The village, which they dub 'Mantle', contains 90 longhouses surrounded by a high, defensive three-row wooden wall, or "palisade" that required the Hurons to cut down 60,000 trees - using only stone axes! Beyond the walls the Huron cultivated 80 square kilometers of cornfields (larger than present-day Metropolitan Toronto) - enough to feed its thousands of inhabitants.īut the revelations – and the mysteries - do not end with the village itself. A team of world-renowned archaeologists has unearthed the largest and most complex Huron First Nations village ever found.
In relaying its disturbing yet illuminating account, the program utilizes such elements as rare archival footage, incisive analysis from historians and psychologists, and much more.Ĭurse of the Axe tells the story of a recent archaeological discovery that will fundamentally change viewers' understanding of North American life before the arrival of the Europeans. This documentary special from The History Channel draws these and other parallels between the two men in an attempt to ascertain what emotional, psychological, psychosocial and mental factors could prompt an individual to lead a nation to ruin and commit mass genocide - the Great Purge in Stalin's case, the Final Solution in Hitler's.
But the similarities run deeper than some might initially realize: both men grew up with abusive, domineering fathers and overprotective mothers both shunned their backgrounds and expressed disdain over their physical appearances and both rose to power with an iron fist at exactly the same moment in history. Historically speaking, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Hitler and Stalin forged an alliance: the totalitarian demagogues stood on very similar footing as paragons of all that is base and evil when ruling their respective Germany and U.S.S.R.