History; Study or Forget?

Interesting article in the July/August Smithsonian concerning one man's obsession with developing a way to read ancient papyrus scrolls that heretofore have been unreadable due to their condition, or are destroyed in the attempt to read them.  Juxtaposed against this fascinating story is the report I recently read about a proposed change to the content of AP World History courses, a proposal that would only require the courses to cover world history from the year 1450; nothing previous to that time.

First, the Smithsonian article is about Brent Seales, an American scientist who has been experimenting with various levels of X-ray technologies combined with intricate algorithms to "read" ancient scrolls, especially those damaged in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which covered the area around Pompeii in 79 AD.  Specifically, these scrolls, discovered in what is thought to be the palatial home of Piso (father-in-law of Julius Caesar) in the resort town of Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, represent the only known intact library from the ancient world.  Unfortunately, due to the sheer magnitude of the explosion, they are no more than lumps of carbon, the layers fused together.  Over the centuries, various methods have been devised to "unfurl" the scrolls, but none remotely successful enough to apply to the majority of those that still exist.  The situation is not unlike discovering an artifact which appears to be non-terrestrial but with no way of opening it or deciphering its lettering.

Seales has been at it for more than a decade, battling setbacks related to the technology he is inventing, the curators who oversee the scrolls and guard them zealously despite the fact that they cannot read them, and government agencies who mix politics with history when making such decisions.  At this point, there is real optimism that Seales can apply his most recent technological mix of X-ray technology, laser beam bombardment and advanced mathematics, to actually decipher the scrolls providing an incredible amount of information to our knowledge of ancient history.

To me it is an important endeavor, yet perhaps seems a waste of time if we are to believe that understanding world history in high school should not delve any further than the 15th century.  Why such a contrast?

For some, it represents the need to provide an education for our young people that is practical.  Let academics worry about ancient history, let's focus on what makes sense for today.  Certainly, there is some merit to that thought as there is only so much time in a day of education, and hard choices must be made to make the best use of that time.  Unfortunately, there sometimes exists a bias in those hard choices.  Do we ignore ancient history because it reflects people that do not exist today, such as the Mayan or Aztec?  Do we skip those histories because they are not European in origin?  Or because they do not reflect a Judeo-Christian based religion?

Also, these kind of arguments are also used to justify the elimination of art and music classes, or studies of cultures which represent minority perspectives.  I often hear from people who express opinions against a class which emphasizes contributions to the history of America made by women or African Americans or Mexicans, yet are easily irritated when they hear of a college or university that is de-emphasizing a history which is important to them.  Doesn't understanding all sides of a story enhance our lives and create an environment where we become more tolerable of those that are different than us?  It saddens me that it seems so easy to stoke a populace to dehumanize people that come from a different country, have a darker skin color or worship a different version of god, yet so difficult to excite people about learning about cultures that differ from our own.  It makes me wonder if, when we are at last visited by an alien being, will we welcome her to learn about the universe or destroy her out of fear that such knowledge will challenge/threaten the foundation of our beliefs?

On occasion when I watch a Nat-Geo or Discover or History channel program about ancient Egyptians, it is striking to realize that so much knowledge about this time is lost or hard to uncover, not just because of the ravages of time, but because some generations purposefully destroyed information to eradicate the previous pharaoh or family or culture from history.  While we abhor the treatment of Nazi Germany of the people that they labelled sub-human, they at least spent a lot of energy to accumulate vast caches of art and historic treasures.  For money, probably, but at least they understood the importance, unlike stories of ISIS soldiers who wantonly destroy ancient sculptures and statues which do not reflect their fundamentalist version of religion.

Such hatred of people or perspectives different from their own is a black mark on all of us as it takes our own conscious or unconscious xenophobic tendencies and puts them into action.  On a slightly less insidious scale, it seems to shed a light on our current president's clear agenda in reversing everything created by the previous president.  In his case, I toggle between the ideas that he truly believes that only policies created by white people are worthwhile, and the utter egocentric nature of a man who truly believes that only he can solve all problems.  Alarmingly, President Trump takes it even further, right to the present minute, declaring what is real and what is fake news based on his own personal perspective, and what sheds good and bad light on his life.  Ugh!

It is too easy to say that those who refuse to understand history are doomed to repeat it.  It is a saying far too simple to apply to the larger cultural tendencies and even the very nature of our DNA which still provides us with the energy to fight or flight when under duress.  And, of course, history is generally only appreciated or embraced as we age; it is not a young person's game. 

But that makes it even more critical that our institutions support the study of mankind's history, even that which presents us with a different perspective, or information not to easy to swallow.  Nothing bad ever happened in America is a nice talking point for a right wing radio host, and might make a certain person of pale skin feel better about our slaughter of the indigenous culture or slavery or some men's obsession with controlling a women's right to choose, or the plight of a family which makes the most difficult decision possible to flee their war torn or violent country only to have their children separated from them because of an artificially created line in the ground, but perhaps a study of history might teach us otherwise.