Martin Bernal
Martin Bernal is a scholar of modern Chinese political history who claims classical civilization in Ancient Greece actually stems from Afroasiatic and Semitic cultures, not just from Europe. He calls this the Revised Ancient Model, based on Classical historians' recognition of an Egyptian and Phoenician cultural heritage. This model contrasts with the Aryan Model, which posits Indo-European speakers from the north and indigenous Greeks as the main cultural source of Classical Greece.
The Revised Ancient Model, he argues, has roots in the classical civilization he studies, while the Aryan Model stems from racism developing in the late 18th and 19th centuries. His theories are contested by some classical scholars, including Mary Lefkowitz of Wellesley College, a prominent critic. He has claimed that this resistance supports his position on the historiography of Classics.
Martin Bernal, who was never trained in the classics, is Professor Emeritus of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Cornell University but is said to have retired from teaching in 2001. He also taught Government Studies at Cornell. He is author of the three volume series, Black Athena, as well as the book Cadmean Letters, devoted to the origins of the Greek Alphabet. His earlier work focuses on China.
He is the son of J. D. Bernal and Margaret Gardiner, the daughter of noted Egyptologist Alan Gardiner.
Works
The details of the revised three-volume Black Athena series are as follows:
- Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985, Bernal, Martin
- Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume II: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence, Bernal, Martin
- Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence, Bernal, Martin (pub. 2006)
References
Other books related to the controversy are:
- Black Athena Revisited by Mary R. Lefkowitz
- Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals by Jacques Berlinerblau
- Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics by Martin Bernal, David Chioni Moore (Editor)
- Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology by Cheikh Anta Diop
- Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Belknap Press) by Frank M. Snowden