Reviews for Plato Prehistorian 10,000 To 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology

The average rating for Plato Prehistorian 10,000 To 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-11-20 00:00:00 Taimur Chaudhri It was this book's subtitle that hooked me: "10,000 to 5,000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology" -- a very ancient but incredibly important time in the our history when the very first civilizations suddenly appeared in the Middle East. This is a fascinating, wide-ranging work that I found especially astute in the mythology sections, and the art discussions are beautifully supplemented with line drawings. The author's overall premise is very interesting: instead of focusing on the parts of Plato's Critias and Critias dialogues that detail the mythical island of Atlantis and its destruction, a topic which countless other authors have already explored (even though it's archaeologically impossible, as Settegast calmly points out), she focuses on the other parts of those accounts that discuss a war between the early proto-Greeks and this mystery people who came from outside the Pillars of Hercules. Settegast doesn't speculate at great length about the origins of these Western peoples, but she presents sufficient evidence to theorize that they could have existed. Her main interest lies in exploring whether evidence of the war Plato describes has remained in the art, archaeology, myths and even linguistic traces of the given time frame. As it turns out, a great deal of evidence supports her assertion that such an encounter DID occur. Reading the book is like setting out on an exploratory adventure of discovery with a very reliable, scientific companion who can explain things along the way. The writing style is very clear, lively, and firmly grounded in science but still very accessible for a general reader. Settegast's archaeology background is obvious (especially in several lengthy sections about ancient pottery shards that only an excavator could love), but in general, this is a book anyone could enjoy, especially fans of ancient history and our earliest civilizations. Check it out, especially if you've already read every Atlantis theory ever written and would like to take a different approach.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-11 00:00:00 Chris Christian Don't bother. This is a poorly written and edited work of little scholarship. It seems to have been a dissertation for the author's PHD. I had assumed a competency that would add to the knowledge of the antediluvian world. I was wrong.