Ingram, Donald

Donald Ingram (1944- ) is Australian who has worked in journalism as a newspaper artist for 34 years. He initially took a sceptical interest in the Atlantis story but as his researches continued he began to realise that there were historical realities behind Plato’s narrative, after identifying interpretive errors made by later commentators. In 2002 he took early retirement in order to develop his hypothesis, which was eventually published in 2009^[665].

Ingram reviews the development of Atlantis theories over the centuries, dismissing, Donnelly, the esoteric Blavatsky, the inventive Cayce as well as today’s New Agers. He has used new technologies, such as DNA combined with a correction of mistranslations of specific Platonic texts to conclude that the “Atlanteans can almost certainly be equated with the Wessex II culture of Britain”.

In support of this contention he draws heavily on the similarities between the weaponry of western Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. This is reminiscent of the work of Jürgen Spanuth over thirty years earlier, when he identified the Atlanteans as originating in northern Europe and supported his contention with a comparison of the weapons and helmets of the Sea Peoples depicted at Medinet Habu with those of Denmark and northern Germany during the 12th century BC.

Much of this book deals with ancient mythologies, their possible underlying historical realities and parallels with the story of Atlantis. In that respect, Ingram has quite clearly invested a lot of time into research. However, I found it somewhat disappointing that the author devoted just a few pages, towards the end of the book, to the actual text of Plato.

In May 2013, Melville Nicholls published his ebook, Children of the Sea God, in which he also saw Britain of the early Bronze Age as the large island of Atlantis described by Plato. Nicholls has opted for the Bell Beaker people as Atlantean rather than the Wessex II culture proposed by Ingram, which succeeded them.