Good morning readers, I hope that you are doing well today.  I am pleasantly surprised that this was a two-part episode about the lost tombs of the Mayans.  Here I was complaining about it being too short but it turns out it was a two-part series!  Then again they probably could have spread it out over three parts anyway.  Now I am going to work on episode two of the series.  The run time for this episode is 47:57.

The story continues to follow the Japanese team as they work on Temple 11 to potentially discover a lost royal tomb.  The story begins in Copan where there are many spectacular temples and hidden tombs.  What does this city tell us about life and death in the city?  Hidden beneath staircases there was a stone carved with the name of the first kings of Copan.  Beneath this stone was the remains of a human as well as a monkey.  Could this be the last resting place of a king?

One archaeologist believes that this resting place could hold the secrets of Mayan burial traditions.  This archeologist was given special access to the bones.  The bones could have been the body of a king.  However there was a problem, the skeleton belonged to a woman.  Who was this woman?  Was this woman a ruler?  Why was this woman given such a prominent burial?

The woman was in her mid-twenties, but she had injuries to her arm that would have indicated that she was a warrior.  So was it possible that some Mayan warriors were women?  Buried with her were three men, jade jewelry, and the animals.  This was no ordinary woman in the grave.  The men’s skulls had indications that they were beheaded.  What would have been the significance of sacrifice to the Maya?

Back at Temple 11, the Japanese team is continuing their work to find a potentially lost royal tomb.  The Japanese team is also working on a nearby temple as well and they have discovered an entrance that was completely bricked up.  The theory is that there may be another burial in this temple.  It will take many months of careful digging to see what lies beneath.  There were intriguing fines in this area that hint at the importance of the site.

The documentary continues with an exploration of daily life for the Maya.  Bloodletting was a common practice among the elite and they would use a variety of tools to let out the blood.  There was a price to be paid for their privilege.  The elite had special access to the gods and to get the gods' attention was to offer up their own blood.  It was a sacrifice that could be repeated.  It would have been painful and quite dangerous in the humid climate.  So who were these bloodthirsty deities?

So then we transition into learning more about the gods the Mayans worshiped.  One of those gods was represented by the Macaw.  Images of the Macaws were carved all over Copan.  Macaws were very important to the Mayan creation story.  Then there was a discussion of the creation story.  Then there was a discussion on cranial modification as a way to show off the status of the individuals.  Then there was a section that made me cringe and it was how they drilled into their teeth to put precious jewels in it.  I mean, dental visits get me extremely nervous in the first place and I cannot imagine anyone willing to drill into their teeth to put precious jewels in them.  To learn more about the lost tombs of the Maya continue to watch the rest of this episode.

These documentaries continue to impress me with how far technology has come in doing recreation.  The cities that were recreated were very well done and were spectacular.  These reactions show how dazzling these Mayan cities were.  It also always impresses me how far our understanding of history has come in comparison to older documentaries.  History is a subject that ironically changes with new discoveries.  Even with the section on teeth, I would still recommend this documentary for a history classroom.  It was very well done and the narrator was very good.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this and doing your planning for the school year.  Anyway, let’s throw it back to the ancient world and look at the Mayan civilization.  I am looking at the Odyssey YouTube Channel for this documentary.  It is called Treasure Tombs of the Ancient Maya.  The run time is 47:56.

The Mayan Civilization is still revealing its secrets.  Its cities have been hidden in the jungle for decades.  The jungle covering has obscured the true size of ancient Mayan Cities.  As part of a two-year exploration and using the latest in technology the jungle is scanned to learn more about the Mayan civilization.  A Mayan pyramid is also examined to look for a hidden tomb.  Who were they?  How did they live and die?

There is a quick little rehash of the Mayas and how they were very advanced in mathematics and astronomy.  Then there is a discussion on the structure of government and how the Mayans had a city-state structure much like the Ancient Greeks.  Then there was a discussion on the architecture and how advanced it was.  So who were the Mayan people?

The story begins with Copan and a 3D recreation of the city.  Copan would have housed over 20,000 people.  There were towering temples that were brightly painted.  There were wide-open plazas and ball courts.  The staircases would have been magnificent.  It would have been the capital of a vast kingdom that had sixteen kings.  However, the rise and fall of Copan is still mysterious.  A Japanese team is preparing an experiment to find those answers.  

The Japanese team is looking at Temple 11 to look for a royal tomb in Copan.  Only eight royal tombs have been discovered.  So does this temple have a hidden burial?  If there was a royal burial at the site, this would help further our understanding of the Maya.  Perhaps it would answer the questions as to why it declined.  Then there was a quick discussion on subatomic particles and how they can be detected, which was very illuminating. 

Then the story shifts to Palenque, another major city in the Mayan Empire.  This city held 7,000 people and boasted magnificent monuments.  One temple has strange circular features carved into the floor.  What was the function of these holes?  One team spent years excavating a staircase that was in the temple.  What was inside of this temple?  It was discovered that there was an ancient tomb hidden in the temple.  There was a 20,000 stone tomb and inside there was the remains of a man who was surrounded by a variety of treasures.  He was known as Pakal the Great, and he was one of the most important rulers in Palenque’s history.  It was a period of peace and wealth.  So what do the treasures discovered in this tomb hint at about the potential tomb in Temple 11?

There was an exploration of the tomb treasures including a jade mask which would have accompanied Pakal the Great to his final journal.  It would have symbolized his face at the time of his youth.  The story moves onto the story of the Mayan language.  For hundreds of years, it was hard to read, and many secrets were to be revealed after it was translated.  Before the Spanish Conquest, there were thousands of Mayan Codex books, and many were burned by Spanish Priests.  Only four books survived which could potentially help translate the Mayan Language.  The documentary then goes further into the complexities of Mayan writing.  The stories were then translated and they are about the Kings who ruled the Mayan world.  They talk about the births and deaths of the rulers and some were considered propaganda pieces. 

Then the story goes back to the Japanese team.  Are they on the brink of discovering something big?  Are they going to discover a previously undiscovered tomb?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

I will reiterate the complaint that I wish this documentary was divided into chapters for easy pull-out and viewing.  I also wish it was longer because the build-up to the discovery was quick.  It was a very well-done documentary though and it is amazing how far these documentaries on the Mayans have come.  I would show this to a history class.

Hello, and good morning.  I hope that this day finds you well.  It is a documentary that highlights how far technology has come in order to examine history.  This documentary is from the Get.Factual YouTube Channel.  Today I am going to feature a documentary on Angkor Wat.  The run time for this documentary is 55:35.  It is called Angkor Wat and it may be part of a series on ancient superstructures.

Angkor Wat was hidden in the jungles of Cambodia.  It was the largest religious structure ever built.  Using the latest in technology, archeologists are examining monuments carefully and learning more about the secrets of Angkor Wat.  Using satellites, aerial devices, and molecular scales they seek to learn more about Angkor Wat.  Why was it built?  Who built it?  What was its purpose?  Why did it go into decline?

It is a site known worldwide.  The remains of the structure are amongst the most unique in the world.  It was built by the Khmer Empire.  It is hidden among 400 square miles of jungle.  It is the largest religious complex in the world.  It was built from 1113 to 1150 and it was an extraordinary feat.  It was primarily built with stone, which would have been a challenge to use and transport.  The nearest quarries would have been more than 30 kilometers away.  Millions and millions of sandstone blocks would have been needed to be transported.  How was this feat accomplished?

The site is massive, and there are different sections in the city.  There was a religious center and a royal center.  There was a massive water reservoir in the area in the area.  Satellites reveal that there was an expansive hydraulic network that kept the complex water.  There have been many theories over the years about the purpose of the reservoirs and canals.  One new theory that emerged was that the canals were used to help transport the stone that was used to build the complex. 

Microscopic examination of the stone shows that it would have been tough to carve and shape.  The rock was almost 50% quarts.  How was the stone carved so quickly?  There have been restoration efforts done on a nearby temple.  This is a unique opportunity to learn the techniques that were used to build Angkor Wat.  Restorers getting to know these ruins intimately.  The restorers concluded that a massive workforce was employed to build Angkor Wat.  However, it still would have taken a massive amount of time to build the complex.  There had to have been another method to speed up the construction.  During this section, I was starting to compare the construction of Angkor Wat to the Guendolen Castle construction.

The documentary then shifts to an unfinished temple site that is a testing place for new theories as to how the monument was built.  Perhaps, like the pyramids, the workers used ramps to haul stones up to greater and greater heights.  The workers and the architects would have carefully planned ahead to make sure the work went smoothly and efficiently.  This section continues to remind me of the Secrets of the Castle series as well as any documentary on how the pyramids were built.

Angkor Wat would have been the center of the Khmer Empire and would have had a population of about 800,000 people.  The people would have transformed the landscape to suit their needs.  How big was this complex?  A LIDAR campaign was launched.  A large area was swept and the results revealed a vast complex of unknown temples and buildings.  So what were these ruins that LIDAR revealed?  What about the people who lived in Angkor Wat?  Why did the city decline?  What else is yet to be discovered about Angkor Wat?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

It still really amazes and surprises me how technology is used to come alongside and help students and teachers learn more about history.  From time to time I found myself comparing Angkor to other complex historic building projects.  This was an excellent documentary, and it could have run even longer because there is just so much there.  I highly recommend this for a science, technology, and history class.

Good morning!  I am glad to move on from the History of Warfare series, but I am still trying to keep documentaries on the Ancient World.  This time I am doing a documentary on the Stone Age from the Get.Factual YouTube Channel.  I have had some good luck with this channel, so I am going to try this channel again for some more ancient world documentaries.  This documentary is called The Magic Moments of the Stone Age and has a run time of 51:58.

This documentary tells the journey of mankind starting with the Stone Age.  It begins with the discovery of fire and how to use it.  The Stone Age enabled humans to survive their environment and shape it according to their needs.  The story of the Stone Age begins in a crater in Africa and spreads from there.  This documentary talks about the tools that were made and the movement of these ancient men.

The story begins in a great rift valley where many archeological expeditions have taken place.   It is a place where it is said that civilization has begun.  There have been a variety of discoveries that were made in this valley.  There were hand tools that would have been used by ancient man.  There is a display and discussion of the tools that were discovered.  The hand axe discoveries would have made a monumental impact on the advancement of civilization.  I half expected our dear Uncle Phil Harding to make an appearance during this section.

The invention of the hand axe would have enabled early man to hunt and carve animals.  Which would mean that men were adding meat to their diets.  Meat consumption would have helped with brain development and muscle building.  The second moment that would have pushed Stone Age Man forward would have been a fire.  The fire was created by nature either by lightning striking or volcanic eruptions.  Fire would have brought light and warmth.  Fire would have scared animals away.  With the advent of fire, the meat would have been cooked over a fire.  Cooking would have allowed the food to be easier to digest.  The fire also allowed communities to come together.  It was a social point for the people.  That said it took time for a way to develop to make fire.

Eventually, humans would leave Africa and spread throughout the world.  Then there is a discussion on humans' arrival to Central Europe.  Early humans may have arrived in Europe for good hunting.  There was a discovery made in Lower Saxony and it was a cache of hunting tools.  There were spears discovered and changed how historians and scientists view early humans.  At the sight, there were also the remains of the animals that were hunted.  These bones would show what the Stone Age man would have preferred to hunt.  Thousands of wild horse bones were discovered at this site.  At the time Lower Saxony would have had a large population of wild horses.

Eventually, the documentary transitions into a discussion on art and why the Stone Age man would have put art in the caves.  There was an underlying suggestion that it may have been part of the hunting ritual.  To learn more about the Magical Moments of the Stone Age continue to watch the rest of this documentary. 

I was not sure about this documentary the title was very off-putting “Magic Moments of the Stone Age.”  There could have been a better title for the documentary.  The title choice started to make sense as the documentary progressed but I still would have chosen a different title for the documentary.  That said, I found the documentary very interesting.  The recreations were very well done and the historians were very well-spoken.  I always find documentaries on the Stone Age annoying sometimes because there was always an arrogance or presumption that the Stone Age ancestors were stupid.  I am a big believer that the Stone Age people were a whole lot smarter than we are. I did not get that impression from this documentary.  It was very interesting and very well done.  This would be a documentary to put on the potential list, a potential list for a science class instead of a history class.

Good morning!  Another day, another blog review!  Today I am going to look at an episode of the Lost Treasures of the Ancient World Series from the Odyssey YouTube Channel.  This episode is looking at the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  I had some good luck with previous episodes from this series so hopefully this will be a good episode too.  The run time for this documentary is 55:37.

What were the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?  Not everyone agrees with what was considered a wonder.  Locals seemed to put local things on their consideration for Wonders of the World.  In the latter half of the century, the seven best-known were put together on a list.  There was a wide variety of options when it came to deciding the Seven Wonders.  This episode looks at several of those Seven Wonders.

The first wonder discussed was one that everyone agreed on the Pyramids in Egypt.  The Great Pyramid was one of the tallest structures built in the Ancient World.  The pyramids were for the most part used as tombs for the Pharaoh.  Then it talks about the statue of Zeus in Olympus, the home of the Olympic Games.  This giant statue of Zeus was eventually destroyed.  The narrator talks about another statue that was destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes.  It had collapsed in an earthquake and eventually, the bronze was sold off by Arab raiders.  Then there was a Mausoleum at Halicarnassus that was eventually taken apart to use the stones to build houses. 

Then the documentary transitions into a discussion on the lighthouse at Alexandria.  The lighthouse would collapse and those stones would be used to build a fort.  Then there was the temple of Artemis where there was a large statue of the goddess.  It concluded with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and how initially people thought it was fiction but then the remains of the gardens were found.

The documentary then went into detail on the seven wonders of the world.  The documentary led off with the Pyramids of Giza.  It went into more detail about Ancient Egypt and the pyramids at Giza.  This documentary does show its age when it talks about how 100,000 people were used to build it.  The explanation behind the pyramids was very simplistic as well.  Eventually, the discussion switches over to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  The narrator talks about the history and why the Hanging Gardens were built.  Then the documentary transitions to the statue of Zeus as Olympia.  It would have been a huge statue made from ivory and gold. 

Eventually, the discussion transitions to the Temple of Artemas, the fourth wonder of the Ancient World.  It talks about how a king had it built and the statue inside.  In fact, it was the site of several temples before a more secure and permanent structure was built.  People would have flocked to this new temple and would have brought home souvenirs.  What were the other wonders of the ancient world?  What are their histories?  What happened to these wonders?  Were their other ancient sites that could be considered as a wonder of the Ancient World?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

The narrator was quick to get through the initial Seven Wonders, which left me confused as to why there was no more information on those seven wonders.  I then thought there would have been more potential seven wonders mentioned.  However, it became clear after the initial overview the narrator was going to press forward with the initial seven wonders.  It would have been very nice to see this episode divided into chapters because it would enable teachers to take out pieces of this episode for use in teaching.  I definitely had a feeling that the target audience was students and I have the feeling that this was two parts that were put together into one episode.  Anyway, that said, it was a good overview of the wonders of the ancient world, the Seven Wonders, and other wonders as well.  I would consider putting this on my list of potential documentaries to show to a history class because it was a good summary of those wonders.

Good morning, I am going to throw it back to the Ancient World today.  I am going to look at the Bronze Age Collapse and learn about the Sea People.  This was found on the Get Factual YouTube Channel.  The run time for this episode is 50:14. This documentary is called The Mystery of the Sea Peoples.

Modern-day Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Greece are home to some of the greatest Ancient Bronze Age civilizations.  The Hittites, Myceneans, and the Egyptian Empires were very powerful.  However, in 1200 BCE, these empires would implode and the Bronze Age would collapse.  Who or what was to blame for this collapse?  Archeologists have discovered evidence of people from the sea who invaded these empires.  Were these people responsible for the Bronze Age collapse?

The story begins with a discussion of the civilizations of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Greece and the empires that originated in these areas.  The Pharaohs were considered the most powerful leaders during this period.  They had complete control over their resources and people.  However, in 1200 BCE a dark age would plague the region and would last for three hundred years.  Populations would migrate.  The economy would collapse.  The elite would lose their power.  What would cause this collapse?

Evidence was discovered pointing to wave after wave of marauders known as the Sea Peoples.  They would invade these lands and cause great damage to cities.  A farmer in Syria discovered the entrance of an ancient tomb.  Little did this farmer know that this would be a great discovery and the first hint to the Sea Peoples.  Syria was under French control and an archeologist was sent to the tomb.  Work immediately begins and discovered an ancient cemetery.  If a large cemetery was discovered, there had to be an ancient city nearby.

Soon after the discovery of the cemetery, a mound is discovered which hints at an ancient city.  It was a port that had been abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age.  Did the Sea People cause the people to abandon this port?  Tablets are eventually discovered in a language that archeologists could not read.  In fact, it was not even in the local language.  More and more tablets are discovered, and you could feel the anticipation about discovering the Sea Peoples.  These tablets are sent to language experts in French and they too are baffled as to the language on the tablets.  What was the language?

Eventually, the city that was discovered was named: Ugarit.  It was an expansive city and the people were highly sophisticated.  How did this civilization rise?  How did the people get so rich?  So why did these people disappear?  Many objects were discovered that hinted at the richness of the people who lived in Ugarit.  However as excavations continued on the site, many objects were discovered purposely buried in the ground.  Why were these objects buried?  There was evidence of destruction in the city.  Perhaps these people would have buried these objects before fleeing the city.  Why would the people flee?  What would make them flee?  Where would they go?

The tablets may hold clues as to why the people fled.  One tablet mentioned a solar eclipse.  Would this cause the city to be abandoned and destroyed?  Archeologists continue to search for clues.  Ugarit was not the only city that crumbled during this period.  The Hittites and the Egyptians also collapsed.  Why would these civilizations collapse?  Could Ugarit give the archeologists a clue?  A letter was discovered between two Ancient Kings.  Ugarit’s king wrote to another king begging for help because the enemy had surrounded the city.  Who were these people who invaded Ugarit?  Were these the famous sea people?  Would there be evidence from other civilizations hinting at these sea people?  To discover more about these Sea Peoples continue to watch this episode.

Overall, this was a good documentary and it was something that I do not really recall learning about in school.  It goes to show you that as more and more discoveries are made history changes.  The narration was well done.  The information is presented very well.  This would be a documentary I would show to a history classroom as well as use for research purposes.

Good morning, this time on The Thirty-One Days of the Time Team learn about Romans recycling.  The run time for this episode is 46:59.

Over the years metal detectorists have discovered a variety of metal artifacts from the Roman, Iron Age, and Saxon periods in a field that is between two villages.  The finds are in Lincolnshire and the locals believe there was a posh building in the area.  Lincoln was a great center for Roman Britain, however, there are no records of Wickenby being a center of Roman occupation.  So why are there so many finds?  The Time Team has three days to find out.

The initial geophysics results that there is a great deal of archelogy even though there are no records of a Roman settlement nearby.  What was really happening in these fields during Roman times?  Francis Pryor believes they are sitting on a major series of Roman settlements.  John Gater wants to do more geophysics on the site.  Tony Robinson has his suspicions.  Phil Harding talks about the geophysics showing that there was settlement going on and that by digging they are furthering the story.

Trench One goes in, over an area where a large concentration of finds was discovered.  It does not take long before the first finds emerge.  Geophysics work on the site as well.  So why does Wickenby hosts so many Roman finds, especially medal finds?  It was not on the road to Lincoln and its location would have been more appropriate for a farmstead.  However, the finds give a hint that the settlement was wealthy and active.  Tony goes around town and talks about the different columns that were found in the area.  The locals believe that these belonged to a posh house.

Phil shows off the initial finds that were found in the first trench.  He believes that this hints that there was a settlement at Wickenby.  However, there was molten lead found on the site which would hint that there was something being melted on the site.  This is the opposite of a farm settlement.  John Gater seems to have discovered a large anomaly also known as a blob that hints at the industrial nature of the site.  Guy de la Bedoyere then talks about the Roman industry of metalworking and recycling.

Trench two goes in over the blob.  Guy and Helen look over the brooch finds.  Helen disagrees that it was a metal scrap metal center.  There were plenty of brooches discovered over the site.  Helen points out to the brooches were finished and were not manufactured on the site.  It is only Day One and there is already a disagreement on the team.  As trench two goes in, Phil makes a find in the trench.  There is evidence of a ditch and charcoal.  The evidence of burning seems to hint that Guy is right about this site being for metal recycling.  In fact, in a previous dig, there was a metal bowl found on the site.

In the village, the evidence gathering continues.  Are the columns that were found in the village part of a Roman building on site?  The answer may surprise you.

Back at the first trench, more Roman evidence emerges as well as evidence of an earlier settlement.  Francis believes that this evidence points to an Iron Age Settlement.  Trench one is shut down and a third trench is put in based on John Gater’s geophysics results.  He found evidence of a circular building, perhaps it was an Iron Age roundhouse.  What John is showing, goes beyond a typical Roman Britain farmstead.

On Day Two the Time Team will investigate a spring and a potential roundhouse.  Tony catches up with Guy and Francis to talk about the site and its potential.  What will the Time Team learn about this site?  Is this site the home of something industrial?  Why were there so many brooches found at the site?  What about the evidence of the Iron Age Settlement?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more!

The artifacts that were found at the site were very intriguing, especially since there were so many of them.  It was also interesting to hear the Time Team talk about what the site was.  This would be a good episode for a history class and for independent study students.

Today we are going to look at a documentary about a mysterious Chinese civilization: the Shu.  This documentary is called the Lost City at Jinsha.  The run time for this documentary is 49:52.

Sichuan China is home to a mysterious kingdom.  It was found in the Jinsha suburb and was one of the most important finds of the century.  Archeological finds include thousands of graves and their grave goods.  Who were these people?  Why were they left with such fine grave goods?  Why did this civilization disappear?  Agnes Hsu-Tang, director of the China Institute of New York investigates this lost civilization.

The Yellow River was considered the backbone of Chinese civilization.  The Qin Dynasty unified China in 221 BCE.  However, One thousand years before that, the Shang Kings ruled the plain of the Yellow River.  For years it was thought that the Yellow River plains were the center of Chinese civilization.  Discoveries have been made cast questions on this assertion.

These discoveries have been made that hint at a society that thrived at the same time as the Shang and they were locked in mountain valleys.  This culture did not leave any written records behind.  However, their neighbors wrote about them.  They were called the Shu people.  The civilization was found in Jinsha.  Hsu-Tang wants to unravel the mystery of the Shu people.  How did they flourish?  Why did they disappear?

The discovery of the Shu people happened by accident.  There was construction work being done to lay a new road.  All of a sudden workers found evidence of an old civilization.  The police called the archeologists and they headed to the site.  The archeologists were shocked by what they found.  There were thousands of relics on the site.  It was a sensational discovery for the archeologists.  There were jade daggers found, elephant tusks, and other gold objects.  Based on the number of graves, did these construction workers and archeologists stumble upon the Shu sacrificial grounds?  Agnes is surprised at the size of the site.  She has more questions about the site.

There were ten areas discovered including a palace area, a burial area, and a sacrificial zone.  Over 2,000 tombs were discovered however these tombs do not hint at human sacrifice.  Agnes will have to do some further investigation.  She walks through the museum where the Shu artifacts are displayed.  Some statues seem to hint at human sacrifice.  These statues are of people kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs.  What was the message of these statues?  Why were these statues made?

Agnes travels to Anyang, the ancient Shang capital.  It is in Anyang where human sacrifice was a well documentary.  She examines a full chariot that was buried in a tomb with a horse and an occupant.  The Shang dynasty was a slave society, and so when the master died his slaves died with him and were buried with him so they could serve him in the afterlife.  However, does this mean that the Shu people practiced human sacrifice?  The Shang people and the Shu people were in contact with each other, and would this contact lead to an exchange of certain ideas?

Agnes goes back to Jinsha and talks with other experts about her theory that the Shu people would have gotten their ideas about human sacrifice from the Shang.  Find out more about the Shu people and human sacrifice by watching the rest of this episode.

This documentary was way too fast pace to keep up with because I had to keep rewinding to points in the documentary to get the point.  Additionally, it did not have much context to it.  I still do not understand who the Shu people were.  I also did not need a monologue on why she got into archeology.  It left me feeling disjointed at times.  The obsession with human sacrifice was over the top?  I could not believe that the Shu people could be boiled down to people who participated in human sacrifice.  Perhaps Agnes could have talked about what was known about the Shu people up to the point of the discovery of the tombs and other artifacts.  Due to its speed, disjointedness, and obsession with human sacrifice, I will not recommend showing this to a history classroom.

For Athens is a French-produced docu-drama that follows what happened to Athens and the Persians in the aftermath of the Battle of Marathon.  There are subtitles in this production.  This documentary is found on the YouTube Channel Odyssey and History Hit TV.  If you play this documentary on YouTube, there are History Hit commercials in the documentary.  The run time for this documentary is 52:54.

It has been ten years since Persia was defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon.  You would think that would make the Persians pause about attacking Greece again.  However, they want revenge.  Even though the defeat at Marathon did not diminish the Persian Empire, Darius the Great was left with a bitter taste.  It broke the myth of Darius’ invincibility.  He wants that sense of invincibility back and will lead his troops once again to defeat the upstart Greeks.  With Athens’ decline, will the Greeks be able to come together again to defeat the enemy?

The story begins ten years ago when Darius the Great invaded Asia Minor.  Athens’ hearing of the Greek Colonies’ plight in Asia Minor gives their support.  The Persians are defeated at the Battle of Marathon.  It is something that Darius would never forget.  One year after the Battle of Marathon, the general who led the Greek troops against the Persians passed away.  However, peace does not reign supreme over Greece.  The Greeks live in separate city-states and oftentimes squabbled.   The City-States came together to defeat the Persian Empire.

The Athenians never had a good navy and were regularly bested at the sea by sailors from the Aiginai Island.  It was the Aiginai Island sailors that rule the seas.  However, it would be a bigger navy that would threaten Athens.  One man wanted Athens to build a navy to protect Athens.  A navy would be expensive, and the man who foresaw the need for a navy designed a ram to help protect the ships.  This man foresaw that the Persians were the biggest threat to Athens.  The Persians had a lot of ships and these ships could transport a lot of men, which made the Persian Navy so powerful.  It would not take much for the Persians to invade and conquer Greece.

Four years after the battle of Marathon, Darius the Great dies.  He has not finalized his revenge.  There have been troubles in the Persian Empire which caused the delays.  His son becomes king – King Xerxes.  He wants to finish what his father started.  However, the Egyptians were rising up against him and they needed to be dealt with first.  This campaign would be the first to cement Xerxes’ place as King.  Once the Egyptians were dealt with and made an example of, Xerxes would turn his attention to Athens.

In the meantime, the naval architect is perfecting his ram for the ship.  The ram is powerfully built and should give the Athenians the advantages.  How to pay for the fleet would be another manner.  Then suddenly a seam of silver was discovered.  This silver brought wealth to Athens and the citizens were flushed with money.  Perhaps this was enough wealth to fund a navy.

In the meantime, King Xerxes defeated the Egyptians and they are punished severely.  Xerxes is becoming known as a Warrior King and has done his duty in expanding the Empire.  Back in Persepolis, Xerxes makes his plans for invading Greece.  He will invade overland and conqueror the Greek city-states one by one.  He begins his preparations on an unprecedented scale.  His plans are detailed and thorough, there will be nothing left to chance.

In the meantime, the Aiginais have attacked again.  The squabbling between the Greek city-states is blinding the Greeks to the real threat: the Persians.  When the profits from the silver mines are distributed, these naval architects suggest that they use the profits to build a navy.  He argues that the Aiginai are preventing Athenians from eating their full.  He did not mention that the Persians were a threat.  The ships are going to be built.  Will Athens finally rule the waves?  Will these ships be enough to defeat the Persians?  Tune into the rest of this documentary to find out.

This documentary had an old-school feel to it, and I dare say that there was plenty of green screen use in this documentary.  It was still very good and would be something that I would to a classroom.

The pyramid building Ancient Egyptian civilization could not last.  Ancient Egyptian's confidence was soon shattered.  Economic collapse put a pause on the Egyptian Civilization.  The Ancient Egyptian people were soon filled with dread as the society collapsed around them.  Egpyt was soon thrown into chaos, signifying a new era in Ancient Egypt.  The military took over and they ruled by fear and intimidation.

Saqqara not only shows the Egyptian’s confidence in their civilization but also the collapse of that civilization.  A funeral causeway reveals the collapse of Ancient Egypt.  An image from that causeway shows people suffering from famine.  This famine is slowly closing in on Ancient Egypt.  The images of plenty were replaced by images of skeletons.  Such images were never created before but now reality hit ancient Egyptians in the face.  They tried to keep the forces of reality at bay but the images Fletcher refers to were an omen of the future.

The Nile and its flood allowed Ancient Egyptians to thrive.  Unfortunately for them, the Nile’s flood ceased.  This led to suffering, starvation, and in some cases cannibalism.  The Ancient Egyptians believed strongly in their kings.  The Pharoah was soon seen to be weak during their time of need.  Pharoah Pepi II, in his old age, tried to show off his physical prowess in the Jubilee celebrations.  However, the image of a vital Pharoah was shattered.

The Egyptian Dark Ages was an age where its people turned to magic to sort out their problems.  They thought that by reaching out to magic, they would be able to control the world.  The Egyptians also started writing out curses on pots or wax figures.  They would burn the figure or smash the pot to activate the curse.  It was informal religious, it showed how suspicious the Eqyptians had gotten.  Chaos meant that the Egyptians’ worldview had changed.

A once united Egypt fractured into smaller kingdoms.  Each of these kingdoms had a strong warlord leader.  These leaders believed themselves above the previous Pharoah.  They used the language and the images that the previous Pharaohs used to describe themselves.  They were the heroes without a peer.  These leaders did what they could to take care of their people: they gave bread, they gave sandals, they gave money.  There may have been cases of exaggerations of how bad it was.  This helped them claim that they were gods. 

However as the power of the warlords grew, more and more conflicts happened.  Some warlords created alliances with other warlords or they fought each other.  They ended up turning on the remains of the old pharaohs and destroyed the old tombs of the pharaohs in the valley of the Kings.  This violation of the old burying places appalled the people.  The destruction of the tombs broke the line of history.  After the destruction, ordinary Egyptians made atonement, bitterly regretting the tomb destruction.

After this destruction, one warlord decided to unite Egypt.  This king would end Egypt’s dark age.  The Egyptian Civil War was violent.  The bodies of these warriors bore witness to the violence of their death.  The Pharoah made sure to bury his warriors in a prominent tomb with great ceremony.  After the civil war, the people started to feel safe.  The economy was rebuilt.  However, the trauma of the civil war remained.  Their tombs changed, funerary art reflected the wish for a peaceful afterlife.  If the people could not feel secure in the present life, they could feel secure in the afterlife.  The Pharoah’s concerned themselves with National Security.  They built castles to maintain order and goods between Nubia and Egypt. 

To continue to learn more about Ancient Egypt, continue to watch the documentary.

You can access the documentary here.