imagining Egypt
The Royal Tombs of Egypt: The Art of Thebes Revealed
The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han (History of Imperial China)
The Realm of the Pharaohs (Treasures of Ancient Egypt)
Tutankhamun's Tomb: The Thrill of Discovery: Photographs by Harry Burton (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)

ASIN: 0521871662

Book Description

The Great Pyramid's eerily precise architecture has for centuries both astounded and puzzled archaeologists and has given rise to numerous modern fantasies concerning the so-called 'Mystery of the Pyramids'. Sweeping away centuries of myth and confusion, John Romer describes for the first time exactly how the Great Pyramid was designed and built. He argues that the pyramid makers worked from a single plan whose existence has long been doubted and even denied by scholars. Moreover, the Great Pyramid's unique architecture is integral to the way it was built, and for its builders the tasks of construction and design were not separate as they are now. By placing this awesome monument in its genuine contemporary context, this book underlines the extraordinary talents and the originality of the ancient Egyptians at the time of King Khufu.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-05-14

John Romer has outdone himself with his book, The Great Pyramid. Highly readable, this well researched book shows the remarkable engineering skills of the ancient Egyptians. For those who will look for such silly theories as building assistance by extra-terrestrias and other rubbish, this is not the book for them. It is a book for rational, intelligent readers who admire and wish to have a better understanding of the creative abilities of older civilizations.
Greg Slater
Australia

Another fascinating Romer Book.......2007-04-23

John Romer has always had the talent to bring Ancient Egypt to life and he's done it again with his latest book. It is large and beautifully illustrated, but the main reason for buying this book is Romer's lucid writing; detailed but never boring. A must for anyone interested in Ancient Egypt. P.S. When will his TV series called Ancient Lives be available on DVD?

Egypt Revisited (Journal of African Civilizations,)

Average customer rating:

Augusta, B.S. in World History
Finally Black Africans can speak our own History!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Poorly Written Book On An Intriguing Topic

Egypt Revisited (Journal of African Civilizations,)

Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Egypt | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality
African Presence in Early Europe (Journal of African Civilizations)
The Golden Age of the Moor (Journal of African Civilizations, Vol 11, Fall 1991)
Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology
Precolonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the Political and Social Systems of Europe and Black Africa, from Antiquity to the Formation of Mod

ASIN: 0887387993

Customer Reviews:

Augusta, B.S. in World History .......2006-02-15

Great Book. I've had it for years and recommend it to anyone. I often use it as a reference. The pictures are in black and white, but if you want to see color picutres, you may have spend $75 or more on a color historical guide/ book of the statues and artifacts listed within the book. Overall, it has great information and is well written.

Finally Black Africans can speak our own History!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2005-05-05

Ivan Van Sertima is one of the greatest minds that we have to revive the history of the African people that was burried by tomb robbers, and white rascist 17th and 18th century scholors. I have read this book and also have his lecture on tape and let me tell you this man is well read, and qualified for this topic. What the Africans have done nobody else can do. In the book, Dr. Van Sertima talks about the Japanese who tried to rebuild the pyramids, but failed. What is interesting is they even failed desperately trying to use modern technology. This tells you more about how advanced the ancient Egyptians were then it does about how foolish the Japanese look trying to complete this mission. This book also shows you that the ancient Egyptians were Black. The 1-5,11,12,18 and of course the 25 were Black African dynasties. You can see this from coal black statues and the Africoidal features also shown on these images. Basil Davidson a white historian who is mentioned at the end of the book will also tell you this. Also it is important to look at the sphinx. Constantine De Volney went to the sphinx and saw the African features on it and was blown away, because he new, and said the people being enslaved are the same people that birthed civilization. Dr. Diop and Van Sertima will tell you there were six stages of man and the African was the first and the last(Homo Sapian Sapian found in Kenya). My Question is when will people finally learn that the Greeks(Europeans) came to Africa and their greates thinkers (Plato, Theles, Pythagaros, Hippocrates)all learned from Kemet(Real name of Egypt wich meant Land Of the Blacks)the things they taught, and also the things like Mathematics, Medicine and the concepts for their gods were practiced by the Africans before, (as Dr. John Henrick Clark would say), "the Eurpeans wore a shoe or had a house with a window." The African history can be placed in it's rightfull place, with true, and honest scholorship. To see what I mean check out European historians like Richard Poe in Black Spark White Fire, and the essay in this book by Basil Davidson.

A Poorly Written Book On An Intriguing Topic.......2002-07-05

The topic of the book is extremely interesting. The authors write about African roots of Ancient Egyptean civilization and its influence on that of Ancient Greece.

The quality of articles varies. "Ancient Egyptians: The Dark Red Race Myth" by James Brunson and "Black Rulers of the Golden Age" by Legrand Clegg II, for example, are well researched and presented. Some other authors, like Cheikh Anta Diop and Wayne Chandler, provide scant evidence to support their ideas and make sweeping generalizations. Theophile Obengs seems to care less about describing African philosophy of the Pharaonic period than to asserting supremacy of Egyptian cosmogony over that of all other peoples.

Illustrations are black and white and of low quality. Brunson's article references figures, but the figures appear not to be numbered. Diop's notes are hard to interpret, maybe because the bibliography list is missing. Hierogliphs are so small that they are almost unreadable. It may be solely the editor's fault, though.

Overall, the book doesn't do justice to the topic. If you are interested in the subject, borrow it from a library, but dont' waste your money buying it.

Average customer rating:

A most necessary read
what is it about Black Athena Vol. 1 & 2 that has scared soo many?
A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of One Dimensional Whiteness
Afrocentrists, and their critics, the People Without History !
Black Athena down, but not completely out

Black Athena Revisited
Mary R. Lefkowitz
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, Volume 1)
Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics
Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History (A New Republic Book)
Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals
Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks

ASIN: 0807845558
Release Date: 1996-03-13

Book Description

Was Western civilization founded by ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians?
Can the ancient Egyptians usefully be called black?
Did the ancient Greeks borrow religion, science, and philosophy from the Egyptians and Phoenicians?
Have scholars ignored the Afroasiatic roots of Western civilization as a result of racism and anti-Semitism?

In this collection of twenty essays, leading scholars in a broad range of disciplines confront the claims made by Martin Bernal in Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. In that work, Bernal proposed a radical reinterpretation of the roots of classical civilization, contending that ancient Greek culture derived from Egypt and Phoenicia and that European scholars have been biased against the notion of Egyptian and Phoenician influence on Western civilization. The contributors to this volume argue that Bernal's claims are exaggerated and in many cases unjustified.

Topics covered include race and physical anthropology; the question of an Egyptian invasion of Greece; the origins of Greek language, philosophy, and science; and racism and anti-Semitism in classical scholarship. In the conclusion to the volume, the editors propose an entirely new scholarly framework for understanding the relationship between the cultures of the ancient Near East and Greece and the origins of Western civilization.

Customer Reviews:

A most necessary read.......2007-05-31

I came to this issue as a teacher of ancient philosophy, and a concern to understand the claims of afrocentrists, as well as Bernal, that the ancient Greek philosophers took some significant portion of their thought from the Egyptians, in particular the Egyptian priests. What I have read of these claims has not been, in my view, impressive. (The best that Bernal can offer, given that no Egyptian texts bear any resemblance to Greek philosophy, is that the popular religion of Egypt "must" have been a popularized expression of some more abstract wisdom-an argument from ignorance of the most tendentious sort.) Still Bernal is the most impressive of those who argue for a massive cultural influence on the Greeks by the Egyptians, both from the perspective of the breadth of fields he marshals (though hardly masters) in support of the position, and the massive size of his output. For many who are not specialists these two features alone might seem to suggest that Bernal is correct. Thus the great value of this volume, which includes evaluations by various true specialists in the fields that Bernal attempts to harness for his own purposes: classical studies, linguistics, archeology, Egyptology, and history (Bernal, by the way, is a trained political scientist).

What is revealed is the various ways in which Bernal gets things wrong. He trusts in the historicity of myth in a simple-minded way that no current student of mythology would. He is uncritical of the writings of ancient authors who to some degree appear to support his case. He is highly selective of the evidence. For example, his treatment of nineteenth century classical studies points to authors who appeared to have racial motivations while ignoring others, such as Grote, who clearly did not.

One, to my mind, particularly revealing article is offered by Jay Jasanoff and Alan Nussbaum, trained linguists, where Bernal's linguistic evidence is evaluated. This might be one of the more important articles simply because comparative linguistics is such a technical and seemingly arcane discipline to the uninitiated (such as me), that Bernal's seeming mastery of it in support of the claim that some 25% of Greek words had Egyptian origins might be thought to be a particularly impressive component of the overall argument. What Jasanoff and Nussbaum discover, however, is that Bernal ignores the long established standards of evidence in these fields in favor of a quite superficial "looks alike" method for finding the massive linguistic influence on the Greeks. The authors meticulously go through a wide selection of Bernal's etymologies and debunk them all.

Perhaps the most unfortunate part of the book is a section of three articles on the subject of race: "unfortunate" because Bernal and other afrocentrists have reintroduced a scientifically worthless but historically invidious concept into academic discussions in their claim that the Egyptians were "blacks" (Bernal is a bit more timid here than other afrocentrists, simply saying that certain Egyptians could "usefully be thought of" as blacks). The authors of all three articles insist on rejecting this introduction of race into the issue. To my mind one of the most interesting articles was written by a team of anthropologists headed by C. Loring Brace. Brace brings scientific techniques to bear on the question, particularly comparative anatomy. The discussion reveals two things: 1. that indeed the concept of race has no basis in scientific fact, and has been replaced by the notions of "klines" (variations of anatomy selected by environmental conditions) and "clusters" (variations due simply to the locality of a reproductive population), and 2. that evidence Brace and his team developed shows that the ancient Egyptians cannot be considered (even "usefully") as either "blacks" or "whites" in the modern senses of those terms.

The contributions to this volume are uniformly erudite, well-argued, and well-informed by the latest understandings in the various fields represented. And this is a much needed book. There has been a disturbing propensity in academe as of late to inject politics into research of various forms. This has had the general character of first defining a view that is understood as somehow politically or socially beneficial or expedient from some perspective or another, and then searching for any sort of evidence or argument, however fanciful it might be, to support the view. At times these efforts are coupled by the postmodernist view that all so-called "knowledge" is historically contextualized and a product of social interests, so that any view is acceptable so long as it is embedded in a set of the "correct" political and social motivations. Although it is true that all seekers of truths are to some extent a product of their times, this extreme view has the most unfortunate effects. In the case of Bernal and afrocentrists a couple of such effects pointed out by the authors of this volume are first that their views, quite ironically, validate once again the concept of race, a concept so long used as the basis of oppression in this country, and second rather than eschewing eurocentrism it in fact reinvigorates it by the suggestion that the only way that the achievements of any culture can attain legitimate value and be worthy of study is if they can be shown to have influenced European culture. Given the tenuous threads of argument in afrocentrist writings that attempt to connect subSaharan African culture to the Greeks, threads that I believe are bound to snap if they haven't already, the consequent devaluation of African culture is the inevitable implication.

what is it about Black Athena Vol. 1 & 2 that has scared soo many?.......2007-05-29

Funny how 19th. C. Historical rethoric is not questioned. Think about it?
Most 19th. C historians where of Germanic and otherwise Aryan stock, slavery was still in full boogie business. The great Egyptian pyramids had been re discovered. How could a generation of slave owners make peace with the fact that the humans theybought and sold were African as were the very people who had founded the Egyptian dynasties? They could not.

Martin Bernal is a Jewish scholar who after over twenty five years of teaching Chinese history has a mid life crisis, "I do not understand my own people, the semitics." With that he launches into digging of the truth behind 19th c. scholarly writings. Dr. Bernal discoveres that not only were the semitics white washed(see his paper on Hannibal and the Cartheginians), so where the Egyptians, in a grand quest to PR the destruction of these two races, why? To support the outright contempt the Aryan Euros had against the Jews and the blacks, why? To maintain the status quo as the unquestioned authority of racial origins of civilization, which was believed to be white.

As a matter of fact, the oldest university in the world originates out of Africa, want to know from where email me or research it yourself.

So with these essays that support the 19th C. process of suppression I am one who urges you to read Martin Bernal's careful, and unbiased study of how these historical changes all came about--

Truth has power, but truth is only as powerful as those who wish to drink from the source.

A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of One Dimensional Whiteness.......2007-01-15

"In pursuing a PhD on Minoan archaeology, it became necessary to spend several years in Greece. Many of the scholars I encountered there were not only ignorant of the contributions of the Near East to the development of Greek civilization, they were uninterested." Dr. L. Hitchcock, Institute of Archaeology, UCLA

Classics and Education:
Education was once conceived almost exclusively as the cultivation of values and tastes that distinguished the learned from the lay, the culturally enlightened from the functionally literate. Today, however, we inhabit a flat world transformed both by expanding scientific horizons and by the agendas of new social and intellectual movements, from the critique of unfettered capitalism and the "universal" codes of the West to debates over endemic problems of class, sexism, racism, pollution, and homophobia.
Over the last twenty years, scholars influenced by these developments have clashed, as cultural historian Andrew Ross has observed, "with a reactionary consensus of left and right, each unswervingly loyal to their respective narratives of decline: charges of post-sixties fragmentation and academification from unreconstructed voices on the left, and warnings of doom and moral degeneracy from the Cassandras of the right."

Lefkowitz & Pseudohistory:
Pseudo history is purported history which often denies that there is such a thing as historical truth, clinging to the extreme skeptical notion that only what is absolutely certain can be called 'true' and nothing is absolutely certain, so nothing is true. Pseudo history includes Afro centrism, holocaust revisionism and the catastrophism, to them should be added Helleno-mania, centered in one-dimensional Whiteness. "Ancient Myths of Cultural Dependency," actually concerns a much broader topic: the way historians such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Eudoxus and Aristobulus 'fabricated a myth' that the Greeks owed their culture to the Ancient Egyptians. Professor Lefkowitz, became involved in the debunking of Afrocentrism by discrediting Herodotus et al, and seemed upset, passionately shaken of her disregard as a scholarly authority, claiming her opponents and their supporters undermined her value, while they neglect to follow the conventional means of scholarly evidence. On a TV clip of Lefkowitz debating Afrocentrists, the moderator asks her, "And how many times have you been to Africa, Dr. Lefkowitz?" Replying that she has never been to Africa, the moderator commented conclusively, "I thought so."

Title change to Black Athena!
Black Athena: the pragmatic title of Bernal's best seller, suggests that the Greek goddess Athena, the central symbol of classical Greek civilization, had a tinted origin outside White Europe, in Black Africa. The question is not without consequences for philosophers of principal stake in the Black Athena debate, a claim concerning the non-European origins of the main philosophical tradition of Europe, if late antiquity Alexandria was excluded from the search of glorified ancestors. By one account, it was the publisher, in fact, who proposed the polarizing title, a proposal about which Professor Bernal was reported not to have been at all enthusiastic, probably realizing just how provocative such a title would be in the forefront of a work already full with more than enough of conflicting issues.

'Black Athena' & `White Egypt':
Ancient Egypt, although 'accidentally' situated on the NE edge of the African continent, was thought essentially by Egyptologists and Orientalists, led by JH Breasted, as a non-African civilization whose major achievements in the fields of religion, social, political and military organization, architecture and other crafts, the sciences etc., were largely original and whose historical engagement and its cultural interaction, and indebtedness lay, if any, with (South) West Asia rather than with sub-Saharan Africa. 'Black Athena' is a slogan just as false to history as is `White Egypt.' Egyptian wisdom was a only a part of the most enduring civilization to our day, is existentially moral and social, different, and immutable with individual speculative Greek philosophy, nevertheless, Platonism was amended and upgraded by late antiquity Egyptian Copts, as the second century infamous Plutinus, fouder of Neoplatonism, a thinker from upper Egypt, who taught in Rome. While Aristotalian science was garbled by another seventh century Coptic genius, John Philoponoi.
Dr. Louise Hitchcock, of UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, wrote, "Bernal is certainly passionate, but I don't think his attempt is amateurish as much as it is biased...He has moved away from this theory in the Archaeology Magazine video 'Who was Cleopatra?' stating that it isn't necessary to believe in colonization to admit massive near eastern / Egyptian influence in the formation of Greece. I show this video to all my ancient art classes as an exercise in critical thinking, and an exercise in "how evidence can be distorted, created, (and) interpreted out of context.' ... No where is the naturalism of the Amarna period mentioned nor is it mentioned that Athenian democracy lasted a very brief period and was limited to male Athenian citizens. Nor is the 2000 year time difference mentioned."

Any future for Afrocentrism?
Inevitably, and in a rather belittling manner, "Herodotus is paraded in the all too familiar manner as the `Father of Lies', whereas more recent reassessment of the amazing extent of objective historical fact in Herodotus is ignored. Henry Frankfort, who was one of the greatest Egyptologists and Assyriologists of his generation, and whose books still rate as lasting standard works among the specialists, is denounced as `outdated'. Frobenius, one of the greatest Africanists of his generation (early twentieth century) who has been the main single intellectual influence upon Afrocentrism, is depicted as of negligible intellectual capabilities, of damaging influence even on European Africanism, hardly taken seriously by the specialists, and an art thief to boot. Sergi, a highly original physical anthropologist of the early twentieth century, is filed by Howe as merely `long-forgotten and academically discredited'," concludes W. van Binsbergen.

Where are the Orientalists?
Bernal's strategy in his preface is to acknowledge numerous authority figures who have helped him. These are just two examples of many of the problems in both books. If Lefkowitz et al. were held up to the same scrutiny that Bernal is, a number of distortions and biases can be uncovered there as well.
"It is a supreme irony that the only chapter on the Near East in Lefkowitz et al.'s 500+ page book is only 10 pages long and written by a classicist, Sarah Morris, and not a Near Eastern scholar. Lefkowitz, like Bernal, has her own rhetorical strategies for establishing her authority such as beginning her preface with the story of the professor of literature in 19th century Dublin who is untrained to interpret archaeological evidence, the implication by analogy being that Bernal is also a coffee table archaeologist too inexperienced to function within another discipline." adds Dr. Hitchcock

Academic Scandal, Contributors withdrew?
It is no wonder that investigations into external influences, whether passionate like Martin's, or serious and legitimate like those of a few bold Classicists who have dared to learn about Oriental cultures, resulting in their planned chapters were excluded from Lefkowitz & Rogers' *Black Athena Revisited*, after they were submitted, such incidents, are met with hesitancy or skepticism in some quarters.
As stated on owner-ane@ane-digest, two originally planned contributors to Lefkowitz volume withdrew when they heard that she denied Bernal the opportunity to respond in 'BA Revisited'. A contribution of Eric Cline (expert in Bronze Age relations between Egypt and the Aegean) was refused, with the argument there was no room, but Cline believes that resulted because his piece was favourable towards Bernal. Cline later published a damning review of 'BA Revisited' in Journal of Archaeology. Whether his paper was published elsewhere is not stated. Bernal does list over a dozen "general sympathetic" reviews of BA by specialists in several fields, as well as some hostile reviews of 'BA Revisited'.
"With that as the background noise of the uneducated masses in Greece (akin to the racist background noise in the US, which we like to think has been largely overcome but regularly finds expression, sometimes brutally, it is no wonder that investigations into external influences are met with hesitancy or skepticism in some quarters," concludes Peter Daniels

Is there a positive side?
Yes, affirms Christopher Robbins, "to my view,...Somewhere along the line the idea arose that the unprecedented Greek accomplishment was of a wholly endogenous provenance. This is an absurd idea when one thinks of a post-palatial-economies people emerging from a centuries-long dark age of villatic illiteracy into the archaic period.
Where was the raw material for the 6th c. and the classical going to come from is not largely from elsewhere? In fact this idea is an insult to one of the most fundamental aspects of what we may call the genius of the Greeks - or of the West ever since, for that matter.
After all, for the Greeks, for the West or for any manufacturing company in the world, it is not the raw materials (Advanced Egyptian civilization) that make a difference. Raw materials are available to anybody. The only difference is what is produced from those raw materials, whatever their source.
A basic common sense comment: Greek Classics, 700 BC lags two millennia beyond the Egyptian miracle, Pyramids built 2800 BC. Forget the petrified classics, What do you conclude?

Afrocentrists, and their critics, the People Without History ! .......2007-01-14

"Since the question of Egyptian origins is a topic in which considerable emotional capital has been invested, attempts simply to discuss the issues can easily be misunderstood as a form of hostility, so that even what was intended as praise is interpreted as blame." M. Lefkowitz

Classics & Civilization:
Do we study ancient cultures because, to some extent, all cultures share certain aspects? Does our Western culture reflect aspects of these other cultures? The answer to the first of the two questions has historically been found in a discussion of universality. The problem with the second question lies in its formulation. What is a culture after all?
Classics, a seemingly outdated domain, is defined, by Wikipedia as the study of the language, literature, history, and art of the ancient world, around the Mediterranean; especially of Greece and Rome during classical antiquity. Classics; a plural noun refers generally to texts of the ancient Mediterranean, whose study constituted the main body of the humanities and still of importance in that domain of learning today.

The case against Bernal:
In 'The case against Martin Bernal,' David Gress, a Danish who has further identified the campus debates as a target, with an attack on Afrocentrism, alleging that, "the political purpose of Black Athena is, of course, to lessen European cultural arrogance." Apart from the fact that this charge has become a straw man--the chief problem in the academy today isn't European cultural arrogance but its opposite-- Bernal's account, and the political circumstances in which it appears, raise some important questions about scholarship and propaganda in the academy and, a fortiori, in what remains of the general culture."

Ms Lefkowitz knows better:
Mary Lefkowitz, who received her Ph.D. in Classical Philology at Radcliffe College almost half a century ago (46 years) struggled to explain, "...why some popular modern mythologies of the ancient world appear to have been created, and why they are mythologies rather than history. Also I ... attempt to show why it was that ancient writers like Herodotus and Diodorus claimed (mistakenly) that some aspects of Greek culture derived from Egypt, whereas such evidence as we have, suggests that the customs they regard as Egyptian in origin were either indigenous, or derived from other sources;..." she attacked the established belief in an Egyptian Mystery System, institutions or initiation ritual, which could have inspired similar Greek traditions, the ultimate source of its thought systems; Greek philosophy.

Black Athena Revisited:
A collection of twenty essays in scholarly response to Bernal's first two volumes of Black Athena, a testament to the impact of Bernal's multi colored coat of scholarship, that so many contributors have combined their expertise to review the work of scholarship of the ancient Mediterranean world. Some were already published as book reviews; while the rest were written for this united front against Afrocentrism. Introduced by Mary Lefkowitz and concluded by Guy Rogers, the eighteen papers in between were written by American, English and an Italian expert, in Egyptology, Racism, with Orientalists, Linguistics, a science historian, Hellenists, and Historiographers. This wide front of contributors to 'Black Athena Revisited,' from a diverse range of related academic fields are united to confront the admirable Bernal trying to discredit his talented interpretation of any dark, let alone a Black Athena. Black Athena Revisited is a stimulating collective response, offering a variety of critical essays by experts from a diversity of disciplines covering Bernal's main hypotheses. Although mostly all papers extend attacks on Bernal and while rejecting his methodology, vary in tone from a polemical to critical, a couple come across as almost approaching character assassination.
Toby Wilkinson, of Christ's College, Cambridge wrote, "..no other book on the ancient world has created as much of a storm as Martin Bernal's Black Athena. Since the publication of the first volume in 1987, nearly seventy reviews, articles and films have appeared discussing the book, its goals, methods and hypotheses. Responses to Bernal's second volume, published 1991, have added to the enormous literature surrounding the work."

Baines Contra Bernal:
John Baines offers an Egyptologist criticism of Bernal's thesis and methodology in his paper, 'On the Aims and Methods of Black Athena,' expressing serious reservations on the limited use of the Egyptological evidence in support of Egypt's contribution to the development of Greek civilization. He states his criticism that, 'Bernal's reluctance to engage with ancient Near Eastern civilizations on their own terms leads to bizarre interpretations.' Another Egyptologist, David O'Connor, no less critical in Bernal's conclusions, debates in a more conciliatory tone. 'Egypt and Greece: The Bronze Age Evidence' targets the textual evidence for Egypt's relations with the Levant during its Middle and New Kingdoms.
In 'Black Athena: An Egyptological Review,' Yurco provides a rather detailed evaluation of the Egyptian evidence, downplaying the role of Mesopotamian influences in the formation of Greek civilization, in accordance with recent Egyptological consensus. The Meet Rahina inscription 'does attest an Egyptian-ruled Asiatic empire' contradicts O'Connor interpretation and accepts more of Bernal's arguments, for Egyptian influence on the Greeks as 'in essence reasonable.'

Experts' Opinions:
"Howe, an 'anti-Afrocentrist' by his own definition, is not taken with Lefkowitz's work. The distances which separate him from Lefkowitz, however, are minimized by the historiographic and epistemological issues the two embrace. Both are concerned with who has the right?, who is privileged, to participate in the construction of both history and knowledge?" If this seems to be an argument only supported by classicists, Afrocentrists, and their critics, the questions involved in the privileging of certain histories and constructions of knowledge should resonate for world historians when they consider Eric Wolf's title and its implications: Europe and the People Without History.

Black Athena down, but not completely out .......2006-10-20

"Black Athena Revisited" is a polemic against Martin Bernal's controversial bestseller "Black Athena" (volumes 1 and 2). In that work, Bernal extended a friendly hand to Afro-centrists, claiming that the ancient Egyptians were Black Africans, and that ancient Greece was decisively influenced by these Blacks. Bernal also claimed that West Semitic cultures heavily influenced Greece.

Such a claim, with its obvious political connotations, simply couldn't go unchallenged. Mary Lefkowitz became the prime critic of Bernal, with her provocatively titled book "Not Out of Africa". "Black Athena Revisited" is a more extensive anthology dealing with the same subject. If you're interested in the controversy, you might also want to buy "Black Athena Writes Back", Bernal's response to "Black Athena Revisited".

In my opinion, "Black Athena Revisited" is a very mixed bag. Some contributions are very good, pinpointing various weak or even absurd points in Bernal's works. But some others are surprisingly weak or over-dogmatic. In fact, I was somewhat surprised by the fact, that the case against Bernal wasn't even stronger (it's strong enough, however, for me not to accept Bernal at face value).

First, some of the strong points. Jasanoff and Nussbaum sternly criticize Bernal's attempts to prove that the Greek language is heavily Egyptian. The reason why linguists believe in firm laws of language development, is that they seem to be confirmed by ancient documents unearthed by archeologists. Bernal's attempts to rebuff Jasanoff and Nussbaum in "Black Athena Writes Back" are therefore unconvincing. John Baines points out that Bernal's infatuation with Greece is itself a social and ideological construct. Why should Greece be placed on a pedestal compared to Near East civilizations? Ironically, Bernal accepts the "Euro-centrist" position that ancient Athens was the cradle of the West. He "only" wants to prove, that the cradle of Athens was Black Africa. Robert Palter engages the notion that Egyptian science was very sophisticated, claiming that Babylonian and Greek science was much better. Personally, I think the jury is still out on this one: I find it difficult to believe that the Egyptians, who build the pyramids, didn't have advanced mathematical and astronomical knowledge. Yet, Palter is probably right that the documentary evidence so far doesn't bear this out. The jury's still deliberating.

The most interesting article in the anthology is written by Frank Yurco. He actually concedes some of Bernal's points. To Yurco, Egypt was essentially African. Also, he points out that the East Mediterranean was a cosmopolitan place during the Bronze Age, with criss-crossing cultural influences. One aspect not mentioned by Yurco, but well worth mentioning, concerns Bronze Age stone carvings from Scandinavia. They look like a bewildering maze of Egyptian, Minoan, Greek and Cypriot art! The only possible explanation is that Bronze Age Scandinavia was indeed influenced by a cosmopolitan East Mediterranean culture, probably through the Amber Road. But then, the claim that Mycenean Greece was somewhat "Oriental" is not as controversial as Bernal's other claim, that even Classical Greece was heavily indebted to Black Egypt.

And now the shortcomings. Perhaps inevitably, many of the contributors have a real problem tackling the racial issues. They emphasize that the very concept "Black African" (especially in its essentialist Afro-centrist version) is modern. The ancient Egyptians certainly didn't think of themselves as "Black Africans" in this sense. Fair enough. But the very same contributors have no problem calling the Nubians "Black Africans"! Ooops... Why not? Perhaps because the Nubians were...well, Black Africans. What else to call them? C. Loring Brace is particularly problematic. He points out that the skulls of ancient Egyptians are closer to the Near Eastern type than to the Central African type. Perhaps, but so are the skulls of the Nubians, whom everyone calls "Black African"!

I don't deny that concepts like "Black" or "White" are ultimately social constructs, that we are dealing with "clusters" rather than "races" etc. But let's be serious for a while. As a convinient short-hand, it's difficult not to use the term "European" when describing European history. Likewise with the term "Black African". The ancient Egyptians originated in Africa, their language originated in Africa, and their culture is somehow connected to more ancient pastoralist cultures in Africa. And, for all we know, they were more dark-skinned than Semites and Indo-Europeans. When all is said and done, it's difficult not to call them "African" in the same sense as we call both Russians, Swedes, Welshmen, Bulgarians and Italians "European".

Did ancient Egypt have a formative and decisive influence on Classical Greece? Probably not. Has the Africanity of Pharaonic civilization been down-played? Probably yes. I give this book three stars out of five. That awful woman boxer Black Athena may be down for counting. But she's not out yet. She may still have some tricks up her sleeve... Or gloves.

Empire of Thebes Or Ages In Chaos Revisited (HC) (Ages in Alignment)

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Empire of Thebes Or Ages In Chaos Revisited (HC) (Ages in Alignment)
Emmet, Sweeney
Manufacturer: Algora Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Egypt | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Ancient history as we know it is full of voids, puzzles and conflicting theories. Empire of Thebes is the starting point of "Ages in Alignment," an originally researched reconstruction, from the advent of literate civilization to the conquest of Alexander. Inspired by Velikovsky's 1952 series "Ages in Chaos," "Ages in Alignment" seeks to complete the work which he commenced, identifying the problems Velikovsky could not solve, and bringing forward a great body of evidence not even mentioned by Velikovsky which supports his identification of Hatshepsut with the Queen of Sheba. Velikovsky was rejected by the academic establishment because of a number of contradictions in the chronology he outlined. Yet Sweeney shows that despite some gaps and incompletions, his books were brilliant works of scholarship with much to recommend them. For decades now various scholars have attempted to solve the enigma. Yet the answer was stunningly simple, and in front of us all the time. Empire of Thebes provides the solution and finally allows the possibility of a complete and satisfactory reconstruction of ancient history. This work calls for a much more radical shortening of ancient chronology and asserts that Velikovsky ran into a dead end because he placed too much reliance on the Bible as a chronological measuring rod. Finally, the end of the 18th Dynasty was the focus of one of Velikovsky's most fascinating books but he left the story of the demise of Akhnaton's line unfinished. This period is examined in detail in Empire of Thebes, and the author shows which foreign power it was who came to the assistance of Tutankhamun's brother Smenkhare after the latter had been expelled from Egypt. Other periods are covered in three other volumes, namely The Genesis of Israel and Egypt, The Pyramid Age and Ramessides, Medes and Persians. All of these books reach fairly dramatic conclusions, but - although it's not first in line, chronologically - the Empire of Thebes is where the story begins. * Emmet Sweeney holds a Masters Degree in Early Modern History from the University of Ulster and is currently a lecturer at West University, Timisoara, Romania.

Egypt, Revisited.: An article from: Dairy Today

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Egypt, Revisited.: An article from: Dairy Today
Linda Leake
Manufacturer: Farm Journal Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Dairy Today, published by Farm Journal Media on May 18, 2005. The length of the article is 532 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Egypt, Revisited.
Author: Linda Leake
Publication: Dairy Today (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 18, 2005
Publisher: Farm Journal Media
Page: NA

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Al-Alamein Revisited: The Battle of Al-Alamein and Its Historical Implications : Proceedings of a Symposium Held on 2 May 1998, at the American University in Cairo

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Al-Alamein Revisited: The Battle of Al-Alamein and Its Historical Implications : Proceedings of a Symposium Held on 2 May 1998, at the American University in Cairo
Jill Edwards
Manufacturer: Amer Univ in Cairo Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Egypt | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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Essays | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9774245717

Product Description

British, German and Italian historians give this stimulating collection of papers its diversity of historical perspectives on the North Africa campaigns of World War II. 4 maps

Greece Revisited, and Sketches in Lower Egypt, in 1840: With Thirty-Six Hours of a Campaign in Greece in 1825. Volume 2

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Greece Revisited, and Sketches in Lower Egypt, in 1840: With Thirty-Six Hours of a Campaign in Greece in 1825. Volume 2
Edgar Garston
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1402187920
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1842 edition by Saunders & Otley, London.

Israel revisited (Anglo-Israel Association. Supplement)

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Israel revisited (Anglo-Israel Association. Supplement)
Patrick Cosgrave
Manufacturer: Anglo-Israel Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007AN4S8

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Egypt Revisited in Prophecy
Marilyn Hickey
Manufacturer: Laymen's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000MWFIR6

Greece Revisited, and Sketches in Lower Egypt, in 1840: With Thirty-Six Hours of a Campaign in Greece in 1825. Volume 1

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Greece Revisited, and Sketches in Lower Egypt, in 1840: With Thirty-Six Hours of a Campaign in Greece in 1825. Volume 1
Edgar Garston
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Egypt | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Africa | History | Historical Reproductions | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1402187939
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1842 edition by Saunders & Otley, London.

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