“How far should we go?” asked Editor-at-Large Hershel Shanks in the November/December 2003 issue of Archaeology Odyssey.
Ever since our first issue in the winter of 1998, we have limited our coverage to the Mediterranean region and Near East, which means that we have focused on the great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome.
We do indeed venture into territories occupied by less-well-known peoples, such as the Garamantes (who lived in the Sahara Desert of present-day southern Libya), the Sabaeans (the west coast of the Arabian peninsula), the Nubians (southern Egypt and northern Sudan), the Ammonites (west-central Jordan), the Hittites (Anatolia), the Thracians (northern Greece, western Turkey and Bulgaria), the Phoenicians (the Levant and Carthage) and the Etruscans (Italy), among others. And we also sometimes find ourselves in foreign parts, having trailed Alexander the Great into India or Julius Caesar into England.
But our principal mission, as we have seen it, has been to follow the powerful mainstream—the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks and Romans, because of their spirituality, inventiveness, intellect and practical energy. In doing so, we explore some of the most important tributaries of Western civilization.
Should we go farther? Should we cross the Alps and proceed into Europe? Should we sojourn in Central Asia, India, Indochina and China? Should we colonize the Americas? “How far should we go?”
We received hundreds of letters in response to Hershel Shanks’s question. These letters were clear and concise, giving straightforward, unequivocal answers to the question. The problem, however, was that the answer was not the same in each case. Curiously, almost exactly a third of the letter-writers told us to keep doing just what we were doing. Another third told to sail boldly out into the entire world and cover the Americas as well. The final third told us to keep to the mainstream but to give extended coverage to peoples in contact with the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks and Romans.
So we have decided to heed your advice. We will stay on the course we have set, exploring the origins of Western civilization, while looking for connections between our world and the rest of the world. One article in the works, for example, discusses the influence of ancient Greek sculpture on some of the most famous and earliest monumental carvings in India: the stone pillars laid by King Ashoka in the third century B.C. Another article (which we have already titled “How Bad Was Tamerlane?”) discusses the 14th-century conqueror’s invasion of Turkey, Syria and Egypt.
And we are also introducing a new department, called Horizons. As befitting the name, Horizons will present important archaeological sites from around the world. Our inaugural site is a soul-stirring Buddhist temple in central Java, one of the principal islands making up Indonesia. Having lived for several years in Indonesia, I often visited the Borobudur Temple, which is the largest Buddhist monument in the world. If you arrive early, in the cool of the morning mist, as the clouds are lifting off the cone-shaped volcanic mountains in the distance, this temple seems like the still center of a restlessly moving and changing world.
Finally, to spruce things up, we are redesigning the cover of the magazine, though not for this issue. It’s not that we don’t like the old one, with the word “Archaeology” largely concealed by the bold “Odyssey.” We just feel that every now and then you have to change clothes, and now is the time.
“How far should we go?” asked Editor-at-Large Hershel Shanks in the November/December 2003 issue of Archaeology Odyssey.
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