I’m terribly disappointed that PBS has followed the “edutainment” bandwagon into sensationalist coverage of the “disappearance” of the Minoans. I remember watching a video 15 years ago that talked about the pumice at Amnissos (I showed it in humanities classes for years), and speculating about the impact of a tsunami. None of this is new. I can’t find any credentials on the archaeologist involved (although he appears to be from Canada–otherwise I’ve never heard of him, and I’ve been studying Minoans since the 1970s), and no reliable “news” anywhere about the “decipherment” of Linear A. The earlier interpretation of the tsunami’s impact (going as far back as Marinatos) provides a plausible explanation for the rebuilding of damaged palaces after the Theran eruption, and since they seem to be wielding power well into the 15th century, it doesn’t appear that the destruction of the powerbase occurred until somewhat later than the episode suggests.

Plato’s account of Atlantis is probably 1% folk memory (the effects of Thera’s eruption on the Aegean) and 99% Plato’s allegory created to augment the Republic. Playing up spurious connections between reality and allegory is simply pandering to popular superstition and misunderstanding of historical and geological evidence. The Mycenaeans may indeed have been the perpetrators of the final blow, but that may not be the only explanation, either, since there was widespread unrest across the Aegean, often attributed to “Sea Peoples.”

A great deal of imagination seems to have gotten in the way of good science. This is the last episode of this show I’ll ever watch.

How can I order the DVD for this program?
Thanks

Isn’t this the same theory advanced by Spiridon Marinatos in his excavations of Santorini? I was surprised he was not mentioned. I researched the Minoans for a book which I wrote (unpublished) some ten years ago, fascinated by the digs in Akrotiri. Glad to see Marinatos’ theory strengthened. Is that dig still ongoing?

Sloppy and sensationalized. There was nothing new in the idea that a tsunami struck Crete and caused widespread destruction that may have caused the decline of the Minoan civilization, but the producers obviously feel they need to sex up this material for a general audience. A straight-forward approach would be a lot more honest. The subject’s interesting enough in its own right. The idea that you have to sensationalize it to make it appealing is insulting to the viewer’s intelligence.
And, btw, the narrator at the end said that this happen “5000″ years ago. Wrong– more like 1500 to 1600. Get it right.

1500 to 1600 BC, I should say. Typed too fast.

I was entralled by this program, I had not heard this view and found it very fasinating and plausible. I thought it was presented very well and always look forward to Secrets of the Dead. Would love to know if soundtrack is available, loved it.

The effects of the Thera eruption on Crete are not new, and the after effects of the explosion could have been very long lasting. The dust ejected in to the atmosphere could have lowered temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere for several years, leading to widespread crop failures like 1816, the ‘year without a summer’ which followed the eruption of Mt Tambura.

I enjoyed the program. However, it is old stuff. See the book by A.G. Galanopoulos and Edward Bacon, Atlantis: The Truth Behind the Legend published in 1989 (almost 40 years ago!). Indeed based on Spyridon Marinatos’ research excavations on Santorini.

I found the program interesting, but was bothered by an omission, The name of Spiridon Marinatos was never mentioned once by any of the many scientists interviewed. I have been in Thera and in Crete and read some of his theses. He was an amazing pioneer, who excavated the city of Akrotiri, underneath the layer of volcanic Pozzolana that had covered it for 3500 years. He proposed as early as 1939 that the explosion, via tsunamis, had ben the cause of the disappearance of the Minoan civilization. He died while excavating more of Akrotiri, and was buried in an unmarked tomb, right where he died, in the 1970’s. A MODEST MAN , HE WAS NOT EAGER FOR PUBLICITY, BUT FAIRNESS AND A SENSE OF PRIORITY, SHOULD HAVE HAD AT LEAST one of the current investigators MENTIOn HIS NAME. The new radiocarbon dates and the stratigraphy of Paliocastro confirm every point of his hypothesis. His daughter, Anna Marinatos has written a definitive analysis of the Santorini frescoes. Hope you publish this!

Where can I buy a copy of Sinking Atlantis. I live in Decatur Illinois

Having twice visited and studied Minoan archaeological sites on Crete and Thera, having lectured on the Minoan civilization often and having recently visited the outstanding exhibit on Minoan Crete at the Onassis Cultural Center in N.Y.C., I awaited with anticipation your May 14th showing of the “Secrets of the Dead – Sinking Atlantis.”

Unfortunately, this PBS documentary left me disappointed on several accounts. In the interest of brevity, I will list some of them with minimum commentary:

The conclusion that the Minoans came from the area of present day Iran is without any solid historical or linguistic foundation. The mere fact that linear A symbols may have some resemblance to ancient Persian symbols or hieroglyphics forms no basis for any serious conclusions. The Greek alphabet itself sprang out of the Phoenician alphabet but the Greeks were not Phoenicians. The Minoans probably came from Asia Minor (not Turkey) which is how that geographic area should be called in historical times.

It was an unsupported by fact leap for your piece to have stated that “Linear A has been decoded.” Only the Linear B syllabary was decoded by Michael Ventris in 1951-1953, and, as we know, it is an early form of Greek.

Plato was a philosopher, not a “historian” as it was stated in your piece.

One finds oneself ill-at-ease with the overemphasis on the clearly exaggerated aspect of human sacrifice by such a sophisticated, highly civilized and artistic people.

It is poor science in the extreme to interpret a few scrapings on human bones, no matter how suspect, as evidence of cannibalism. Since when in science we substitute suspicion for proof? In ancient times, as well as in contemporary Greece, it is not uncommon, in the process of cleaning the bones of interned people — after the flesh and the organs have decayed away — to scrape them with sharp objects and wash them before putting them away for “eternity.” The early Minoans may have used sharp flint stones for this activity. As for the legend of Athenian tribute of youths and maidens, it is probably an allegory of some form of taxation than so-called “cannibalism.” It is common for enemies to demonize their opponents with horror stories, even in our times. Thus, the words “hacked up in order to take the flesh off…in order to eat them” are an unfortunate and unjustifiable leap of guesswork and sensationalism.

The great archaeological contributions at Akrotiri and the insightful theories of the late S. Marinatos were not even mentioned. A bewildering omission indeed!

Had I viewed the subject program in another channel, I would have been disappointed. To view it on PBS, is a double disappointment since PBS has an obligation for better scholarship in programs of this type and it is expected to hold itself to a higher standard!

Paul van den Broek, 1989 is almost 20 years ago, not 40. Yes, though… 20-year-old info is not new. I was looking for some connection as to Minoans and crystal energy and Atlantean use of mind power. Not found in this program. Good program none the less.

In 10 years of studying bronze age Aegean culture I have never heard of an Iranian Minoan linguistics link. Most believe the Minoans to have originated in Asia Minor. I’ve seen one source that links the Minoan language and script with the language of the city of Ugarit in Syria.
But the Aryans of the Persian region and the central Asian steppes gave us the Indo European language groups, and not a Semitic language and script that predates the Achaean’s linear B, which Ventris proved as Proto Greek and the later Greek dialects.

Sigh. Count us with the folks who found this show EXTREMELY annoying. SENSATIONALIZED!!! Leaving out inconvenient information. Making dogmatic statements of fact, instead of presenting information in more cautious (and accurate!) fashion. UNSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION. NatGeo’s recent “Strange days on planet earth” was a joy to watch. WHY do producers go out and hunt for unknown theorists (who IS McGillivray, anyway?) and then “sex up” subject material that is entirely interesting enough as it is. Not too surprised to see BBC in the credits, but thought WNET was better than this.

I am a bit perplexed with the comments deriding the scholarly content of this episode. The purpose of such a program is not to be a definitive work on the subject but to stimulate interest in the general public. I for one plan to read much more on this subject from many of the sources discussed above. From my perspective, I thought it was a smashing success.

Hello Earnest,
I couldnt agree with you more on your insightful comments on the Atlantis. I have seen the program on TV to be aired today 22nd May however thanks for the caveat. I do believe the Minoan was an advanced civilization more occult and mystical in in its essence in contrast to the later Hellenic period which had rationality as its foundation.

Having twice visited and studied Minoan archaeological sites on Crete and Thera, having lectured on the Minoan civilization often and having recently visited the outstanding exhibit on Minoan Crete at the Onassis Cultural Center in N.Y.C., I awaited with anticipation your May 14th showing of the “Secrets of the Dead – Sinking Atlantis.”

Unfortunately, this PBS documentary left me disappointed on several accounts. In the interest of brevity, I will list some of them with minimum commentary:

The conclusion that the Minoans came from the area of present day Iran is without any solid historical or linguistic foundation. The mere fact that linear A symbols may have some resemblance to ancient Persian symbols or hieroglyphics forms no basis for any serious conclusions. The Greek alphabet itself sprang out of the Phoenician alphabet but the Greeks were not Phoenicians. The Minoans probably came from Asia Minor (not Turkey) which is how that geographic area should be called in historical times.

It was an unsupported by fact leap for your piece to have stated that “Linear A has been decoded.” Only the Linear B syllabary was decoded by Michael Ventris in 1951-1953, and, as we know, it is an early form of Greek.

Plato was a philosopher, not a “historian” as it was stated in your piece.

One finds oneself ill-at-ease with the overemphasis on the clearly exaggerated aspect of human sacrifice by such a sophisticated, highly civilized and artistic people.

It is poor science in the extreme to interpret a few scrapings on human bones, no matter how suspect, as evidence of cannibalism. Since when in science we substitute suspicion for proof? In ancient times, as well as in contemporary Greece, it is not uncommon, in the process of cleaning the bones of interned people — after the flesh and the organs have decayed away — to scrape them with sharp objects and wash them before putting them away for “eternity.” The early Minoans may have used sharp flint stones for this activity. As for the legend of Athenian tribute of youths and maidens, it is probably an allegory of some form of taxation than so-called “cannibalism.” It is common for enemies to demonize their opponents with horror stories, even in our times. Thus, the words “hacked up in order to take the flesh off…in order to eat them” are an unfortunate and unjustifiable leap of guesswork and sensationalism.

The great archaeological contributions at Akrotiri and the insightful theories of the late S. Marinatos were not even mentioned. A bewildering omission!

Had I viewed the subject program in another channel, I would have been disappointed. To view it on PBS, is a double disappointment since PBS has an obligation for better scholarship in programs of this type and it is expected to hold itself to a higher standard!

I basically agree with Vikas, Patricia Dunham and Bill Alexander. They all make good points. However, I respectfully disagree with Paul Smith since this was not a Hollywood movie — where producers are given all kinds of liberties and fantasy licenses — but a scientific documentary narrated by presumed scientific experts in the field.. As such there is no room for errors and mistakes and poorly or casually underpinned conclusions, especially on venerable PBS productions. The topic was excellent and the graphics captivating. That is why I look forward to PBS airing this program again after first correcting the subject errors. That would really underscore PBS’s commitment to the high standards most of us attribute to it. .

I am in agreement with Kollitides, P.E. in the substance of his comment. There is no link to the Iranians and the Minoans; we have LITTLE or NO idea of what their language sounded like or was spelled. There are only the slightest suggestions based on Linear B and how it was evolved from Linear A.
In the wake of a tsunami, it is possible that cannibalism but unsupported by voluminous evidence (reference the airline crash in Andes of the last century). To mention it in this context is to introduce gratuitous ghoulishness; PBS viewers generally tune in to avoid this kind of content – to easily available on the other broadcast networks. Whether bones were “cleaned” prior to burial, as is suspected with the Moche in western South America, is to be established by evidence.
Kollitides, P.E. has it right. Listen up PBS. Stay above the muck of the other networks.

As a professor of Classics who presents this material in my classes, I was extremely disappointed in many of the things already mentioned others, especially the unsubstantiated references to the decipherment of Linear A and cannibalism. Overall, almost no academic credentials were provided or scholarly corroboration offered. University affiliations were not given. Moreover, the chronology of the so called palace periods was not reconciled with the now scientifically established date of 1600 for the eruption of the volcano on Thera. Are we talking about the first or second palace period? The whole date range of 1600 – 1450 is merged together with the arrival of the Mycenaeans, as if the two were closely connected in date. It is quite possible that the chronology of the Aegean needs major revision, but the fact that the dating problems was not even mentioned is troubling. A very disappointing production, considering the excellent material they were working with.

Ernest A. Kollitides, P.E. First posted 6/2/08
To keep my original note (first emailed 5/16/08) down to size, I left out comments which were relevant. However, in the interest of all those who emailed their thoughtful comments and PBS’s undoubted concern for future accuracy, I add them now.
a. The tsunami hypothesis is certainly a plausible one and it was not the first time it was proposed. The “proof” of this hypothesis was quite credible but not fully scientific.
b. The documentary’s statement that “the tsunami destroyed all the Minoan cities,” could not possibly be accurate since a tsunami coming from the north could not have destroyed Minoan cities, such as Festos, on the south of Crete. In view of this, the documentary should have provided an explanation or conjecture as to what caused the demise of the southern and inland Minoan cities.
c. Another statement made was that the Mycenaeans kept their navy in the Corinthian Gulf thus sparing it from the impact of the tsunami. However, the bulk of the Mycenaean navy was kept in the Aegean waters of Peloponnesus, in the Gulf of Argos, not far from their fortress at Tiryns. Thus, it would have felt the destructive force of the tsunami. And, incidentally, there is less (and lower elevation) land separating the Corinthian Gulf from the Aegean than separating the north and south coast of Crete.

Those ants… they never stood a chance…

The Minoan culture, more appropriately name Atlanteans, were a culture destroyed by a massive tsunami for reasons significantly more profound than the result of a volcanic eruption alone. The real “Secrets of the Dead” lay hidden in the name of king Minos himself. For the ancient mythology reveals the very reason for the destruction of Atlantis. Will

Vitamin G, my friend, Vitamin G…

Mr. Ernest A. Kollitides, do you have your origins in Greece? I sense some sort of shovonism.

Sir Arthur, you sound to be a very prejudiced person; thinking that Europeans are superior. Are you English?

It is quite possible that these day that government wants to coerce Iran to abandon its peaceful nuclear program, to –within a “documentary” demonise Iran so that when Israel/us — USA — bombards Iran, people say: Oh well, a bunch of canibalistic people wer bombarded.

But nontheless, because it is Iranians who established Aratta civilization, supports the notion that Iranians have lived in Crete as well. Irefer those without prejudice to:
En Iran, un autre berceau de la civilisation €
LE MONDE.FR | 4 janvier 2008 | Stéphane Foucart | 2980 mots
Il n’y avait pas que le Nil et la Mésopotamie. Dans une vallée reculée de l’Iran, les archéologues ont récemment mis au jour les vestiges d’un autre berceau de la civilisation. Une cité vieille de 5 000 ans, puissante et développée, peut-être la légendaire Aratta qui impressionnait tant les…
http://www.enghelabe-eslami.com/maghalat/691_magh1.htm

Aratta, à l’aube des civilisations €
SUPPLEMENT SPECIAL | 20 mai 2007 | Francis Cornu | 302 mots
DOCUMENTAIRE Olivier Julien (Fr., 2005). Au sud de l’Iran, de hautes montagnes enneigées enchâssent une large plaine semi-désertique. C’est là, dans ce paysage d’une beauté sauvage, dans cette région très isolée de Jiroft, au bord de la rivière Halil, à quelque 400 km de la frontière pakistanaise,…

JIROFT & ARATTA KINGDOM – (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies …

It’s a quest that he began as a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, when in 1976 he published an article proposing that Aratta, which reputedly …
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Archaeology/Pre-History/jiroft.htm – 82k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this [PDF]
Jiroft and “Jiroft-Aratta” A Review Article of Yousef Madjidzadeh …
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
area) is to be recognized as the “Land of Aratta,”. that “mysterious civilization . ….. “Jiroft/Aratta.” The first two plaques are quite …
http://www.bulletinasiainstitute.org/Muscarella_BAI15.pdf

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Archaeology/Pre-History/jiroft.htm
Aratta-Jiroft-Halilrood

In the program Sinking Atlantis the narrator states that Linear A has been deciphered and that it appears to be related to a language spoken in Iran. Does anyone know if the narrator is referring to the script and language of Elam (3000 B.C. – 2000 B.C.)?

Note: Elamites were Dravidians

By the way, the Minoans where Ethic people…With more in common to the early Lebanon/Turkish peoples (Arabs really) and Egyptians (Africans) then they did with main land Greece = Hence the reason “why” they developed first…they were in touch with civilizations that existed at the time…the Civilizations that all predated Greece. As mentioned before Egypt / Nubia and Mesopotamia to be specific.
And if this doesn’t convince you, just look at the paintings the Minoans left behind, those are Brown skinned peoples, that’s more then a tan going on there.

MB NYC

The credits scroll up so fast I didn’t catch who the music was by. Jim…?
and another name. If you could supply this I would be most interested.

I enjoy history and the analysis of discoveries and archeological work. I saw this program yesterday night and it was very exciting to me. In some cases you have to understand scientific methodologies to absorb the extent and depth of what these documentaries REALLY say to us. Since I live in the “new world” but prefer to travel to the Old World to learn about ancient things, I have no doubt of the so many places our roots are from – to me diversity is richness, abundance – but I realize how important it is to learn. Any documentary like this one will make my day happy. My pity: that it was not me working in this discovery – it’ s fantastic information. Thanks!!

Those ants… they never stood a chance…

I still rule.

If the shoe fits…

What do people make of Professor SHilov and co’s discovery that Aratta was actually centered in modern day Ukraine not Iran?
Do a youtube search on Arrata and yo uwill see what I mean.

“Scholars have recently begun linking the legends of Atlantis to the Minoan Civilization on Crete.” -Yeah sure. If you consider the late 1970s to be “recently.”

Excellent! The immersive educational experience created by your documentary is exceptionally helpful. The few comments made previously by others (Linear A, Marinatos) were well stated. However, the impact of their absence is truly debatable. What? Yes,debatable. What those who posted seem to have missed is the cognitive aspect of the entire work – the “art” of the documentary. The work provided a vibrant immersive “e-novel mystery” that will be embraced by many young students. Moreover, it allows for substantive classroom discourse, student research and assigned reading. For me, an educator, the importance of this work is best measured by its ability to invoke vision and passion within our youth. It truly achieved that result. Bravo!

i am having fun today!!!

Yes, I’m sure this is a decent program, and I could probably find out for sure if it actually worked. It is erroneously advertised on the site as a full episode when it is, in fact, about a five-minute video clip. I have tried to watch this numerous times and it has NEVER worked, cutting off after a few minutes of the program. That has been very disappointing, so I have not bothered to attempt watching it again. I hope other viewers have had better luck.

Never mind that the tsunami theory should have been dealt with elsewhere; PBS being about documentaries for the wider public, the ‘lite’ treatment is to be expected. If it is correct that the name of the researcher who first came up with the theory was left out, then this is an unacceptable oversight.

The tsunami theory being the theme of this documentary, I must query the relevance of speculating the origin of the Minoans, as well as the cannibalism theory. Not only are these theories irrelevant to the programme, they seem to be based on flimsy evidence.

Logically, this is ramshackle writing and crude sensationalism, this latter quite common in US documentary making.

I was disappointed to see the misinformation provided about Linear A. Linear A has not been deciphered. If we’re reading it correct (based on Linear B syllabic values), it represents a language that has no connection to any known language and is rather a language isolate. Recent studies show that the Minoans came, like many others wrote here, from Anatolia in a remote period of time. They have no connection to Iran nor to the languages spoken there. The Indo-Iranian hypothesis has been dismissed and it is old news. There’s no solid linguistic basis for such a statement and it is really irresponsible to make such statements in a documentary that thousands, if not millions of people will see.

While there are many people doing respectful attempts to find a solution to the language of the Minoans, to hear a statement like “Linear A has been deciphered” without any scientific basis is rather annoying! If Linear A had been deciphered why is there no sensational reactions from the linguist community like there was when Ventris deciphered Linear B? Why wouldn’t the university of Crete make any announcements?

Also, how can one imply the Minoans were wiped out because they were living at the coast, while at the time speaking in the mainland of Crete, new settlements from before and after the Thera erruption are found in great numbers? Why do we ignore the fact that ancient historians of classical times mention native populations in Crete naming them as “True Cretans”?

Dear Douglas , you do the research. 5000 years ago seems correct to me. I have been teaching art history for 35 years and the early Minoans were around close to 6000 years ago.

I’m only 9 years old and I loved it. I also sent this documentary to my friends they are also 11 and 9 years old. Please explain it with more easy to define words.

from,
Kuhu age : 9

Linear A hasn’t been deciphered, unless one counts Barry Fell’s decipherment in the 1970s or early 1980s. Herodotus recognized (perhaps spoke some) Carian, and he at least was around when it was still being spoken, and traveled in Crete where he heard much the same tongue. It’s very likely that some kind of relationship to Anatolian languages (most of which have at least some inscriptions, if they aren’t yet read) is correct. That doesn’t rule out affinity with Indo-European languages, as Anatolia was invaded multiple times by populations out of Central Asia (home of the Aryans) and what is now Iran. The “Hittite” pantheon was largely from India.

The rest of the claims appear to be the same poppycock that’s been around for over a century, that there was some kind of (unattested) super-eruption; there’s basically no support whatsoever for a tsunami, and the caldera on Thera has been there for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years. A chunk of pumice that was carved into a serving tray was found in an Egyptian site of the New Kingdom, and for years was just assumed to be from Thera. Not many years ago it was found to be from the Kos volcano, and many thousands of years older than historical civilizations. It is not surprising at all that it was saddled on as evidence for the supposed super-eruption, then dismissed as irrelevant to the case for it when found to be spurious.

I saw no effort to actually substantiate the claims of tsunamis and massive eruptions, and it would have been as simple as getting good dates from the strata, as well as demonstrating that habitation sites were buried to great depth (that is not the case). The supposed super-eruption has also been pushed back into the 17th c BC, which makes it even less tenable as the cause of the downfall of the Minoan civilization, which managed somehow to totter on nearly 200 more years. Sites which were then a going concern were put to the torch by invading Mycenaeans, and that’s all there is to that. The Minoans were conquered by the Mycenaean Greeks.

The direction of the caldera collapse — that was the old version of the tsunami idea — is to the west, which would have sent the brunt of it toward the Greek mainland. And there’s no sign of any such tsunami event. The sooner this super-eruption delusional system is dumped, the better off all will be.

This is surely offered only for entertainment. it has little to no educational value and is entertaining enough.

I reached a somewhat similar conclusion to the project team as a result of tracing an ancient people whose migrations I study, the Yadavas, (literally “sea people”) out of the Indus/Arabian Sea area in about 2000 BC, up through Mesopotamia and into the Mediterranean. The cause of their migration seems to have been a series of tsunamis or floods in Sumeria, the Harappan ports, and all along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. As a result, the civilizations of the Indus/Arabian Sea area fell into decline and the Mediterranean basin became the new focus of the sea trade.

I had my eye on Palaikastro as their most likely new location, given its topography and easy access to the ports of the eastern Mediterranean where trade with the Arabian Sea still continued to flourish to some extent. It is from these ports that the story of Medea seems to have originated, Madai being the name of the people of whom the seafaring Yadavas were the most famous branch.

While we tend to think of ancient peoples as fixed in ancestry, culture and language, the names of important Yadava lineages appear in the royal families of Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria among others, and in the names of their many modern day descendants throughout the world. It is sad to think that so many of them may have died in Palaikastro, but their adventurous wanderings continue today.

[...] Find out more » [...]

I’m watching this on PBS right now. Does anyone find the second narrator that describes every detail of images that come up extremely annoying? Jeez I almost don’t want to watch this because of this guy.

Interesting that this program presents the theory of a tsunami as something proposed/discovered by “Sandy”. This is clearly a “scripted discovery” episode. The book “Atlantis – the truth behind the legend”, by Galanopoulos and Bacon, from 1969 (!) has the following pages listed in its index about the topic “tsunamis”:

“Seismic sea-waves (tsunamis) 73, 81, 91, 113, 114, 115, 135, 170, 192, 195, 196; from Stronghyle-Santorini eruption 111, 112, 115, 122, 199; heights reached 112; destructive effects 112-13″

That is, the hypothesis of tsunamis having been one of the causes for the decimation of Minoan civilization has already been known since the early 60’s, and more than that, it had been popularized on a book by the end of the decade. In fact this book provides enough evidence to establish a thesis in Section 4 (”Case proven”). You would think thal all this would be quite known to the scientific community 40 years later.

So the ignorance that the scientists display during the show about the precedents of their “hypothesis” is either a sign of a badly scripted “rediscovery, science-in-the-making” sensationalist but false story, or a sign that the scientists did really not know about the original investigation by Marinatos, Galanopoulos and others. The latter would really be bad science: failing to verify sources and antecedents is a major methodological fault-pax in any scientific endeavour.

Either way, the show is enticing but it is at heart a caricature of science, and not how science is actually done.

I concur with the above protests over the ridiculous and irresponsible statement in this program that “linear A has been deciphered.” The fact that the statement was repeated several times means it was no mistake either. These charlatans are deceiving millions of trusting viewers and PBS should be deeply ashamed of the entire episode. I almost expect this kind of thing from the various pseudo-educational cable channels but I I expected more from PBS.

Wow. Lots of negativity on this board. I enjoyed this program very much. I figured that these revelations didn’t all occur within weeks or months of each other as the program hints, but over years or decades of digging and research. It doesn’t bother me that programs of this sort may compress the timeline of the gradual accumulation of findings in order to intensify the excitement of discovery. I had never heard that the Minoans may have been wiped out or at least seriously weakened by a tsunami, but certainly images that have been tragically common in recent years made the fates of those people much more real to me. This topic has definitely risen up the list of things I want to find out more about. I always enjoy Secrets of the Dead and the other documentary programs on PBS. I look forward to seeing more. I’m really glad to be able to view them online, too, since I’m often not at home when they air.

If you have a problem with the accuracy of the show, then you should contact PBS and create your own show that can educate with out boring people to death with minute details that they do not care about nor understand. Perhaps they “dumbed it down” or “sexed it up” for the general public, you shouldn’t decry getting someone interested in a subject. This show was designed to spark interest in individuals who do NOT have a doctorate in archeology or history. It gets them to think and consider things outside of their own experience and maybe realize that academics don’t have to be stuffy and boring. I really don’t care about how much YOU know about this subject, I’m more interested in knowing that my children were captivated by it and they asked questions and want to know more. For that reason alone it was fantastic, they don’t care about or remember the details about “linear A” from this show. You rip it apart because of it’s accuracy, or apparent lack thereof, and attack PBS for not making it more “academic”. Had it been that “academic”, my children would have tuned it out and missed out. They successfully caught the interest of a viewership who would never have been exposed to it otherwise, and that is what is important.

Melissa
I understand your desire to have information “dumbed down” so that your children can understand it although it’s a sad commentary that you feel the general public (yourself included) needs such dumbing down in order to be able to grasp the information. You also seem to be saying that it doesn’t really matter if your children are exposed to inaccurate information as long as they are entertained by it.
Making such a statement such as “Linear A has been deciphered” as the show claimed is hardly a “minute detail” as you state; it is an important hypothesis around which the show built this particular argument. Of course the show was designed to spark interest in people without doctorates; most people who responded on this board don’t have them yet they are interested and intelligent enough to question such statements when they perceive inaccuracies. I dont have a doctorate, yet I don’t need information to be dumbed down in order to be able to understand it or be interested in it.
I’m wondering exactly what parts of the program your children *were* interested in if not the “boring details”? I suspect children would be simply more interested in the images of waves crashing over people, volcanos erupting and the concept of a sinking Atlantis. With this in mind, this show then was not really directed at children as there was a lot more to it than that – it is that “academic” information that is directed to the adult audience and it is that adult audience that is questioning the accuracy of said information.

I really liked this show too. “Secrets of the Dead” is a cool series.

Of course any factual errors are unfortunate. I also like to hold PBS to a higher standard than other broadcasters. But I too was new to this material (the tsunami-Atlantis-Minoan theory), and SotD introduced me to it. I’m glad for that. Sure, let’s expect high standards from PBS, but at the same time I think it’s a mistake to expect PBS programming to be “too” scientific. Fundamentally, this is television and filmmaking. If you want a fully academic and scholarly presentation replete with all relevant academic citations, it’s always better to consult a good, scholarly book on the subject by an author with the appropriate credentials.

Perhaps my own interest in filmmaking makes me more sensitive to this, but I would not be too quick to scold the scholars or scientists in the program for not mentioning the work of others who had earlier speculated or hypothesized a connection between Minoan Civilization, Atlantis, and tsunamis. It is very possible that they -did- acknowledge or reference them in their interviews. It may be that those references ended up on the “cutting room floor.” It just may be whomever did the EDITING that you should turn your ire upon, not the talent…in this case the academics.

I’m not a complete foreigner to the history. For whatever it’s worth, I was a History Major. I don’t recall ever hearing of the Minoans being cannibals. Doesn’t mean it ain’t so. I hope that they had at least one good source to support that. -IF- it is true, why shouldn’t they tell us about it? It helps to establish what sort of relationship Crete had with its Mycenaean neighbors. It’s not sensationalism…because, IF it is true, then it is sensational! And also terribly prosaic in historical context.

Ernest A. Kollitides, P.E., wrote:

“One finds oneself ill-at-ease with the overemphasis on the clearly exaggerated aspect of human sacrifice by such a sophisticated, highly civilized and artistic people.”

But I would ask, how do you exaggerate cannibalism? And why shouldn’t we feel ill-at-ease? The answer is that of course we should. That behavior offends most of our own values. But weren’t the Romans “…such sophisticated, highly civilized and artistic people?” Or how about the Aztecs? I think “yes” in both cases. However, they were also terribly savage people, at least some of them were, inflicting some of the worst kinds of cruelties on their victims…and for reasons I would consider deranged superstition or simply sadistic entertainment to sate their base and unkind appetites. But whether the Minoans engaged in cannibalism, or not, the ancient world of which they were a part was a world that did include such cruelties as slavery and human sacrifice. It does us no service to sweep such things under the rug. Look at it! Look at it! =)

So, that the “A-Tsunami-Ravaged-the-Minoan-Civilization-and-Led-to-the-Legend-of-Atlantis-Theory” is decades old is a problem for some. So does that mean that no new programs can be made about it? I think the case this episode makes for this being news today is the recent and devastating tsunami of 2004. Since then, there seems to be more interest in the phenomenon and contemorary scientists have ample opportunity to examine the effects of that tsunami. So the idea was that they would bring in just such a contemporary researcher to examine the evidence in the Aegean and who might help to shed light on the question.

So, hey, if there are a few factual errors in this episode, that’s not good. However, overall and apart from those, it’s a great episode and a very good series.

I am certainly no expert on these matters, but I have had a long interest in ancient history. I remember reading a book back in the 1970s about archeology work at Zagros on the southeastern coast of Crete. In it, the author did mention the Thera volcano and its possible contribution to the destruction of Zagros. He also mentioned that Zagros was not destroyed in a day, but over time, more like years. Of course, Thera would certainly have generated a tremendous earthquake initiating the destruction. An earthquake and the sight of a hugh ash cloud by day or a muted orange glow at night to the north should have alerted the citizens of Crete that something big was going to happen soon, so the tsunami should not have taken them by complete surprise.

If the program claims Linear A has been deciphered, then why didn’t the narrator read some of the tablets for us to let us know what was written to demonstrate? I, too, have never heard anything about Linear A being deciphered, only Linear B. And this is the first time I have ever heard Minoans being called cannibals. I don’t mind new ideas because that is what science is all about, but please be sure those ideas are correct or at least plausible.

I seem to remember a story about core samples being taken from around the Mediterranean Sea back in the 1960s and 1970s which helped to plot out the extent of the ash fallout from Thera. Much of it headed southeast towards Egypt. This program says it blew over the Black Sea. If the latter is correct, then there should be some mention of it in documents from the Anatolian region.

If the Theran eruption was as big as they claim, then I think the narrator should have described some of the collateral effects in other parts of the Mediterranean. For example, could the plagues of Egypt as described in the Bible have been caused by this eruption?

Doug,

The majority of Linear A tablets that they have are something like reading IRS tax returns: “Family X sent blank amount of crop/livestock at such and such time. Family Y sent blank amount of B at such and such time.” And so on. Most records we have from contemporaneous Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Arrata and the like are something similar. Other documents do exist, but this is obviously the easiest stuff to translate and also the easiest to identify similarities with other languages. (and this is indeed fairly recent and only partially complete

Also there have been tenuous connections to the Plagues to either volcanic eruptions (probably in the Rift Valley or the Sinai) or to an unidentified catastrophe in the Victoria Falls area that cause the annual floods to come a the wrong time, causing the biological problems from the “blood” water (probably an algae bloom similar to a red tide), which then kills off the frogs, leading to gnats and flies, etc. Most people favor the far Upper Nile disaster for the biological plagues and volcanic origins for the others. (Always assuming those plagues didn’t have more to do with polemics against Egyptian/Babylonian Gods than literal events.) This is especially true since the Exodus plague texts probably date from the BCE 710s or even after BCE 400. Of the Exodus stories the only texts that predate BCE 1000 are the poems called the Song of the Sea and the Song of Miriam. (”The Horse and Rider were thrown into the sea”). Possibly though improbably the section of ethical laws between Exodus 20 and before the creation of the Tabernacle may be nearly as old, but if so they probably date from 1000 or even down into the 900s (possibly law codes from the reigns of David and Solomon).

The main problem with Thera as a possibility is that it is too early by over a 1000 years. So no joy there. This would be like King Arthur (or the Welsh/ West Briton Tribal Chief who got transformed into King Arthur, c. 600) being contemporary with George Washington. (You only get away with that crazy a timeline in Xena Princess Warrior.)

Nicely done Fred, you succinctly described 90% of people in three words. I’ll add a fourth: denial. Many people deep down recognize the truth but can’t come to terms with it about themselves. Most of these women I’d say truly believe they like “nice guys” or define it far differently than we men do.

Never is the answer, except with dollars not worth the paper they are written on. A.B.

That’s only $20,000 per legitimate taxpayer; no problemo. We can worry about procrastination next year.

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Od dawna szuka?em artyku?u na temat Sinking Atlantis ~ Watch the Full Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS . Dzi?ki

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