Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985Winner of the 1990 American Book Award What is classical about Classical civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the foundation of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed since the eighteenth century—chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers—Aryans—from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this “Aryan model.” They did not see their institutions as original, but as derived from the East and from Egypt in particular. In an unprecedented tour de force, Bernal links a wide range of areas and disciplines—drama, poetry, myth, theological controversy, esoteric religion, philosophy, biography, language, historical narrative, and the emergence of “modern scholarship.” |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Ancient Model in Antiquity | 81 |
2 Egyptian Wisdom and Greek Transmission from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance | 132 |
3 The Triumph of Egypt in the 17th and 18th Centuries | 175 |
4 Hostilities to Egypt in the 18th Century | 205 |
The Rise of India and the Fall of Egypt 17401880 | 242 |
The Fall of the Ancient Model 17901830 | 303 |
Transmission of the New Scholarship to England and the Rise of the Aryan Model 183060 | 341 |
The Return to the Broad Aryan Model 194585 | 428 |
Conclusion | 469 |
Were the Philistines Greek? | 475 |
Notes | 481 |
Glossary | 547 |
Bibliography | 561 |
| 612 | |
About the Author | 627 |
8 The Rise and Fall of the Phoenicians 183085 | 363 |
9 The Final Solution of the Phoenician Problem 18851945 | 394 |
Other editions - View all
Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume 1 Martin Bernal No preview available - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
19th century 2nd century 4th century BC academic accepted Aegean African Afroasiatic alphabet Anatolia Anatolian Ancient Egypt Ancient Model anti-Semitism Antiquity archaeological argued Aryanist Astour Athens became believed Beloch Bérard Bernal Black Athena Bronze Age Bunsen Canaanite century BC chapter Christian civilization claim Classical Classicists colonization concerned conquest Crete cult culture Danaos derived Despite Dorians doubt early East Egyp Egyptian religion Egyptologists etymologies Europe European Extreme Aryan Model French Furthermore German Gobineau Greece Greek Hebrew Hellenic Hellenistic Hermes Trismegistos Hermetic Texts Hermeticism Herodotos historian Homer Humboldt Hyksos ideas Indo Indo-European Indo-European language influence Jews Kadmos language late later legends linguistic linked Mediterranean millennium Minoan modern Momigliano Müller Mycenaean mythology Nevertheless Niebuhr Oriental origin Pausanias Pelasgians period philosophy Phoenician Plato plausible political Professor race racial racism Renaissance Romantic scholars scholarship seen Thirlwall tian tion tradition trans Ugaritic West Semitic writing wrote