Isms that don't receive attention - the protochronism movement

From The Colossal Head of Decebalus, King of the Dacians by DHWTY.

The broad outlines of this, I knew.

In the heart of Rome stands a 38m tall column built in the 2 nd century A.D. Carved in low relief spiralling around the monument are over 2600 figures, representing the combatants of wars fought in a distant land. The column is known as Trajan’s Column, and its subject is the Dacian Wars. One of the most important figures on the column is Decebalus, the leader of the Dacians, otherwise known as King Decebal. In one scene, he is shown committing suicide after being defeated by the Romans, preferring death over subjugation. Decebalus’ defeat and suicide marked the end of the Second Dacian War, and the absorption of Dacia into the Roman Empire.

But this I did not know.

The spirit of Decebalus, however, did not die, and has been revived in recent years in Romania, which was once part of the Dacian Kingdom. This is most ostentatiously seen, perhaps, in the colossal rock sculpture of Decebalus’ head.

The project of sculpting the colossal head of Decebalus was the brainchild of a wealthy Romanian businessman, Iosif Constantin Drăgan. In 1985, Drăgan chose the rock to be sculpted, an outcrop 128m in height located in the area of Iron Gorge. Perhaps one of the reasons Drăgan chose this site was due to the fact that the Tabula Traiana, a memorial to the Roman conquest of Dacia, was located on the opposite side of the river.

[snip]

The sculpture of Decebalus’ head is not merely a work of art by an ambitious businessman. There was another reason for Drăgan to commission this piece of work. Drăgan was an ardent proponent of the protochronism movement, a nationalistic ideology which viewed Romania as the cradle of civilization. Advocates of the protochronism movement believe that from Romania, civilization “reached as far as the Sumerian Lands, Egypt, Turkey and Greece, to the North it reached Scandinavia and to the west moved as far as the ancient regions of Germany and Britannia.” Thus, Decebalus is portrayed as a national hero and whose ancestors were the initiators of human civilisation. Naturally, supporters of the protochronism movement belief that present day Romanians are heir to this great legacy.

I can't say why this appeals to me but really . . . .

Click to enlarge (if you dare)

Even better.

Click to enlarge.