[CONAN] Beautiful landscape dotted with bits of Acheron

[Supplement Four]

Just finished watching the new Conan movie on DVD. Many people trash this movie, but I stand by my original review. It's not what I'd call a GREAT, or even memorable, film, but it is a summer action pop-corn movie. In other words, "It ain't as bad as many make it out to be." I think it holds its own up against the Clash of the Titans remake. They're both "fun" and that's about it. Lord of the Rings or Casino Royale, they ain't.

One thing I do love about the new film is the CGI effects. All those ruins dotting the landscape. Everywhere except for Cimmeria seems to be dotted with a stone ruin from Acheron about every 50 feet. The Hyborian Age seems to composed of civilization that grew on the rubble of what came before without spending a lot of effort building new structures. Even Hyrkania, at the end of the film, has bits of ruins here and there.

I use to wonder if the Commoner knew much about ancient Acheron. I was thinking that the kindom thrived so long ago that only Scholars, Sorcerors, and maybe learned Nobles would know much about the ancient civilizations--Atlantis included. But, if the landscape is indeed that wrecked with ruins, it is no wonder that even the lowliest shepherd boy know at least the basics about the people who remind him of their past existence every day has he tends his flock.

What do you think? Do you picture the Hyborian Age, especially the central part of the populated continent, to be a thick with the Acheronian ruins as what was depicted in the film?

 

[LucaCherstich]

I tell you something.
The whole REAL WORLD is filled with ruins of past civilizations without anybody ever noticing them or trying the explain whom they belong to.
I'm sure the same could have happened in the Hyborian Age with the ruins of Acheron or with the even earlier pre-cataclismyc ruins.
Maybe it's odd for you or other Americans, but people in Europe, Asia or Africa have always lived among the stratified ruins of so many ages that very few people notice them anymore or identify them as "exotic" or "ancient" if not the educated people.
I'm sure you can see the same in some of the oldest part of American East Coast with 18th- century wooden houses nearby 20th-century concrete buildings.

I earn a living as an archaeologist and I've been working for the past 2 years in Penne, a small town here in Central Italy, which started as a pre-Roman settlement, was a Roman Municipium, a Medieval town and it is still pretty alive today.

In a less than 50x30 m area we found:
- a late 19th century building
- a medieval and post-medieval (15th century) sewers filled with Aragonese pottery.
- a tract of the Medieval city walls re-used today still as modern houses
- a large 2nd century BC monumental tomb (c.3x3x3m) built in bricks.
- a big 3rd century BC kiln
- a 4th centudy BC burial under a medieval tower
- Poor remains of a 10th century BC hut.

Do you really think the people born and living in Penne EVER realized how ancient and stratified was the area where they live?
Absolutely NOT!

Make a tour in any European or North African country and you'll notice that even monumental archaeology can go unnoticed if you are born there and used to see the stuff everyday.

 

[Nyarlathotep5150]

I agree. And think about the people living in British isles during the dark ages. The land is dotted with Roman ruins (which are still there, and would have been even more obvious a thousand years ago). The Anglo-Saxon populace would be living among these forts, walls and roads that they lacked the technology to build. A percentage of the populace might be aware that they were built by the Romans, but only the oldest/most learned would have the slightest conception of what that meant beyond the word.
The old world is dotted with the reminders of the people who came before, but most of the people that see them are unaware of what they mean. Here in the states we mostly miss out on that, because, aside from central America, the people who where here before us weren't really "builders" (save for the occasional, alleged Viking settlement on the Eastcoast).

 

[Supplement Four]

From one of my favorite pastiche short stories, the Bloodstained God: Midafternoon found them following the trace of the ancient, forgotten road.