The Modern Scholar: Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology (AudioBook) 2010

The Modern Scholar: Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology (AudioBook) 2010

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Author & Narrator - Prof. Susan A. Johnston
The George Washington University
Running Time: 8 h 11 min

Did aliens build the pyramids? Is Stonehenge an ancient observatory? Isn't it true that the Maya predicted that the world would end in 2012? Eminent George Washington University archaeologist and anthropologist Susan A. Johnston looks at some of the ideas about the past that are part of popular culture in the United States today in her latest Modern Scholar course Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology.

Most people at some point in their lives think about the past—What was it like? Would we like to have lived then? How different were they from us? This interest is illustrated by the popularity of books, movies, and TV shows on all aspects of the past. And there is a lot of information out there. Archaeologists, historians, and others are doing research all the time, and people, both professional and not, are taking that information and interpreting it in a huge variety of different ways. This has produced a sometimes bewildering array of material about our past that appears in books, websites, and various other media. Professor Johnston begins this fascinating course by asking how we know things, what science is and how it works, and the role of archaeology in exploring what the past was actually like. She then tackles the myths and mysteries that seemingly permeate popular culture: Indiana Jones, the likelihood of ancient aliens and astronauts, the many theories of the discovery of America, and the facts (and fictions) about Plato’s Atlantis. This is a course unlike most, and one we know you’ll find intriguing.

Otherwise rational people believe - or at least partially believe - in many fantastical myths about the world in which they live. Indeed, it is an entirely human inclination to want to believe in what might be called otherworldly explanations for phenomena for which there are no easily explainable causes. In these eye-opening lectures, Professor Susan A. Johnston of the George Washington University applies an archaeological perspective to the biggest myths and mysteries in world history.

Examining prominent theories and available evidence in a scholarly light, Professor Johnston introduces her audience to the scientific method, demonstrating the most reasonable course for determining whether one's beliefs have merit, or are perhaps less than satisfying when held up to more rigorous examination.

Lecture 1 How Do We Know Things?
Lecture 2 Science and How It Works
Lecture 3 Archaeology
Lecture 4 The Discovery of America
Lecture 5 All Things Egyptian
Lecture 6 Ancient Astronauts?
Lecture 7 Stonehenge
Lecture 8 King Arthur: Historical Fiction or Reality?
Lecture 9 ESP and Archaeology
Lecture 10 That Old Time Religion
Lecture 11 New Age Archaeology
Lecture 12 Plato’s Atlantis
Lecture 13 Where in the World Is Atlantis?
Lecture 14 Genuine Archaeological Mysteries

ISBN: 9781440775611

http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=scholar.show_course&co...