A few weeks ago I expressed skepticism at the idea that the Mycenaean/Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age Aegean had much to do with Classical Greece. First, I should admit that I am a big admirer of David Gress' From Plato to Nato, which argues that the West is a synthesis of 3,000 years of history, starting with Classical Greece, filtered through pagan Rome, reshaped by Christianity and crystallized in the Middle Ages under the influence of Germanic barbarians. Gress argues that modern American historiography was reworked by Will Durant & other 20th century liberal intellectuals to emphasize the heritage of Classical Greece, especially democratic Athens, consciously neglecting the Roman, Germanic and especially Christian elements of the Western synthesis.

And yet, without Classical Greece, there would be no Rome (as we know it), no Christianity (as we know it), ergo, none of the pomp and pageantry of the medieval period. But where did Classical Greece come from? I concede that genetically, linguistically and in to a large extent culturally the Achaeans of Perseus were the Hellenes of Pericles. But, if you read books like Victor Davis Hanson's The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, you get the feeling that the culture of Greece in that period was something new, something special. While the Athens of the 5th century was recognizable, the people who produced The Death Mask of Agamemnon seem to be fundamentally alien, other.

Of course, this was not just the period when "The West" was being born. Thousands of miles to the east, Indian religion was being transformed from Vedic Aryan polytheism into Puranic Hinduism & Buddhism, and Confucius and his disciples were laying the groundwork for the basis of Chinese culture as we know it. One could argue that this period, the so called Axial Age (~600), should be the true turning point for any "Common Era" for humankind.