Bronze Age is more an indicator of technology rather than a chronological marker. Some cultures skipped it completely going directly to the Iron Age.

In the ancient near east smelting copper dates from 3800 B.C. in Iran. There were Bronze implements found in Ur 2800 B.C.

2500 B.C. Indus Valley

1600-1027 B.C. in China

1800 B.C. Europe

2500-1200 B.C. Aegean

My personal feeling viewing the terrain and inhabitants of the episodes makes me put this in the Aegean (2500-1200 B. C) If Methos is approximately 5,000 (that he can remember as an immortal) he "died" around 3,000 B.C. Kronos and the rest are younger but by how much we don't know. Cassandra never gives her age. I always thought it was really late bronze for Aegean...say the 1500-1200 B.C.

And the raiding fits, as nations stretched their boundaries either through trade or war in order to find supplies of raw materials for smelting.

I'm sure many immortals start to round off dates after a few centuries. The older you get, the more you approximate. If it were 1500-1200 b.c. Kronos would very well say 3,000 years ago rather than, for example, 2,789 or 3,243 years ago. And I'm thinking Aegean, Turkey, middle east because you see Africans and Caucasians in Cassandra's village.

The filming actually took place in Cap Ferret outside Bordeaux, France.

Donna and Gillian went back to analyze the allegorical tie-in to the horsemen, even though there was originally no intention of one when the episode was written, this being forced upon them by the many questions regarding Methos' "I was *death*" speech in which Peter Wingfield gave a most stirring performance. They didn't write either episode and are going back after that fact. And rather cursory, if the answers they came up with (which can be found in Donna's interview in "Highlander: The Complete Watcher's Guide" by Maureen Russell) are any indication. They say Methos is death and Kronos is pestilence, Silas being War and Caspian famine. I disagree, in part. And I can offer the following to back up my views.

Regarding the Four Horseman and Who's Who in the Allegory

Starting with the book of Revelations Ch. 6 excerpts:

6:2. "And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." (This could be really interesting given Donna Lettow's information that Methos is involved in the Hyksos rebellion in Egypt c.1650 b.c. according to her Highlander novel.)

6:4. "And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, and so men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword."

6:5. "And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand."

6: 8 "And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword (Methos) and with famine (Caspian) and with pestilence (Kronos) and by wild beasts of the earth (Silas)."

(Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, translated from the original tongues compared with the most ancient version.

Pestilence was never one of the four horsemen but rather one of the tools given to the four. If you wish to assign each tool to a horsemen then Methos would get the sword, Caspian would have famine, Kronos would get pestilence and Silas the wild beasts of the earth.

From Grolier's Encyclopedia with additional comments:

In the New Testament, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the allegorical figures of the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation (sometimes called the Apocalypse). Riding a white, a red, a black and a pale horse the horsemen are generally understood to symbolize power or conquest (white horse- the one Methos was riding "You live to serve me" The brains of the outfit. And rapist?), violence or war (red horse- sounds like Silas "I like to feel my axe in my hand") poverty or famine (black horse-Caspian "What kind of wine goes with rodent; red or white?") and death (pale horse [palomino]- Kronos "It's what I do best" "We were death on horseback" and holding a scythe "I do love the old ways best") The rider on the white horse is sometimes interpreted as representing Jesus Christ. (Notice Methos was dressed in white while the rest were in black. I could go on. Like the wires on the bomb were white, red and black all serving "death". Methos, Silas and Caspian were all subservient to Kronos and recognized him as leader or "alpha male")

In the Euros Cassandra tells Joe and Duncan in the bar that she's been hunting "Death". But she's been hunting Kronos. She hasn't even seen Methos at this point.

Then there's Kronos asking Methos doesn't he miss it? Methos replies what, the killing? And Kronos says, no... the power. Because he knows that's what turned Methos on. Methos told Cassandra *he* killed her but we know it was Kronos. He told her she's alive because *he* wished it, but we know it's because she's immortal. He was into the power. He told her she lived to serve him. Control, power....conqueror. It's his drug. Who's "Death"? Who said "It's what *I* do best", "Methos never liked the thought of killing you, but I do."?

Just because Methos made that impassioned speech about being "death" doesn't mean it's so. He lies when it suits his purpose. The entire scene in the Dojo with Mac Leod when Cassandra shows up he's lieing...."Who is she, MacLeod?" "You don't know me." In "Finale" when Methos was going to go to the newspaper publisher to head off Christina revealing the secret of the immortals to the world with the watcher CD, Joe asks Methos if he was going to tell the truth. Methos tells him "Why would I do that?" In Rev. 6: 8 Cassandra tells MacLeod he's a liar. And Kronos, who knows Methos better than anyone replies to Methos' "Why would I lie?" with "Have you ever done anything else?"

As Donna says about Methos in "The Messenger":

>>Was Methos the victim, the inquisitor, or maybe the scribe who was supposed to write down the anticipated confession? 

Maybe, maybe, maybe, or maybe he just made the whole thing up. That's the thing about Methos -- you can never tell. Just because he says something, there's no reason to believe any of it's true. It's one of the first things we learned about him -- "Why would I tell the truth?"

Donna

Lieing is a survival tool . Methos is a survivor. Even Kronos says it's what Methos does best.

Of course, the writers never had any of this in mind. The horses were a matter of chance. Valentine Pelka didn't like his horse...made him look inept....so the palomino he was riding originally belonged to the trainer. Marcus Testory ended up with Valentine's horse (Ferrari) and the ensuing problems. The writer's never gave the 'death' aspect of Methos' speech the power Peter put into it. The reference was no more than that *all* the horsemen were death. Kronos says it. *We* were death on horseback.

And of course the virus was a last minute substitution. It was originally supposed to be a large phallic-symbol missile with a nuclear warhead. Adrian made a last minute change. I think prompted by the entire Rev. 6:8 verse with the reference to pestilence (or disease) and wild beasts.

According to Donna Lettow, the horsemen united sometime after 1650 b.c. and before the Cassandra incident, which occurred towards the beginning of their thousand years together, rather than being the cause of the breakup. (Thank you Donna. Nice to see I guessed right.) Of course I'd like to see them broken up between Alexander the Great and the death of Christ. Who she thinks the priests are that imprison Kronos I don't know. I think they're Hebrew priests. We'll see if I guess right on that as well. If they're Zoroastrian, I'll gag.

And bringing us back to the Highlander universe:

The book of Revelations wouldn't have been written until almost a millennia after our "Horsemen" rode. One could speculate that the writer combined a personal agenda with tales of four riders handed down word of mouth through the generations. And the allegorical representations from the original horsemen could very well have changed not only over the millennia since the first horsemen road, but through the many translations as well. Maybe even Methos had a hand in seeing that the four horsemen were further immortalized as part of the book of Revelations.

It's amazing no matter how many times this arc repeats it still inspires the most philosophical discussions. But then, that is the quality of Highlander.

If the fans had had access to the Euros from the beginning the question of which horseman was which, or at least who was "Death" would not have been so muddled. Check out the Euros and read the very beginning in Bold. Cassandra tells Joe she's looking for Death. Then she tells him she's looking for Kronos.