Africa's Great Civilizations PBS Trailer:

This is not a new find or anything like that I am posting this here because of the content.."Ancient & Lost Civilizations" I just want to give folks a heads up on the upcoming PBS series Africa's great civilizations set to air Feb 27, those of us interested in this kind of stuff should remember Gate's series Wonders Of the African world both praised and criticized for different reasons, praised for bringing to light civilizations largely hidden or given scant attention, criticized for lingering on the slave aspect too much and dancing around Egypt instead of engaging it directly.
I for one is looking fwd to see if he came up with new goodies or new ways of looking at things..set your date or Tivo accordingly..

Oh here is another clip, this one involve Iron smelting and spread..this is gonna be good.

set to record. Thanks for the heads up.

Well crap!

I wanna watch it right now :p

Thanks for the heads up, will definitely watch it.

originally posted by: Spider879

Oh here is another clip, this one involve Iron smelting and spread..this is gonna be good.

They're playing it a little fast and loose...2100 BC for iron smelting is seriously doubtful and I am not aware of an evidence to support that anywhere, let alone Africa...meteoric iron, which they make no mention of, being worked, yup, happy with that, there is anthropological and archaeological evidence to support that practice, but you don't produce anything even remotely workable, by accident, as a by-product of firing ceramics to suggest otherwise is to assume that your audience is a sandwich short of a picnic.

Is this going to be the same old Timbuktu/Songhai thing we used to get in grade school as part of Afrocentrism week?

It would be interesting if they can keep it grounded in terms of archaeological evidence, but I'm betting they go for the nonsense. Fingers crossed.

originally posted by: Bedlam
It would be interesting if they can keep it grounded in terms of archaeological evidence, but I'm betting they go for the nonsense. Fingers crossed.

If the above clip is any indication, you can uncross your fingers, nonsense abounds, sadly.

originally posted by: Anaana

originally posted by: Bedlam
It would be interesting if they can keep it grounded in terms of archaeological evidence, but I'm betting they go for the nonsense. Fingers crossed.

If the above clip is any indication, you can uncross your fingers, nonsense abounds, sadly.

Hopefully he won't go for the Timbuktu=Atlantis thing. Or the story of Yakub.

a reply to: Bedlam

No, I think it is a different kind of nonsense.

a reply to: Anaana

Where did you get the 2100 B.C for smelting Iron from?? they said the date was about the same time as Turkey 1500 B.C
And Bedlem the people being interviewed are archaeologist and folks in the top of their fields, two being Christopher Ehret. and Swiss Archaeologist Charles Bonnet who made some incredible finds in the Sudan.
I say watch it first then look for the bloopers.

I have a hard time watching any documentary without David Attenborough, haha.

I kid, I kid... I will definitely check this out... thanks for bringing this to my attention!

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Anaana

Where did you get the 2100 B.C for smelting Iron from?? they said the date was about the same time as Turkey 1500 B.C
And Bedlem the people being interviewed are archaeologist and folks in the top of their fields, two being Christopher Ehret. and Swiss Archaeologist Charles Bonnet who made some incredible finds in the Sudan.
I say watch it first then look for the bloopers.

Yeah, don't know where I got 2100 from, sorry, they say 1800-1500 BC...but still, as an accident from ceramic firing? That was the ludicrious part.

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Anaana
I say watch it first then look for the bloopers.

I actually look forward to it. But man, I really hope the words "Timbuktu" or "Songhai" don't come out of their mouths, nor "Atlantis".

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Anaana
I say watch it first then look for the bloopers.

I actually look forward to it. But man, I really hope the words "Timbuktu" or "Songhai" don't come out of their mouths, nor "Atlantis".

They should make Timbuktu or Songhai part of the discussion especially if they have new info, I don't think they have done it to death as much as Medieval England or Ancient Egypt..

And Anaana hope you watch it and if you see BS call it out and keep us grounded..

originally posted by: Spider879
They should make Timbuktu or Songhai part of the discussion especially if they have new info, I don't think they have done it to death as much as Medieval England or Ancient Egypt..

As long as they keep it to what they can either prove or realistically extrapolate from archaeology.

What WE were taught is that Timbuktu was the origin of the Atlantis mythos, the residents were all princes and princesses, they'd invented every science and humanity, and when not walking the literal streets of gold of the city, were being whisked about by crystal powered vimanas which might also take them to the orbital city of Light.

But one day Yakub had his little lab accident, things went downhill, and one dark day the evil ice people expunged every trace of the two fabled cities, down to the last machine screw and pop tab, leaving not a single inexplicable bit of golden paving, drawn wire, machine screw or orbital debris to prove the existence of the supercivilization. And the record only lives on in the tales told by the descendants of the few survivors, passed down from one generation to the next.

Which seems a bit convenient, IMHO.

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: Spider879
They should make Timbuktu or Songhai part of the discussion especially if they have new info, I don't think they have done it to death as much as Medieval England or Ancient Egypt..

As long as they keep it to what they can either prove or realistically extrapolate from archaeology.

What WE were taught is that Timbuktu was the origin of the Atlantis mythos, the residents were all princes and princesses, they'd invented every science and humanity, and when not walking the literal streets of gold of the city, were being whisked about by crystal powered vimanas which might also take them to the orbital city of Light.

But one day Yakub had his little lab accident, things went downhill, and one dark day the evil ice people expunged every trace of the two fabled cities, down to the last machine screw and pop tab, leaving not a single inexplicable bit of golden paving, drawn wire, machine screw or orbital debris to prove the existence of the supercivilization. And the record only lives on in the tales told by the descendants of the few survivors, passed down from one generation to the next.

Which seems a bit convenient, IMHO.

You were thought that in school??.. that sound like youtube vids made by gwaad knows whom, if so stop watching that crap it's not even good entertainment it's in the same bus as Ancient Aliens and white ppl came from Orion?? or Alpha Centauri..no man this ain't it, they may screw somethings up but not at that level.

originally posted by: Spider879
You were thought that in school??..

that sound like youtube vids made by gwaad knows whom, if so stop watching that crap it's not even good entertainment it's in the same bus as Ancient Aliens and white ppl came from Orion?? or Alpha Centauri..no man this ain't it, they may screw somethings up put not at that level.

For a few years, the middle and high school would bring in guest speakers in February to teach us rednecks about the truth of the secret history. We drew a few from NOI several years in a row. They really believe that stuff. You want some fun reads, go look up the Tale of Yakub or the key phrase "big head scientist".

I always thought it would be nice to actually find out more about African history, but either we sort of bypassed it or we got...that.

In the end, I got more out of Latin reading the adventures of Hannibal or Scipio regarding Africa than ever I did in history classes. But I still can't tell you crap about the basics of Carthaginian life, or whether Egyptian rulers were Semitic or Ethiopian, or anything south of the Sahara except that the San click a lot and can find water in plant roots.

a reply to: Bedlam
That was incredibly negligent on the part of your school or school district, they didn't even bother to vet these people sorry state of our educational system..

a reply to: Bedlam

We had a decent experience with ours. Mostly we'd talk about Harriet Tubman (again) and eat soul food at lunch. Pretty trivializing all around, but at least not overtly negative.

The town I live in has a dark story in its past that accounts for the abnormally low black population (less than 2%). So there weren't many folks really well versed on black history in America (or before). Obviously we covered the most basic African history like Shaka Zulu. But its like there was just not any real depth of information.

For Mexican history it was a real affair. LOL.

originally posted by: Spider879
And Anaana hope you watch it and if you see BS call it out and keep us grounded..

Unfortunately I think, here in the UK, I would have to pay to see it, and from what I have seen so far I am not sure I'd be willing to pay...if you know what I mean?

Iron use, in the form of ochre, most certainly started in Africa. Cold-working meteoric iron most likely did too, but I would want better evidence that Africa was responsible for developing iron smelting because if they did have that technological capability, they were respectful of it, didn't take more than they needed, and therefore didn't cause the wholesale environmental destruction that their continental neighbours rolled out on the world when they got their hands on the technology.