Joe McCarthy was bluffing when he waved around a list of Communist spies. He never had a list, but it turns out the Soviets did -- there was a long list of Americans on Moscow's payroll. So, was McCarthy right about the Communist Menace? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, rethinking the Red Scare.
Egyptologist Kent Weeks of the American University in Cairo, tells Steve Paulson about his discovery of KV5 — believed to be the tomb of the 50 sons of Ramses II. It's the biggest archaeological find of the decade. Weeks' book about it is called "The Lost Tomb." Also, anthropologist Mark Kenoyer is the author of "Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization." He tells Judith Strasser that the civilization he studies is unknown to tourists but had the most sophisticated cities in the ancient world, a written language we still can't read and no artifacts of war.SEGMENT 2:
Adrienne Mayor tells Judith Strasser about tattooing in the ancient world. The Greeks and Romans did a lot of it, but not on their own bodies. Tattoos were meant to punish and humiliate slaves. Adrienne Mayor is a classical folklorist. Her article about ancient tattoos appears in the March, 1999 issue of Archaeology Magazine. Also, Victor Davis Hanson says classicists are killing the classics. He tells Steve Paulson that Thucydides and Homer have a lot to say to today's gang members, and describes what an updated classics text should look like.SEGMENT 3:
Film maker Michael Wood traced the march of Alexander the Great through seventeen countries for a PBS mini-series whose companion book is "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great." Wood tells Jim Fleming that Alexander is still a legend in the Muslim world, that he could be generous or sadistically cruel, and that no one knows for sure how he died.Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 98-11-08-B.
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