Personally, I find the Celts and other “savage” European tribes to have been far more “civil” people than the bloodthirsty Romans, although I admit there may be something of a matter of perspective involved in that. The same certainly holds true of native Americans and Africans as well, as the exact same disparaging epithets were used against them (As well as the reinforcement of racist biblical interpretations that my ancestors were spared). Now, no civilization is perfect, and one man’s utopia is another man’s hell (Especially if their utopia involves punishing outsiders for their “savage” ways, or their idea of fun involves the words “head” and “pike” in some combination), but any way you look at it, “civilization” in the conventional sense has always been accompanied by both an increased capacity for, and practice of, bloodshed and murder, which is not so “civil” if you ask me…then again, I’m with Douglas Adams in thinking that we never should have climbed down out of the trees in the first place. We CERTAINLY should never have thought that spending our lives in harsh deserts was a good use of our time…

With regards to the cavemen, this is the clearest representation of nascent colonial racism, especially in films like “Clan Of The Cave Bear”, where the smart Homo sapiens girl is probably the blondest, whitest woman on the face of the Earth, whereas her Neanderthal friends are all swarthy dark-haired chaps, or meant to appear so. The reality is that it was the Neanderthals who were pale-skinned, having long ago adapted to northern climes, whereas the expansion of H. sapiens out of Africa occurred so rapidly that just about any who first met their boreal cousins were very dark-skinned. Now, mind you, I think H. neanderthalensis get a bad rap, and they must have been doing something interesting with those bigger brains of theirs, but in narrative terms, the stories depicted in modern cinema would certainly have to be inverted.

As for Egypt, there’s been some debate about this, but the overall consensus is that they saw themselves as being distinct from their much darker-skinned neighbours to the south, the Nubians. Most likely, they were of middle eastern stock, not too different from the Sumerians and Babylonians. That still makes them far from “white” by 19th century racist standards, and the amount of trade between Egypt and Nubia as well as other parts of the world I think would ensure that any typical “crowd scene” would represent quite a broad section of diverse ethnicities, most of whose skin would be very much on the darker side. And then of course, there the fact that the Nubians conquered Egypt at one point, and ruled it for some time.

All these criticisms of cinema are well-founded, but I try to see it this way- There was a time when every character, of whatever ethnicity (And even gender), would have been played by a white guy, and often not very convincingly (One is reminded of the American penchant for “blackface” makeup, as seen in “The Jazz Singer”). While not an excuse, at least you have to admit that there’s been some progress.

Lastly, in terms of (pre)historical accuracy, at least they’re not being attacked by Dinosaurs this time around…

Mr.Charlie’s World

Friday, January 25, 2008
10,000 BC Racist Historical Crap

Director Roland Emmerich should be ashamed of himself.

When will we get it right and stop putting this racist crap on the movie screens? Any historian will tell you that Egypt ( its part of Africa not the middle East) and the Tigris/Euphrates Valley has well-developed civilizations, even 12,000 years ago. And yes African or descendants of Ham first settled both of those societies. That’s why the original settlers in Mesopotamia were called the black-headed people.

We have used the image of white people in furs, i.e. cavemen and women, as the image of early man so much that its hard to contemplate that African and Asian people were never cave people and yet their lineage is much older than Caucasians.

We have an ongoing series about caveman where they boast of giving man the wheel and fire as they none of these things happened before whites appeared. Bull

Our information about the history of man was put together during the early part of this century when white anthropologist were convinced that Africa and African people were insignificant. Even in this picture there does not appear to be any Black people other than faces in the crowd.

The movie says that this was the first hero and implies that this was the beginning of man’s rise to civilization. Then it leads to pyramids and still no Black or brown faces.

Caucasians had nothing to do with pyramids and nor were their any proof of any Caucasian presence in the early history of anywhere pyramids can be found.

I don’t care about the Saber tooth tigers but I am tired of this racist twisting of history that refuses to acknowledge that Europe was actually the last continent to get civilization in 50 BC when Julius Caesar and the Romans invaded. Most of the Roman army was North Africans and blacker than I am because most of the original Roman territory was North Africa. Remember Hannibal a Black General of Carthage. The barbarians were originally the white tribes of Europe.

Every scientist will tell you that man was in Africa first and was Black. Yet we still use the old anthropology scales that show the rise of man from ape to Homo sapiens and the Homo sapiens is always a white man in furs. My kids are very confused when I show them the truth.

Why is all they can say? Why?

For education, go to Barnes & Noble and get a well researched, well written book. Ponder the deeper meaning in your easy chair. Then go back to B & N and get another well researched, well written book whose premise is the opposite of the one you just read. Ponder why this author has such a different interpretation than the first author.

Unfortunately, too many Americans get their “history” only from the movie media. They see “Dances With Wolves” and think they understand the history of Native America. Now they will see this film and think they understand the Pleistocene era.

By the way, I wonder where the cave girl gets her hair done?

New fossils of sabertooth cats are turning up in Europe all the time; some of the most complete fossils that have yet been found outside of Rancho La Brea come from Europe.

Maybe you are thinking of cats of the genus Smilodon; it’s true that no Smilodon fossil have been found in Eurasia (yet ).

The truth is that the fossil record is spotty. “Elephant Birds”, which were broadly similar to moas, lived in Madagascar until very recent times; it’s feasible that something of the sort may have lived in Europe … we don’t have fossils of every species that ever existed.

Who knows what discovery lies just around the corner?

Science fiction, and fantasy even more so, requires a temporary suspension of disbelief. You have to allow the what if? – and then give the spinner of the tale a chance to make their world believable enough to pull you in.

Even if this movie stinks, I want to see more of those critters! The full-screen previews were spectacular.

Sorry to admit that I once felt that way, as well. Fortunately, I’m much younger than that now.

Homotherium lived in North America, Europe and Asia, at least up until 8,000 BC. Do we really know for a fact how long it survived, and what surprises may lay beneath the Mesopotamian sands? I will not venture to guess till I set the way-back machine, and go back for a little look-see. As for moa-like birds, and mammoth mammoths – Are all things in earth and heavens known? If so, it must be getting later than I was aware! – better get back to Milliway’s for the floor show! But I plan to stop and enjoy that movie, first.

I think in one 30 second trailer I counted at least three inconsistencies – mammoth size, occurrence of saber-toothed cat in Europe (at least I think they didn’t occur there), giant Mesopotamian civilization, giant moa-like bird (didn’t exist in Europe), etc, etc.

I think giving credit to Graham Hancock inspirations might be going too far – I’m willing to bet it’s just a case of throwing a bunch of prehistoric crap together for maximum cinematic effect and not a conscious nod at Hancock.

Any way you might choose to look at it, I can’t wait!

Were we to compare the public school lessons on history we absorbed as kids in books, lesson and in popular media we would, I think, be almost equally astonished.

As a matter of fact, Charles C. Mann’s book “1491″ has given me a number of “wow” moments just lately, that, ontop of the news of the 12.9KYA impact event, have shifted a number of my fondest paradigms in cultural and natural history.

Funny you should mention this. I remember as a kid watching one of those Hercules type movies on Saturday morning. One of the actresses was escaping from something and I noticed a zipper in the side of her skirt. Didn’t know they had those in ancient Greece. LOL

Regards