Archive 6977

Book Review: Frank Joseph: The Survivors of Atlantis

Fig. 1 Frank Joseph:
The Survivors of Atlantis
How
the Downfall of a Civilization Changed
the World AMRA-Verlag, Hanau, 2021 ISBN: 978-3-939373-17-9
Price: 24.99
Geb., 381 pages, 42 b/w pictures, register

How the fall of a civilization changed the world

According to Plato, the legendary Atlantis sank 9000 years before its time beyond the Pillars of Heracles (generally equated with the Strait of Gibraltar). Some Atlantis researchers and authors doubt the localization, others (often the same) the time of doom. Frank Joseph is one of those who accept Plato’s localization, but see the demise of this landmass much earlier – in historical times – and thus he belongs to the so-called “young age ” people“.

According to him, Atlantis sank over the course of four successive catastrophes that took place in historical times. Joseph sees the first cataclysm in 3113 BC, when, in his opinion, a comet collided with asteroids, disturbing the night sky for a period of at least one or two millennia. Among other things, he refers to the Greenlandic ice core of Camp Century,which has an acidity, which in turn suggests a sudden increase in low-rainfall ash worldwide. Volcanism in the Atlantic had a peak at the turn of the 4th millennium BC – especially in Iceland and the Azores,i.e. in the area of Atlantis, as he further notes. In this disaster, Atlantis was devastated by severe earthquakes and volcanism triggered by meteorites, with some areas of land detaching and plunging into the sea. Survivors emigrated to other parts of the world, especially to the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia.

The second cataclysm is said to have occurred in 2193 BC, when various comets approached each other near Earth’s orbit. A large land bridge between Malta and the nearby island of Filfa is said to have collapsed during a natural disaster, the huge waves of which caused the end of Neolithic Malta. On Atlantis itself, widespread seismic activity is said to have destroyed numerous temples and residential areas, while volcanism burned farmland and sunk several nearby islands. Furthermore, tsunamis have devastated settlements along the regional coast. Many inhabitants perished. The second major wave of migration to the Middle East began. Among other things, Joseph sees the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the context of this cataclysm.

The third cataclysm is said to have taken place in 1628 BC, when the “killer comets” returned to Earth, after which a new exceptionally strong ash fall was detected in the Greenland ice core. Earthquakes and tsunamis set in again on Atlantis. There was another wave of migration.

Finally, according to Joseph, the fourth cataclysm took place in 1198 BC, when one comet was pushed closer to Earth’s orbit by the appearance of another. The water feature in northern European lakes had risen sharply at that time, again a large amount of ash was detected in the earth’s atmosphere, volcanism reached a peak all over the world in the period around this year. Atlantis now sank completely into the sea. Again there were migration flows. Many survivors of Atlantis now arrived in Egypt. Here Joseph refers to the Egyptologist Prof. Walter B. Emery, who tells of the discovery of tombs in the late predynastic period in the northern part of Upper Egypt, whose skulls and bodies were larger than those of the natives. Emery concludes on a (foreign) “master race” that is supposed to explain the rapid progress in the Nile Valley immediately before the unification of Egypt.

“Noah was an Atlantean” Joseph claims, citing the Sumerian epic Enuma Elish,which probably formed the basis for the biblical and other creation stories. Put simply, Noah fled Atlantis with his family. In the scriptures, Joseph sees confirmations of his theory.

According to Joseph, many Troyanshave “clearly Atlantic names”, and the epic Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna portrays Kleite as a Trojan mother who lived “near Lake Gyrgic”. According to Joseph, this is an indication of the second catastrophe. Note that according to Plato, the first kings of Atlantis were born to a woman named “Kleito“.

Atlanteans are also said to have passed through the Sahara. The ancestors of the Berbers were referred to in classical times as “Atlantes, Atlantoi or Atarantes”. In this context, Joseph recalls Borchard’s “Schott-el-Jerid” thesis,but sees here rather a location of lost culture, not like Borchardt Atlantis itself.

Joseph associates the immigration flows of the” Túatha Dé Danaan to Ireland with the flight from the lost Atlantis – others see an immigration of the ten supposedly lost tribes of Israel – make sure that in “Danaan” is the name of one of the Israelite tribes, Dan. Joseph, however, sees further evidence for his thesis: in some Irish epics there is talk of games and horse races that “were held on a plain in a distant island – this statement is also strongly reminiscent of Atlantis.

In America, too, Joseph sees evidence of migrants from the sun’s set Atlantis, for example, the Iroquois know “a country in the Far East, on the borders of the great water where the sun rises,” where a white man drowned the world except for a single survivor. The legend is also reminiscent in detail of the biblical flood story. Similar traditions can also be found, for example, in the Apaches.

Joseph also sees an Atlantic influence in Mexico, where civilizational influences can be found at the same time as in the Nile Delta.

“The most convincing Mayan artifact in relation to Atlanteans in Mesoamerica,” Joseph sees in a relief-like image depicting a “formally dressed man,” whom he considers a royal personality for the very reason, “rowing away in a boat from an island with an erupting volcano.” In the background you would obviously see drowning people. As a further indication, Joseph cites the fact that the Maya had flutes reminiscent of the panpipes in Asia Minor. Were they imported from Atlantis in these two different directions?

Joseph sees the Atlanteans as a group of Stone Age peasants who loosely united into tribes and then matured into a Bronze Age kingdom, became a naval power, and whose land eventually perished. Atlantis was therefore nothing particularly spectacular – if one believes the period of the fall of Atlantis offered by Joseph in historical times …