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Introduction
In CNN's MILLENNIUM, the Century of the Axe was an age of ambitious building, as
world populations beeomed and cities thrived. Filmmakers chose the axe as a fitting
symbol for the twelfth century because people used it to clear the land for food and
housing, thereby transforming and remodeling the world. Some builders created
monuments to their gods. Other individuals chose not to build but insead worshipped
the land that gave them sustenance.
According to MILLENNIUM's filmmakers, the twelfth century was most
conspicuously
the century of the axe in Western Europe, but other parts of the globe displayed
innovative building and creativity. In Western Europe, life and building rebounded
after centuries of stagnation under feudalism. In France, ever more elaborate
churches were constructed; in Italy, a frenzy of city-state building reflected
growing competition between independent city-states over trade and wealth. In other
quite distant parts of the world, building of other types took place. In Ethiopia,
Christian temples were carved out of mountains and the Chaco Canyon in the Americas,
the Ancient Pueblo people built complex, urban-like structures on canyon floors. And
for the twelfth century hunter-and-gatherer culture of the Aborigines in Australia,
the axe is symbolic of artistic creativity and control over the environment.
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© 1999 Turner Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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