Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506270026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yes, NBC.
The program is the first of a ten-part series, ``Time-Life's Lost Civilizations,'' which in succeeding weeks will journey back in time and space to ancient Mesopotamia, the Roman Empire, Africa, Tibet, the lost continent of Atlantis, if it ever existed, and other remote spots, all produced for NBC by Time-Life Television.
Imagine actually learning something worthwhile from a network entertainment program. It's practically unthinkable. But for adults and older kids, ``Lost Civilizations'' is thinkable indeed, and it promises fascinating facts and provocative speculation about cultures that have long since vanished.
The producers have done everything possible to keep up a brisk visual pace and not get bogged down in maps or lifeless drawings. The techniques include re-enactments by actors and impressive-looking computer animations. The host and narrator is a very serious Sam Waterston.
``Egypt: Quest for Immortality'' opens with an eerie dramatization: the corpse of Ramses the Great, that pharaoh-about-town, being prepared for burial, part of a 70-day embalming ceremony. He is wrapped up as a mummy and sealed up with goo. A few trinkets are also placed here and there on the body. You know - ankhs for the memory.
The program traces some of the milestone expeditions that uncovered artifacts and secrets of the Egyptian culture. When Napoleon came to Egypt as a would-be conqueror, he brought with him scientists and scholars who discovered the Rosetta stone, a hieroglyphic dictionary that made Egyptian writings decipherable at last.
About halfway into the hour, we get to the daunting subject of the Pyramids, giant monuments to protect the illustrious dead and triumphs of Egyptian engineering. Perhaps too much is made of all the ``plundering'' of ruins that has gone on over the years; if the tombs hadn't been violated, no one could see such treasures as those that this program itself puts on prominent display.
Things clearly got out of hand, though, in the 19th century when desecrated, desiccated mummies were ground into pounded mummy dust and distributed to rich people as good-luck charms and cure-alls.
Atlantis is the subject of the second program in the series, on July 2. Then on July 9 comes ``Maya: The Blood of Kings,'' an investigation of the Mayan culture of Central America that lasted from roughly 250 to 900 A.D.
In the 1950s, archaeologist Eric Thompson, exploring ruins, pronounced the Mayans to have been ``a peaceful people who worshipped time.'' But later evidence revealed they also had a fondness for torture, decapitations, bloodletting rituals, disembowelment, and a soccer-like game that ended with the losing team being sacrificed to the gods.
The Mayans also developed their own alphabet, a system of mathematics closely tied to astronomy, and a calendar. No one seems to know why the civilization crumbled. One day, it appears, the Mayans just lost interest and wandered away from their magnificent city and into the woods.
Contemplating the fate of the Mayans, says archaeologist Arthur Demarest, makes one mindful of ``the fragility of civilization.'' Implicit in the series is the discomforting notion that ours may some day be a ``lost civilization'' too. In fact, the Mayans, who liked to be precise about temporal matters, came up with a day on which the whole wide world is supposed to end: Dec. 23, 2012.
At the outset, Waterston says, ``We hope this series will be a journey unlike any you have ever taken.'' It's a hope that seems likely to come true. People who like to curl up with a good book will find that you can curl up with a good television program, too.
by CNB