What ancient civilisation would you like to live in?

[Johnny Canuck3]

For me: a member of the Taira clan during feudal Japan.

 

[agricola]

For me: a member of the Taira clan during feudal Japan.

you have something against the monks of Mount Hiei?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

you have something against the monks of Mount Hiei?

I don't want to be a freaking monk.

 

[camouflage]

They look happy enough to me.

Untill they get tooth-ache, or have a difficult birth or a problem with their employer and want more rights or something.

Anyway, by this image:

One could imagine life in Stalinist Sovjet Russia was really lovely and nice.

 

[d.a.s.h]

Foreigner: The Cretan priesthood was entirely female, descent was matrilineal, and women appear to have taken part in many occupations and trades.

Even their style of dress allowed their breasts freedom and natural openness to the Mediterranean sea-breeze:

 

[kyser_soze]

None of them. Theistic, superstitious, high mortality rates for everyone, low literacy levels, shite transport.

I *love* living in the time I do, and have no hankerings to live in previous eras.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Foreigner: The Cretan priesthood was entirely female, descent was matrilineal, and women appear to have taken part in many occupations and trades.

In Stalin's Russia, everyone was equal and free in a Socialist paradise, joyfully pulling together to create a better tomorrow.

 

[d.a.s.h]

Minoan Crete still looks better than a lot of other ancient civilisations. Consider Ancient Egypt, they seem to have been obsessed with death. Reportedly if the embalmers got hold of a particularly fresh and 'attractive' corpse, they'd give it one. You don't read of the Cretans doing stuff like that.

 

[d.a.s.h]

In Stalin's Russia, everyone was equal and free in a Socialist paradise, joyfully pulling together to create a better tomorrow.

That is a bit sarky and it's a crap comparison as well. Do you really reckon that the Minoans painted priestesses and women jumping over bulls just to make out to everyone else in the Mediterranean how right-on they were?

 

[8ball]

Reportedly if the embalmers got hold of a particularly fresh and 'attractive' corpse, they'd give it one.

I thought this happened everywhere.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

You don't read of the Cretans doing stuff like that.

Maybe the Cretan embalmers were just smart enough not to write it down, what they were doing; or would that be 'chisel it in stone'?

 

[d.a.s.h]

They were blatant about it, that's what's unusual. People might blag pens and staplers from work, but they don't go bragging about it on the train home from work: "That's nothing mate, look what I nicked today" etc.

 

[rogue_lettuce]

Am I allowed to change my answer now?

 

[d.a.s.h]

Am I allowed to change my answer now?

You are indeed.

So are you, littlebabyjesus. Just mind to look the women in the eye when you're talking to them and don't go round making 'phwoar' noises like Kenneth Connor in the Carry On films - don't want you lowering the tone of the place.

 

[girasol]

The Aztecs were'nt really ancient but aside from that they weren't really... very nice.

But they made amazing things! You saying they weren't nice because of the human sacrifice thing? Honestly, that wouldn't stop my quest to visit all ancient (or not so ancient) civilisations. Is there such a thing as the perfect ancient civilisation? I doubt it, they all did abominable things but also amazing things (not much has changed then hey ? )

 

[Belushi]

But they made amazing things! You saying they weren't nice because of the human sacrifice thing? Honestly, that wouldn't stop my quest to visit all ancient (or not so ancient) civilisations. Is there such a thing as the perfect ancient civilisation? I doubt it, they all did abominable things but also amazing things (not much has changed then hey ? )

Innit, they'd probably be shocked by the sheer numbers killed in modern warfare for example.

 

[DotCommunist]

I think it went a bit beyond simple human sacrifice. Weren't they all massive blood cultists who played a form of footie with human heads?


actually that sounds awesome.

 

[girasol]

this is one of the reasons I am fascinated by the Aztecs, this image and the story behind it:

According to myth, Huitzilopochtli directed the wanderers to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle devouring a snake perched on a fruit-bearing nopal cactus. (It was said that Huitzilopochtli killed his nephew, Cópil, and threw his heart on the lake. Huitzilopochtli honoured Cópil by causing a cactus to grow over Cópil's heart.) Legend has it that this is the site on which the Mexicas built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of Arms of Mexico.

Hearing all this as a young child probably made a big impression on me too. Seeing the ruins from their period was also quite something!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think it went a bit beyond simple human sacrifice. Weren't they all massive blood cultists who played a form of footie with human heads?


actually that sounds awesome.

Among other things, priests would dress up in the flayed skin of sacrificial victims. They would wage war and sacrifice the prisoners of war. They were empire builders who demanded tribute.

But by the standards of contemporary Europe, Aztec society was comparatively egalitarian. There wasn't such an enormous gap between rich and poor, nobody went hungry, and everyday existence was peaceful enough.

 

[Belushi]

Among other things, priests would dress up in the flayed skin of sacrificial victims. They would wage war and sacrifice the prisoners of war. They were empire builders who demanded tribute.

But by the standards of contemporary Europe, Aztec society was comparatively egalitarian. There wasn't such an enormous gap between rich and poor, nobody went hungry, and everyday existence was peaceful enough.

Werent they loathed by the tribes they ruled? The stories about Cortes and his tiny band of Conquistadores conquering the Empire forget about the tens of thousands of native allies he had iirc.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Werent they loathed by the tribes they ruled? The stories about Cortes and his tiny band of Conquistadores conquering the Empire forget about the tens of thousands of native allies he had iirc.

Aren't all empires loathed. Go to Kenya in the 1940s, for instance, and ask what most people really thought about their British overlords.

 

[ringo]

Iron Age Britain just before the Romans arrived.
Medieval London.
Ancient Greece.
First agriculture in the fertile crescent.
Southern France around 30,000 years BC when neanderthals died out and homo sapiens survived.

 

[DotCommunist]

Iron Age Britain just before the Romans arrived.
Medieval London.
Ancient Greece.
First agriculture in the fertile crescent.
Southern France around 30,000 years BC when neanderthals died out and homo sapiens survived.

really? with plague and fires galore?

 

[camouflage]

Foreigner: The Cretan priesthood was entirely female, descent was matrilineal, and women appear to have taken part in many occupations and trades.

Even their style of dress allowed their breasts freedom and natural openness to the Mediterranean sea-breeze:

Woah, their society was light-years ahead of our own, light-years ahead...

 

[camouflage]

But they made amazing things! You saying they weren't nice because of the human sacrifice thing? Honestly, that wouldn't stop my quest to visit all ancient (or not so ancient) civilisations. Is there such a thing as the perfect ancient civilisation? I doubt it, they all did abominable things but also amazing things (not much has changed then hey ? )

Yeah... I guess I'm biased, I've alwasy considered the aztecs and the nazi's to be the two societies I know of pretty much entirely devoted to death on an industrial scale.

An ideology that requires the destruction and enslavement of all non Germans, and an ideology that requires that hundreds or thousands of people a day must be made to see their own beating heart to keep the sun alive.

Gosh.

They did make some nice pottery though, the aztecs I mean. The nazis just made kinky-boots.

 

[d.a.s.h]

Foreigner: No-one's ever said the Minoans were like the skinny fuckers who came out of the spaceship in Close Encounters.

But they probably ate better than most people in Britain today.

And the position of women looks like it was better than that of a number of societies around now.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Am I allowed to change my answer now?

I always thought these were dumb outfits. Why be all cinched up in clothes like that, but leave the boobs out? Wouldn't those corset affairs be pretty hot in Crete?

Did the grannies wear the same outfit?

 

[qoidjgf]

i'd like to experience ancient egypt.
and ancient china, though it wouldn't be a good idea for a woman.
and perhaps the mythical atlantis too.

 

[DotCommunist]

I think the question on everyone's mind is 'what is that cool-looking boardgame those gals are playing and is anyone up for a game if I can source it?'

 

[sleaterkinney]

this is one of the reasons I am fascinated by the Aztecs, this image and the story behind it:

Hearing all this as a young child probably made a big impression on me too. Seeing the ruins from their period was also quite something!

When I was in Mexico I saw an eagle fly off with a snake like that.

You do know blood sacrifice was a big part of their culture, don't you?. They used to have this sacrifice where they impaled themselves on a cactus.

I'd live in ancient rome, it would have been fascinating to watch that early civilisation growing.