10-19-2015, 09:22 PM
Michael, back to you in the next post.... but first Breaking News!!
Book Review
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia
by Sir Barry Cunliffe ("One of our greatest living archaeologists.")
Oxford University Press just released Sir Barry Cunliffe's massive tome, 512 pages, into the public domain... a little bit earlier than the publishing date of November 10th, so Sir Barry can make more moola. "For sure," I thought, "Good old Sir Barry will have something worthwhile to say about the Issedones and Altai cultures." I was regrettably Wrong.
He treats the earlier Karasuk Culture correctly, yet unaware (or unmentioned) that they were the likely foundation of the Altai group. Somehow, Cunliffe manages to cross wires. Instead of following the Northern Trade Route according to Herodotus, he takes off on his own. In a carefully projected map (p. 233), Cunliffe inverts Herodotus' sequence, placing the "Issedonians" just east of the Aral. The next tribe east is the "Agippaei," then the "Arimaspians," and finally scaling the heights of the Altai, he places his strangely-named tribe-- "The Gold Guarding Griffins"-- on the highest peak.
Therefore, another "one of our greatest archaeologists" got it Completely Wrong, replete with inventing a brand new tribe. He moved the Gryphons from the Mongolian desert, and turned them into humans. Hopefully the Queen will tap him on the shoulder again, saying, "Barry Dear, the Gold Guarding Griffins were dinasaurs, not people."
Even as a barbaric "Roxolanian," I am dismayed.
ad:
Book Review
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia
by Sir Barry Cunliffe ("One of our greatest living archaeologists.")
Oxford University Press just released Sir Barry Cunliffe's massive tome, 512 pages, into the public domain... a little bit earlier than the publishing date of November 10th, so Sir Barry can make more moola. "For sure," I thought, "Good old Sir Barry will have something worthwhile to say about the Issedones and Altai cultures." I was regrettably Wrong.
He treats the earlier Karasuk Culture correctly, yet unaware (or unmentioned) that they were the likely foundation of the Altai group. Somehow, Cunliffe manages to cross wires. Instead of following the Northern Trade Route according to Herodotus, he takes off on his own. In a carefully projected map (p. 233), Cunliffe inverts Herodotus' sequence, placing the "Issedonians" just east of the Aral. The next tribe east is the "Agippaei," then the "Arimaspians," and finally scaling the heights of the Altai, he places his strangely-named tribe-- "The Gold Guarding Griffins"-- on the highest peak.
Therefore, another "one of our greatest archaeologists" got it Completely Wrong, replete with inventing a brand new tribe. He moved the Gryphons from the Mongolian desert, and turned them into humans. Hopefully the Queen will tap him on the shoulder again, saying, "Barry Dear, the Gold Guarding Griffins were dinasaurs, not people."
Even as a barbaric "Roxolanian," I am dismayed.
ad:
Alan J. Campbell
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
