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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Tony O'Connell
Dendera Zodiac
The Dendera(h) Zodiac is a well-known bas-relief taken from the ceiling of the Hathor temple at Dendera in Egypt. The temple was constructed during the Graeco-Roman Period and removed by the French in 1821 and brought to Paris, where it can now be viewed in the Louvre.
Inevitably, there is controversy regarding the date that the zodiac was intended to represent. Not unexpectedly, the zodiac has also been drawn into the Atlantis debates with Albert Slosman claiming that the zodiac indicates a date of July 27th 9792 for the destruction of Atlantis[0550]! Slosman’s extreme ideas on the subject greatly influenced the thinking of others, including Patrick Geryl & Gino Ratinckx, Wolter Smit and Carlos Barcelo. Hossam Aboulfotouh has also offered an alternative interpretation of the Dendera Zodiac(a), with many more available on the internet.
Robert Bauval has written a series of seven short papers about Dendera and its Zodiac(b). A 2012 paper by Dr Rosalind Park & Bernard Eccles also offers a study of the Zodiac’s date(c).
>A March 2023 report revealed that another spectacular zodiac was discovered in the Temple of Esna which is about 60km south of Luxor, where restoration work has been going on since 2018(e).<
(a) https://www.geocities.ws/fotouh28/Decoding-Dendera-Zodiac.pdf
(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20041009215358/https://members.boardhost.com/Bauval/msg/1058.html
For the other six papers substitute 1058 with 1062, 1065, 1067, 1074, 1076, and 1080.
(d) https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/4096/1/Egyptian.pdf *
(e) Complete Depiction of The Zodiac Found in Ancient Egyptian Temple : ScienceAlert *
Black, Jonathan
Jonathan Black is the pen-name of British author, Mark Booth. He has studied Philosophy and Theology at Oriel College, 
Oxford. His best known book is The Secret History of the World[1447], which is a trip through secret societies and esoteric beliefs.
In a section on Plato’s island he notes that “a little research shows that classical literature is packed with references to Atlantis.” [p.121] He identifies the Flood of Deucalion with the biblical Deluge. He also touches on the story of the dubious Scott Stones, claimed by Aaron du Val to be Atlantean and 12,000 years old. After his 15 minutes of fame, du Val, faded from view for the past twenty years.
I can say with some certainty that Black’s research into Atlantis is flawed. His treatment of other subjects in his large volume, I shall leave to others to assess.
Luwians
The Luwians according to the excellent Luwian Studies website(a) were “the people who lived in western Asia Minor during 
the 2nd millennium BCE between the Mycenaeans in Greece and the Hittites in Central Anatolia.” The Luwian city of Troy has been controversially linked with Atlantis by Eberhard Zangger[483][484], who has gone further and proposed that some of the petty kingdoms in the Luwian territory were part of the ‘Sea Peoples’.
Zangger’s claimed that a Luwian linkage with the Sea Peoples had been strongly supported by the work of British archaeologist, James Mellaart (1925-2012). However, after Mellaart’s death, it was found that he had supported much of what he wrote with forged documents. Zangger has offered the sequence of events that led to this discovery and points out that his Sea Peoples theory predates his involvement with Mellaart(b).
In 2016, Zangger published The Luwian Civilisation; The Missing Link in the Agean Bronze Age [1217]. This illustrated book is available on the Academia website(d).
2023 began with an illustrated paper by Zangger, also on the Academia website, offering further insights into the Luwian culture during the Middle and Late Bronze Age(c).
(a) https://luwianstudies.org/the-luwians/who-are-the-luwians/
(b) https://luwianstudies.org/theory-luwians-sea-peoples-invasions-sequence-events/
(c) (99+) Putting the Luwian Culture on the Map | Eberhard Zangger – Academia.edu
Outer Wall of Atlantis
The Outer Wall of the Atlantean capital has recently led to some degree of controversy(a). It is described in Critias 117d as having a diameter of 14.5 miles (23.5 km) enclosing an area of over 440 km2 (over 170 sq.miles) having a circumference of around 45 miles (72 km), which is about the current size of Vienna or Tel Aviv that have populations of approximately two million!
See: Doug Fisher
(a) https://www.atlantismaps.com/comm_7b.html (link broken Nov. 2018) New website in development – https://www.copheetheory.com/
Osirion Civilisation
The Osirion Civilisation is a term recently concocted to describe the peoples of the antediluvian Mediterranean region including pre-dynastic Egypt. The Osirion at Abydos is offered as an example of their architecture. The concept has been promoted by David Hatcher Childress in one of his books[0620] in the ‘Lost Cities’ series. Inevitably, the internet has taken up this highly speculative idea.
A 2021 video clip(a) presented by Jimmy Corsetti offers evidence that the Osirion was built 7,000 years ago allegedly by a civilisation that not only flourished before pharaonic Egypt but was global in extent!
(a) It’s impossible for the ancient Egyptians to have built this about 7,000 years ago – News 47 Daily *
Fundamentalist Atlantology
Fundamentalist Atlantology is a term that I use to describe the idea that everything written about Atlantis by Plato, must be taken at face value. In other words when he refers to 9,000 years, this along with all the other numbers he uses in relation to the dimensions of the plain of Atlantis, its structures or its military manpower should be accepted literally! Such an acceptance flies in the face of both common sense and science, particularly in the case of Plato’s dating of Atlantis, while the dimensions he has for the ditch surrounding the plain of Atlantis were deemed incredible (his word) by Plato himself (Crit.118c), he felt obliged out of deference to Solon’s reputation he recorded the details as he received them.
Without wishing to offend anyone, I believe that acceptance, for example, of Plato’s/Solon’s numbers is comparable with the belief of religious fundamentalists who hold that creation’took just six days.
Although it is understandable that researchers have accepted Plato’s details without question, there has been extensive research over the past century into seeking more rational explanations for many of those more difficult passages in the Atlantis narrative which has produced alternative explanations that are compatible with both science and common sense.
While Plato’s 9,000 years were initially, rather glibly dismissed as a transcription error and that hundreds and not thousands had been intended, it has been demonstrated that the ancient Egyptian priesthood used a lunar calendar so that the ‘ýears’ were in fact months, which was noted in the 4th century BC by Eudoxus of Cnidos and repeated by Manetho and Diodorus Siculus. This would reduce the timeline by a factor of twelve. Another explanation was put forward by Rosario Vieni who proposed that the ‘years’ actually referred to seasons of which there are three in the Egyptian solar year. These, as far as I am aware, are the principal alternatives suggested in place of a literal reading of 9,000 years. After all, neither Athens or Egypt was home to anything more than primitive societies 9,000 years before Solon’s visit.
A further example concerns the size of Atlantis, which Plato consistently referred to as an island and never a continent and is described by him as greater than Libya and Asia combined. Irrespective of how extensive in size the Libya and Asia in question were, the Greek word for greater – meizon, actually relates to greater in strength, power or influence not extent. A few years ago Thorwald C. Franke pointed out that the traditional enemies of Egypt came from Libya and Asia, so that to describe the threat from Atlantis as greater than Libya and Asia combined indicates how great the threat from Atlantis was.
The more contentious issue of the actual location of the Pillars of Heracles, I will not go into here, suffice it to say that a number of valid competing arguments have been put forward in favour of locations other than the Strait of Gibraltar. In fact all of them could have been correct at different times, changing their position as the Greek colonists and traders gradually moved westward. Eventually, I believe that at some point in time the term simply became a metaphor for the limits of the world as generally known to the Greeks.
My point is that understandable difficulties exist in the Atlantis texts and that a number of sensible alternative explanations have been put forward, which will be individually tried and tested until a consensus emerges, in the same way that the idea of a geocentric universe was gradually replaced by the simple fact that our little planet revolves around the sun.
Gomperz, Theodor (N)
Theodor Gomperz (1832-1912) was an Austrian classicist, born in Brno, now part of the Czech Republic. His best known 
work is arguably Greek Thinkers[1428].
Thorwald C. Franke has drawn attention(a) to volume three, where Gomperz has discussed the subject of Atlantis, although with some degree of ambiguity. Nevertheless, while identifying some of Plato’s embellishments, Gomperz conceded that there was probably a degree of historical reality underpinning the narrative.
Constable, George (N)
George Constable is a prolific writer, particularly on the subject of ancient mysteries. He was also the editor of a number of Time-Life books including Mystic Places[1150], which devoted its first chapter to Atlantis. It offered an overview of both the historical and current theories, but, perhaps understandably, arrived at no firm conclusions.
Archive 2218
The pictograms and symbols of the Cave of Pedra Pintada (Pará, Brazil), evidence of the ancient Amazonian culture
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Today academic-archeology supports migrations through the Bering Strait, as the only route used by the ancient Homines Sapientes to populate the New World. Usually academic-archeologists mention two paleo-Asian immigration: one dating to 40 thousand years ago, and the second dating back to 14 thousand years ago, which gave rise to the Clovis culture (New Mexico, United States of America). This theory has, however, large gaps: how is it possible that archaeologist Niede Guidon has found the remains of Homo Sapiens in Piauí (Brazil), dating back to 12,000 years ago? How is it possible that the same Brazilian scholar has found and documented remains of hearths dating to 60,000 years ago? How is it possible to explain the findings of Monte Verde (Chile), dating back to 33,000 years ago? The reality is that the theory of Bering must be complemented by other theories, such as the polygenetic, supported by the eminent French scholar Paul Rivet, the “Antarctic” supported by the Portuguese Mendes Correa, the theory of the Brazilian archaeologist Maria Beltrao, and especially that of Brazilian Niede Guidon. According to these theories, scientifically proven as in the case of Niede Guidon, South America was initially populated by Homo sapiens, and only later North America was populated. Based on the theory of archaeologist Niede Guidon we can formulate this hypothesis: limited groups of Homo Sapiens, who occasionally came from Africa, were the first human groups to enter America, 60,000 years ago. It is estimated that their number did not exceed 1,000. Because they had no rivals for food, their evolution was slow. These Homines Sapientes were those who founded the first, and the oldest American culture, that of Piaui. Over the millennia, their numbers began to grow, and some of them began to emigrate. The Piaui society began to stratify, and was heading towards an evolution of the civilization. As early as 40 thousand years ago others Homines Sapientes (paleo-Asian), had entered the continent from Bering, and others (paleo-Polynesian), had arrived to the American coast, in a period between 30 and 15 thousand years ago. Around 12 thousand years ago the “Amazonian Sapiens” or the natives of the area that we know today as the Amazon River Basin, had developed a complex knowledge that we can identify today as the “primitive Amazonian culture”. Some of them remained in Piauí, while others, around 10,000 B.C., did emigrate to the Amazon River, and settled at the place which is now called “Cave of Pedra Pintada” (not to be confused with the huge Pedra Pintada, located in Roraima State, or “Painted Rock”). The Cave of Pedra Pintada, located near the town of Monte Alegre (State of Pará), was studied in detail by archaeologist Anna Roosevelt, in 1991 and 1992. The researcher, found 20 layers of earth that were dated using 56 radiocarbon tests and 13 thermo luminescence tests. The oldest stratum, where she found stone tools and quartz was dated 9300 B.C. Later on were studied other more recent layers, such as those corresponding to the Paiyuna (5500 B.C.), Aroxí (1000 B.C.) and Paricó (1400 A.D.) cultures. In 2009, during a long trip to Brazil, I was able to reach the town of Monte Alegre and study in depth the Cave of Pedra Pintada. It is possible that the authors of the pictographs and symbols of the Cave of Pedra Pintada, were descendants of the Sapiens of Piaui? In any case, the fundamental event that happens around 12 thousand years ago (10,000 B.C.), was the arrival of the paleo-Asian and Paleo-Polynesians to South America (and therefore also in the Amazon River Basin), and coincide with a catastrophic event. In the 10,000 B.C. In fact, did happen a terrible climate change, causing not only the sudden dissolution of glaciers around the planet (which corresponds to the end of the Wisconsin-Wurm glaciation), but also the massive extinction of countless species of animals, the so-called megafauna (megaterium, saber-toothed tiger, Macrauchenia, etc.). In my opinion this global event could corresponds to the “Great Flood”, which is mentioned in the books of the major religions of all peoples of the Earth. In the Cave of Pedra Pintada anyway, I got to enjoy a multitude of symbols, some zoomorphic and others anthropomorphic, as well as various representations of the Sun. Over the millennia ancient Amazonian colonized vast territories and around 6000 B.C., they began growing corn and cassava, as well as producing ceramic containers, for utilitarian or ritual reason. There are a lot of signs of their presence in the so-called “terra preta” (“black earth”, in Portuguese language). It is a type of soil in which there are remains of food (fish flakes), and residues of charred wood and ceramics. Other evidence of ancient human presence in the Amazon River Basin are the so-called sambaquis, mounds of shells, polished stones and shells of turtles. At Tapeirinha (Pará), some scientists found the remains of ancient sambaquis with an antiquity of 7000 years ago. During the millennia other important cultures developed in the Amazon River Basin. One of them was the Guarita culture, but was not advanced from a social point of view, infact was not differentiated (there were no dominant classes). Then there were the Tapajoara and Marajoara cultures. At the same time we must not forget that South America was known by some people of the Middle East starting from 9000 B.C. due to occasional trips (see my articles on Petroglyph of Ingá, Cromlech of Calcoene and the lost City of Ingrejil) and after some expeditions (the Sumerians in the New World, see my article on the Fuente Magna and the Monolith of Pokotia). These limited groups of Caucasoid contributed therefore to modify the genetic heritage of the peoples of the Amazon River Basin and the Andes, over the centuries. The melting pot of peoples that was slowly forming began the great cultures of Paititi and Moxos, and the great megalithic Andean cultures (Sacsayhuaman, Tiahuanaco and Marcahuasi, all pre-Incan). Only in-depth study of the various archaeological sites in the Amazon River Basin, as the Cave of Pedra Pintada of Pará, the Pedra Pintada of Roraima, the pictograms of Piauí, the petroglyph of Ingá, the Cromlech Calcoene, the Cave of the Roncador, the petroglyphs of Pusharo, Jinkiori and Quiaca, and the amazonian geoglyphs near the Brazil-Bolivia border, will get closer to the truth of the fascinating prehistory of South America. YURI LEVERATTO Copyright 2011 Partial bibliography: Roosevelt, Anna C. et al. (1996) “Paleo-Indian Cave Dwellers in the Amazon: The Peopling of the Americas.” Science 272 If you want to add a comment click here |
A colossal Pedra Pintada, emblema da antiga civilizaçao amazónica
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Na minha recente viagem a Roraima teve a oportunidade de conhecer e estudar a famosa Pedra Pintada, uma enorme rocha que se ergue imponente na savana da Boa Vista. É cerca de 100 metros de comprimento, e tem uma altura e largura de aproximadamente 30 metros. Vista de longe parece um elipsóide estranho, ou um ovo, quase como o ovo primordial a partir do qual a vida se originou na Terra. A Pedra Pintada é, ao mesmo tempo, uma biblioteca de pedra muito antiga, um mausoléu, porque havia vários crânios e talvez um templo, lugar de adoração dos antigos habitantes da Amazônia. Na frente da pedra existem muitas pinturas. Imediatamente vi duas grandes cobras de duas cabeças, desenhados muito altas, cerca de quatro metros de altura. A serpente, em grande parte das culturas americanas, é o símbolo do mundo subterrâneo, e a doble cabeça significa, de acordo com minha interpretação, o eterno retorno, ou a vida após a morte. Note-se que a Pedra Pintada área foi longo no centro do famoso lago de Manoa, cuja existência real foi comprovada por uma expedição científica conducida por Roland Stevenson, com a ajuda de geólogos Federico Cruz, Cruz e Woeltye Gert Salomão. Segundo Stevenson, o lago secou de 1300 AD. É provável que muitos pictogramas foram feitas utilizando canoas. Há também algumas representações do sol com oito raias, além de muitas linhas paralelas e pontos, na minha opinião, são conceitos numéricos. Olhando atentamente a parede principal podem ser vistos pictogramas que alguns pesquisadores tem interpretado como carros dirigidos por cavalos, mas ambos carros e os cavalos (que foi extinto na América cerca de 12.000 anos atrás), não houve no Novo Mundo, no passado pré-colombiano recente (10.000 aC – 1492 dC). Tudo isso poderia sugerir que os artistas antigos que fizeram esses desenhos foram relacionados com mitos que podem ser originários de outras partes da Terra. No entanto, a Pedra Pintada continua escondendo outros segredos. No lado esquerdo por cima do muro principal há uma rocha, onde há pictogramas descrevendo cobras e pontos alinhados. Para alguns pesquisadores, é um menir, uma pedra monolítica, cuja função pode ser a adoração do sol. No lado direito por cima do muro principal, existem varias cavernas que foram interpretados pelo estudioso francês Marcel Homet, como urnas funerárias. O professor Homet(1897-1991), que estudou a Pedra Pintada em 1950, também encontrou alguns ossos humanos e vários crânios pintados de vermelho. Em sua opinião os crânios encontrados pertenciam ao atlantes e indicaram uma clara origem Cro-Magnon. Algumas lendas dizem que, sob a Pedra Pintada há uma grande caverna conectada à cavernas externas através de uma estreita passagem. Acredita-se que os antigos habitantes celebraram secretamente cerimônias esotéricas para manter viva as tradições antigas. Na verdade, vigorosamente batendo no chão com o calcanhar se sente um baque e um eco particular, instigante que a existência da caverna subterrânea é verdade. Usando uma corda e uma lanterna tentei entrar no fundo da caverna, mas a passagem está bloqueada e exigiria o trabalho de muitas pessoas para remover as pedras e lama endurecido ao longo dos anos. Nas proximidades da Pedra Pintada há muitas outras rochas, alguns dos quais contêm pictogramas, na minha opinião, mais recentes que a Pedra Pintada. Uma, chamada Pedra de Pereira, é muito interessante. Acho que há algumas representações de quipus dos Incas. Os Incas viajaram freqüentemente para a área de Roraima, o longo do grande camino pré-colombiano chamado Nahanimi-Wi, que vai de Pasto para Roraima, recentemente descoberto e documentado pelo pesquisador chileno Ronald Stevenson. Provavelmente o quipu foi muito interessante para os povos amazônicos que viviam perto da Pedra Pintada, que representavam na rocha de Pereira com seus ídolos, como a serpente. Hoje você não pode dizer com certeza se a Pedra Pintada foi também um centro cerimonial ou local de culto. Até o momento os estudiosos não encontraram nenhuma evidência arqueológica necessária para apoiar essa tese. A verdade é que o lugar onde há o monólito é mágico. La Pedra Pintada é um lugar onde vocé pode respirar um ar cheio de lendas e hipóteses fantásticas. Espera-se que este monumento maravilhoso são preservado no futuro, como prova de conhecimentos antigos, agora perdidos. YURI LEVERATTO Copyright 2011 Este artigo pode se reproduzir indicando o nome do autor e a fonte www.yurileveratto.com Se você quer comentar sobre este artigo clique aqui |
Goti, Marco
Marco Goti is the Italian author of The Island of Plato[1430] in which he attempts to demonstrate 
that Atlantis was situated in Greenland. I say attempts because, in my opinion, he fails dismally. He starts by locating the Pillars of Heracles in the Atlantic, with one side being the basaltic columns at the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland and their counterparts across the sea in Scotland’s Isle of Staffa. This idea was touted by W. C. Beaumont over sixty years earlier(a).
The Cyclopean Islands off the east coast of Sicily near Mt. Etna referred to by Homer in his Odyssey are also known for their basaltic columns.>>At Gunung Padang and Nan Madol there are also numerous columns with comparable volcanic origins.<<
Goti then moves on to Iceland, which he identifies as Thule and spends too much time describing a variety of unpronounceable locations there. He eventually heads for Greenland, which he contends must be Atlantis as it is greater than Libya and Asia combined, ignoring that Plato was referring to might rather than size. Goti posits the huge plain described by Plato to have been situated in the centre of Greenland, ignoring the fact that ice cores dated to over 100,000 years have been identified there, and apart from which the huge island is not submerged. He offers two papers with extracts from his book(b)(c) as well as some evidence of neolithic activity in Greenland(d).
Felice Vinci, who clearly offered some inspiration to Goti, wrote the Foreword to the book and also provided Goti with an archaic Athens in Sweden!
Goti decries other promoters of Atlantis theories for ignoring details in Plato’s account that don’t fit their particular ideas and then he moves Athens to Sweden, has Atlantis above water for hundreds of thousands of years, no elephants, no two annual crops and does not explain how Greenland Atlanteans controlled southern Italy as far as Tyrrhenia, all of which demands a thumbs down from me.
(a) https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/library/pamphlets/Is%20Britain%20the%20Lost%20Atlantis.pdf
(b) The Geometry of Atlantis according to Plato (1/2) – The Tapestry of Time (larazzodeltempo.it)
(c) The Geometry of Atlantis according to Plato (2/2) – The Tapestry of Time (larazzodeltempo.it)