Nathan Light on the Mental Prison of Modern Myths

Myths of all cultures, including our own, reflect people's deep desire to marvel at the feats of a few heroic ancestors who lived in a far simpler world. Modern myths see prehistory as sharply divided in time and space, stages of evolution (Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, hunting and gathering, nomadism, agriculture), and races and continents (Asia, Africa, Europe). Such myths help us reduce the immense complexity of the past to manageable, if less than fully accurate, units. However they can become mental prisons when we do not recognize them for the simplifications that they are.

Nathan Light. 1999. Tabloid archaeology: Is television trivializing science? Discovering Archaeology March/April 1999, p. 98.