Wrapping It Up

As we say Goodbye

History is beautiful. We can learn much from our past—the good, the bad, the ugly—and marvel at how we evolved. Pursuing the truth by painstakingly analyzing all available evidence and piecing together the picture of the ancient world is what thousands of professionals strive to do. It’s difficult because much of that history is lost, buried beneath modern cities, inside mounds, under overgrowth, in decay and destruction, and in many cases, simply not recorded by ancient people.

What we can do is support, encourage, and pursue that truth, and not fall for three-second sensational sound bites that exploit our sense of curiosity and label what we don’t understand as things we could never have done.

The world is full of wonders, even in its natural form, and we don’t need to manufacture stories to prove someone is greater, older, more magnificent, more exotic, or more alien. In that pursuit, I also believe we should remain open-minded to surprises. Perhaps something we dismissed will turn out to be true. Healthy skepticism is good, but any hypothesis should stand against rigorous debate, study, and analysis. If new evidence emerges, we should add that evidence, revise our understanding, and move on to learning new things.

One comment on the notion of a mysterious, never-found “lost civilization” that apparently existed 12,000 years ago and bequeathed its knowledge to all the uncultured hunter-gatherers around the world, helping seed those civilizations: It truly discredits all those ancient people across this amazing world whose ingenuity brought us various advancements, which evolved over centuries upon centuries, on the backs of thousands upon thousands of the dead, and pretends as if they lacked the intelligence to do what they did. Instead of trying to find some mythical civilization, perhaps we could do better by filling gaps in our understanding through rigorous, science-led research to learn more.

Want to enjoy ancient worlds with a does of thrills?

Now, if you love good fiction that takes history and wraps it up in a tale, you can check out my novels, which are set in many of the worlds in this book. You can find them all on https://jaypenner.com.

The Whispers of Atlantis anthology explores the worlds of Alexander, Ahmose, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the Sumerians, the Persians, and Chandragupta Maurya.

The Cleopatra, Last Pharaoh series takes you to Cleopatra’s world, from her ascent to her end.

The Spartacus series immerses you in the astonishing slave rebellion under the Thracian gladiator.

The Dark Shadows series is set in the near-future modern world and mixes the present with the ancient.

Each book mixes history with a good story, and I always include a comprehensive notes section at the end of the book that sheds more light on the reality.

Thank you once again for reading, and may your interest grow and nurture the trees of fact-finding.

To buy this in book format: here | For sources and acknowledgments see here.