Ancient/Classical History Forum discussion and questions on a range of topics from healthy skepticism to the outrageous, including the nature of truth and myth, dreams sent from above, scientific arrogance, the pyramid as a water pump, and Atlantis. Note: Not all of these topics originally appeared in the A,A,A folder. They are included here because they fit better than in other categories.

ALIENS, ATLANTIS, ALTERNATIVE
"Troy was a myth too -- until Schliemann."

ANCIENT DREAMS
"I have had dreams where I am in the land of Canaan in the wilderness, and I hear a voice commanding me to do something or other, but the voice is muffled, and I can't make it out. I try to awaken from it because I fear it is God commanding me to do something, and I will be destroyed for failing."

APOCRYPHAL HISTORY
"I was able to find out that the sea levels have risen for some 100-170 meters during the last 10,000 years. Although the institute of metahistory focuses upon the legend of Atlantis, the pre-historic dwelling locations which have been sunken all these years lead me to believe that the issue is not where a unique "Atlantis" was located, but how many "Atlantis" incidents there were around the world due to the global sea level rise."

ATLANTIS
"You cannot say that Plato made up the myth of Atlantis. You did not live at the time of him or any of his contemporaries, or do you have some scroll that no one else knows about which debunks the existence of Atlantis?"

ATLANTIS
"[Plato] advocated the idea of creating myths for the purpose of inculcating the proper moral ideas in the citizen body, and tossing out the traditional myths which seemed immoral."

SCIENTIFIC ARROGANCE
"The thread about the age of the sphinx made me want to write something about scientific arrogance. On the one hand it is perfectly true that there are numerous wild and wilder theories out there and lots of what is published or seen on TV is rubbish, but on the other hand often enough scientists just do not want to move away from status quo teaching and arrogantly ignore evidence which doesn't fit into their acquired world view."

VALUE OF INTERNET HISTORY
"I would like to examine this phenomenon in a postgraduate dissertation from the historian's point of view -- the extent to which this e-representation of ancient topics can be a useful and reliable resource."

THE WATER PUMP PYRAMID
"Several months ago I ran into a fellow named Steven Myers. He had written a book about the "fact" that the Great Pyramid had been an ancient water pump. Myers maintains a web site that showcases these so-called discoveries in a book called The Pharaoh's Pump. Author Edward Kunkel felt that the Subterranean Chamber of the Great Pyramid used "vortex phenomena" to pump water!"