RJMooreII
Warlord
Why does the History Channel suck at history? Now it is mostly shallow military history and woo-woo stuff like "Did the Ancient Egyptians have lazer beams?", but even when it's about real history it's all the same three things: Bible archeology, Classical Civilization and WW2. And even these there is nothing new, every show they have on these is basically just a rehash over another show; the same 20-30 gloss points that you could have picked out of a juvenile reading book on Rome or something. There is absolute no depth exploration of the politics, culture, religion, connexions between ancient civilizations, etc.
And they nearly totally ignore all the other massive civilizations like China and the Indus valley; or even civilizations on which our own is so dependent on in mythology and history such as Sumeria. Do we really need another show about the assassination of Julius Caesar, or could we at least get ONE about the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Kassites?
There is a lot less in textual terms about ancient Mesopotamia than about classical Greece; but what we do have is actually largely economic and political records, which are really more useful for reconstructing history than mythology and literature. Also, this is no excuse in the case of China - the Chinese have meticulous records going back long before classical Greece. The Shang Dynasty had a history written 1300 BC!
And they nearly totally ignore all the other massive civilizations like China and the Indus valley; or even civilizations on which our own is so dependent on in mythology and history such as Sumeria. Do we really need another show about the assassination of Julius Caesar, or could we at least get ONE about the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Kassites?
There is a lot less in textual terms about ancient Mesopotamia than about classical Greece; but what we do have is actually largely economic and political records, which are really more useful for reconstructing history than mythology and literature. Also, this is no excuse in the case of China - the Chinese have meticulous records going back long before classical Greece. The Shang Dynasty had a history written 1300 BC!
