Teaching Ancient History through Controversy

"The Black Athena controversy provides a useful introduction to the central problems of ancient history and indeed all of history. Unquestionably, the controversy has given us a chance to show why many complex and technical issues are in fact interesting and indeed accessible to non-specialists. One particularly profitable approach is to ask students to verify references, and to describe how source material is used. That way they can begin to see for themselves how historical narratives are constructed and documented.