b3ta.com board
You are not logged in. Login or Signup
Home » Messageboard » XXX » Message 10807639 (Thread)

# Needs more sheds
On the other hand, I've been watching a load of documentaries on history and the bible. It's about ten years old now but Finkelstein and Silberman's three-part documentary based on 'The Bible Unearthed' was very good. I also saw a History Channel documentary the other day that said things like 'Scholars believe these tunnels were built in 6000BC. But could they have been built ten thousand years earlier, before traditional scholars believe history was built?', and follow that up with 'These tunnels could have been built in 16,000BC. Were they made by aliens fighting over Earth's resources?' That was brilliant. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called, but that's not really important. Any History Channel documentary now will ask the same insane questions and answer them with 'Sure, why not?', justifying it with some idiot who is an 'expert in alien technology' or some such.

Fantastic stuff.

Edit: Part 1 of the Bible Unearthed, 'The Patriachs': www.youtube.com/watch?v=t440bxhn1qA It's in three parts.
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 16:27, archived)
# I don't tend to watch documentaries for precisely these kinds of reasons.
That and it's really difficult to check their sources.
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 16:37, archived)
# The History Channel ones are amazing though
It genuinely is once every few minutes "Most scholars believe [something sensible] but could it be [something batshit insane]?" They then assume the latter, and move on. By the end of it you've got some weird inverted pyramid of lunacy, each level more absurd than the latter.

I'm sure they're deliberately satirising these people rather than buying into it...

"The Bible Unearthed" is a genuine documentary, though, made by genuine archaelogists who genuinely know about archaelogy in Israel (one is professor at Tel Aviv and the other I think either in Belgium or one of the Ivy League universities) and are building genuine arguments, even if like all arguments in the ancient world they're necessarily made of assumption and uncertain conclusions. At least they're aware of it...

(Edit: Silberman is at Uni. Massachusetts Amherst. So not Ivy League. Still, knows what he's talking about.)
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 16:53, archived)
# I did start watching it,
but after 15 minutes it had barely said anything and I gave up.
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:05, archived)
# Hmm
Swap to the History Channel ones then. (Or read the book of the Bible Unearthed. I think you'd find a lot to argue in there -- and there is a lot to argue; they're building an argument from interpretation the same as anyone -- but it is worth it, I reckon.) They do say a lot in 15 minutes. None of it is technically accurate and it might rapidly give you apoplexy, but I find that kind of thing entertaining, myself.


Edit: Also, I've watched through Neil Oliver's History of... series recently (so far as I know he's got Ancient Britain, Celtic Britain and, I dunno, Bronze Age Britain or something), and they're also very good.
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:12, archived)
# best ancient history book I read lately is this
www.amazon.com/History-Begins-Sumer-Thirty-Nine-Recorded/dp/0812212762
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:17, archived)
# Hmm could be interesting
Maybe I'll dig out a History Channel documentary on Sumerian civilisation. I'm sure that aliens and pyramids must be involved somewhere.
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:24, archived)
# oh god Zechariah Sitchin and Planet Nibiru
don't get me started.
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:26, archived)
# the documentaries i'm finding at the minute all feature erich von daeniken :(
it's like we're still in 1973. i want *fresh* crazies to entertain me by telling me how the nazca lines are an ancient airport
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:33, archived)
# well look up Sitchin then,
he's still active as far as I know.

Or go to a green festival, they're a hoot.
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:37, archived)
# haha that sounds quite entertaining
though i'm not sure i'd survive it. i'll definitely look this guy up if he's extremely irritating and fond of misrepresenting "evidence" to back up his "theories"
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:39, archived)
# oh and this guy too
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies

I picked up 1421 in Blackwells once, looking for something on ancient Chinese history. Read the back, put it down again. Just nuts.
(I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 13 Jul 2012, 17:57, archived)