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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 »
Population of Atlantis
The Population of Atlantis has been estimated by a number of Atlantologists, based on the data provided by Plato.
Otto Muck[098] considered the population of Atlantis to have been at least 20 million.
“Let us begin with the allegedly excessive numbers of inhabitants. This can be roughly calculated from the details Plato gives of the organisation of the Atlantean armed forces: 480,000-foot soldiers, 120,000 horsemen, 160,000 manning the 10,000 heavy chariots and 60,000 light chariots, and 240,000 sailors. These add up to approximately one million men under arms.” From this, Muck extrapolated a total population of between twenty and forty million for Atlantis.
Zhirov suggested 5-6 million, Bryusov 20-25 million, while Imbelloni & Vivante decided on 138 million.
Wolter Smit estimates(a) the Atlantean population figure to be between 28 and 155 million. Constantin Benetatos suggests(b) a lower figure of between 6 and 10 million but also considers Plato’s data to be exaggerated.
The total population of the entire world in 10,000 BC has been estimated at somewhere between one and ten million (c)(d)(e)(f). Even if we accept the somewhat questionable higher figure, we can see that this is only a half or a quarter of the population of Atlantis on its own. Consequently, we are forced to conclude that either Plato’s dating is wrong or the Atlantean military manpower figures are exaggerated or, as I suspect, both are incorrect. Therefore, once again we are forced to view Plato’s numbers with some suspicion.
Recently, P.P. Flambas in his oversized Plato’s Caribbean Atlantis[1368] has suggested that the world population at 11,000 BC was stable at around three million people, although there is a greater consensus that the figure was one million. However, Plato’s total for the Atlantean military alone is one million, which forces us to either consider that his date for the Atlantean War and/or the size of the Atlantean army is seriously wrong. I consider both to be exaggerated by a similar factor. The fact that the Athenians defeated the Atlanteans suggests much smaller armies and a lack of any archaeological evidence on Greek territory of more than a handful of troglodytes in the 10th Millennium BC contradicts the date.
(a) https://was-this-atlantis.info/size.html
(b) Atlantis History.com: G. THE CIVILIZATION OF ATLANTIS (archive.org)
(c) World Population Growth Chart – Vaughn’s Summaries (archive.org) *
(d) https://www.scottmanning.com/content/year-by-year-world-population-estimates/
(e) How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? (archive.org)
(f) World Population Growth Chart – Vaughn’s Summaries (archive.org) *