Sardinia is a region of Italy and is the second largest island, after Sicily, in the Mediterranean. During its long history Phoenicians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans have all left their mark on Sardinia. Its important position in the ancient world was suggested by Mark McMenanim, a geologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, who announced in Numismatist Magazine in November 1996, that he believed that the Carthaginians produced gold coins, between 350 and 320 BC, depicting small maps of the Mediterranean world with India to the east and America to the west(d)(e). When computer enhancement was applied to the images on some of those coins, he was amazed to note how the strange markings on them resembled maps made by Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer and geographer. The maps show what appears to emphasise the Mediterranean region, with Sardinia as a dot in the centre. The north coast of Africa appears at the bottom with Europe at the top, above the Phoenician homeland and India. The Strait of Gibraltar lies to the west; after that is the landmass of America. Some sceptics have been convinced of the correctness of McMenamin’s interpretation after seeing the enlarged images.
Two Phoenician inscriptions, one dated to the 11th century BC, have been found on Sardinia. These inscriptions refer to Pygmalian, King of Tyre and to a battle between Sardinians and Phoenicians at Tarshish!
It has been postulated that the Shardana, one of the Sea Peoples of the 2nd millennium BC, gave their name to Sardinia and were probably the builders of the hundreds of Nuraghi there. Leonardo Melis, a native Sardinian, has studied and written at length on the subject. David Rohl, the archaeologist and advocate of revising generally accepted ancient chronologies, has argued[232] that the Shardana were in fact originally from Sardis in ancient Anatolia and that they migrated westward to Sardinia following the collapse of the Hittite Empire.
Apart from the enigmatic remains of the nuraghic period, Sardinia has presented archaeologists with a greater mystery in the form of a structure at Monte d’Accoddi that closely resembles a Mesopotamian ziggurat(b). The earliest parts of the monument have been dated to circa 3000 BC – the same period during which comparable step pyramids were being built in Mesopotamia. Leonardo Melis has speculated that the name of the site, Accoddi, may be connected to the Akkadian civilisation. Step pyramids are also found on Sicily(c) and additionally the Le Barnenez cairn (4500-4700 BC), in Brittany, has a superficial resemblance to some of the Western Mediterranean ‘pyramids’.
Recent discoveries of statue menhirs on Sardinia have suggested that in the 4th millennium BC the island was part of a culture which spread from the Black Sea to the Atlantic(f).
The first person to promote a Sardinian Atlantis was Paolo Valente Poddighe, who did so in 1982. However, it was 2006 before he published a book[711] supporting his claim.
It was nearly another twenty years before Robert Paul Ishoy was the first to have a website(a) that promoted Sardinia as the site of Atlantis. His contention is that Atlantis was a powerful state based in Sardinia that controlled most of the western Mediterranean and was at its peak between 2000 BC and 1400 BC. Ishoy further contends that the Keftiu, Atlantean and Nuraghi cultures were all one. He contends that they made attempts to conquer the principal civilisations of eastern Mediterranean including the Minoans, Athenians and Egyptians. During one of these attacks the Athenians with the unexpected support of floods and earthquakes defeated the Atlanteans.
Ishoy is currently planning an expedition to Sardinia to seek further evidence in support of his thesis.
Recently, the Italian journalist, Sergio Frau, has written a book[302], in Italian, which locates Atlantis firmly on Sardinia. He argues that the Pillars of Heracles were at one time located as a boundary marker at the Strait of Sicily and later moved to Gibraltar as the Greek awareness of the western Mediterranean developed with expanded trade. Frau attributes this change of location to the geographer Eratosthenes who flourished more than a century after Plato. Understandably, his theory has been greeted with the usual hail of criticism but was given support by UNESCO when it organised a symposium on the theory in Paris in 2005 followed by an exhibition in Rome the following year.
As Sardinia is still very much above water, it might seem an unlikely choice as the location of Atlantis. However, if it is accepted that the Pillars of Heracles were in fact situated at the Strait of Sicily, there are a number of features on Sardinia that would support the theories of Ishoy and Frau. There is evidence that the large plain of Campidano was inundated by a tsunami, following an earthquake, in the central Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium BC. There are mountains protecting the plain from cold northern winds and rich mineral deposits are also found in the locality. Furthermore, a young Sardinian has recently pointed out that colours associated by Plato with Atlantis, namely red, white and black, are found naturally on the island as well as excavated buildings of the Nuraghic period being painted in red and black stripes.
We can expect that the future will see further development of the Sardinian Theory, which shows more promise than many of the other suggested locations.
(a) http://www.atlantisdiscovered.org/Thesis.htm
(b) http://www.philipcoppens.com/nap_art13.html
(c) http://www.european-pyramids.eu/wb/pages/european-pyramids/italy/sicily.php?lang=DE
(d) http://web.archive.org/web/20031011190226/www.sfslac.org/phoenicians.htm
(e) http://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?authorid=22
(f) http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/08/2011/statue-menhirs-found-in-a-sardinian-wall
