Slowly proofs are coming to light that validate Herodotus as a skillful observer of his time.
Sunken Civ check this out. A well preserved ship matches Herodotus observations of peculiar Egyptian shipbuilding.
I suspect most ancient tales are more or less true.
For a long time most historians did not believe that Troy was a real place.
Pretty cool, but I am not sure how unusual this type of construction was or how different it was from, say Roman or Greek ships of the time. I am no engineer, but I do know that the nature of wood is you have to cut it into into strips of various lengths, widths and thicknesses to build with it. To make those strips into a boat, you have to fasten the strips together, arranged into a symmetrical hull with a center beam.
So is it the papyrus layers that is unique, water repellent?
Herodotus placed Xerxes army at a million. Modern historians say it might have been as few as 35,000.
I suppose a million might be an exaggeration but the Persian Empire probably did have a massive army.
“Shipwrecks and Archeology” and “The Sea Remembers”, Throckmorton, Peter. I hope my late friend is looking down and smiling.
Herodotus also said that Egyptian history was over 20,000 years old in his time.
It is just like with the Bible, Josephus, et cetera:
Do not trust the people who lived then, or shortly thereafter; oh no, only trust academics two thousand - or more - years removed.
It was once fashionable to categorically denounce the historicity of the Bible because the Hittite Empire was clearly mythical.
Then they found Hattushah, its capital... so they just moved on to the Next Big Reason to denounce the historicity of the Bible.
Academics are typically disingenuous anti-Christian snobs.
Riiiight....what’s a cubit? Bill Cosby, 1965.
Love Herodotus!
People haven’t changed in the 2600 years since. (some change from Jesus).
The crazy things people will believe...
the sunken port city of Thonis-Heracleion ...
I wonder what kind of SUV’s they were driving...