Does this mean Richard is definitely from the Black Rock? He said he hadn't been back to see the ship his whole time on the island, and he looked at the chains which makes us think of MIB telling him something about last seeing him in chains. The thing is, I thought Richard was from further back in time. He does tell Jack that he has been "alive" longer than he could ever imagine.
he could be from ancient greece or ancient rome and still have been a prisoner on the black rock,
maybe put there by MIB himself
I was thinking that too. I always thought he looked 'Egyptian' with the (they say it's natural!) guyliner, so I've been hoping for an ancient Egypt tie-in to go with the hatch symbols and all the writings and stuff. When people started to theorize that he was from the Black Rock I thought that would be a disappointment, not far back enough to be overly impressive. So the only way we can all be right is if he is from way way back (ancient Egypt) but got caught up as a slave on the Black Rock for awhile. I wonder if they travelled off the island all the way back that far. The only thing that tells me this is wrong is that in the first beach scene with Jacob and MIB, with the Black Rock offshore, it seemed like we were meant to feel as if they had been alone on the island for awhile. Jacob was drawing 'new' people to the island, as MIB said, to try to 'prove him wrong' again and that it 'always ends the same'. I guess there could have been followers there with him already, but it just didn't seem that way to me.
Guys, this is just one more of those things that I have been talking about that you can't look too deeply into with this season. They aren't making it too difficult for us here. When Locke said to Richard that he was "glad to see him out of those chains", they weren't talking metaphorically. BUT, for the people that were still on the fence, they show us this episode with Richard, standing in the Black Rock, looking at the manicles/shackles/CHAINS, and he says that he came her on the ship, and hasn't been back since. I really don't think TPTB can make it any more clear.
BUT, obviously there is a really good chance I'm wrong. We will all find out in 2 weeks when we get the Richard episode. I really would like to give you, and everyone else, a little piece of advice though. This kind of over thinking is the stuff that is going to make the series finale feel unfulfilling. Once you start imagining all this stuff weaved into the bare facts they have given us, you make it way more built up then it has to be. And because it's all your own creation, it will never be addressed, and then you will be pissed. Trust me, I've done it to myself a million times.