Black Athena

Common card · No. 300593

Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, published in 1987 (vol. 1), 1991 (vol. 2), and 2006 (vol. 3), is a controversial trilogy by the British Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies Martin Bernal proposing an alternative hypothesis on the origins of ancient Greece and classical civilisation. Bernal's thesis discusses the perception of ancient Greece in relation to Greece's North African and West Asian neighbours, especially the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians who, he believes, colonized ancient Greece producing the bulk of Classical civilization. Bernal proposed that a change in the Western perception of Greece in the 18th century led to the denial of any significant Egyptian and Phoenician influence on ancient Greek civilization. Black Athena has been heavily criticised and rejected by the majority of academics, many of whom consider it pseudoarcheological. They often highlight the fact that there is no archaeological or historical evidence for ancient...

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