Arysio dos Santos

Pre-Columbian America *

Published March 28, 2024

Pre-Columbian America continues to generate books and articles at an ever-increasing rate, fed by dramatic improvements and discoveries in many sciences. Nevertheless, the resulting theories still range from the serious to the silly.

This compilation has frequently touched on the subject pre-Columbian America as a number of Atlantis related theories have proposed what are only peripheral connections with America, although in the immediate aftermath of America’s rediscovery, some European commentators were content to designate America as Atlantis itself.

Since then a range of claims have been made as to the identity of European visitors to America, often long before Columbus, sometimes with an underlying suggestion of nationalism. Richard Callaghan, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary, In the June 2015 issue of the journal Antiquity, “presented the results of computer simulations of 1,200 voyages of small boats drifting with the currents from northern Africa to the Americas. About 82 percent of Callaghan’s simulated boats made landfall in the Americas, many in 70 to 120 days. Since watercrafts have been around for at least 8,000 years, Callaghan says there could have been a “significant number” of successful pre-Columbian voyages to America.” Another archaeologist, Bradley T. Lepper, ironically writing in the Columbus Dispatch, rejected Callaghan’s data as evidence^(l).

John L. Sorenson writing in the Journal of the Book of Mormon Studies^(m)identifies evidence for transoceanic exchanges of 98 plant species, including tobacco and peanuts! I assume that he was driven by a very different agenda.

The weight of evidence so far favours the idea that most of the earliest pre-Columbians came from Asia either by sea or over what is now the Bering Strait. See the Arysio Dos Santos article^(a) about Americas peopled by from an Asian Atlantis.

The online World History Encyclopaedia outlines the prehistory of North America from 40,000 BC when the Paleo-Indians arrived until 8,000 BC⁽ⁱ⁾. Of course this statement begs the question – where did they come from?

The discovery of further early trans-Atlantic links was announced in February 2012⁽ⁿ⁾ by two archaeologists, Professors Dennis Stanford & the lateBruce Bradley, in a newly published book – Across Atlantic Ice ^[1516]. Their claim is based on ‘Solutrean’ tools recently found in Delaware and five other east coast sites dated between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago. They offered “archaeological and oceanographic evidence to support this assertion, the book dismantles the old paradigm while persuasively linking Clovis technology with the culture of the Solutrean people who occupied France and Spain more than 20,000 years ago.”

In 2014, Stephen Oppenheimer endorsed the work of Stanford and Bradley^(s).

However, a sceptical view of their work should also be read^(o). However, by 2016 the Soultrean Hypothesis had been contradicted by genetic studies^(p). Nevertheless, a recent documentary on the hypothesis has raised some controversy, as the program failed to refer to the use of the Soultrean Hypothesis by white supremacists^(q). Jennifer Raff, who appeared in the documentary, has also rejected the Stanford & Bradley theory in a new article^(r).

In 2014 Michael J. O’Brien et al published another critical review of Stanford & Bradley’s theory on the Researchgate website and added a response from Stanford and Bradley^(t).

Finally, I suggest that there may be more to Stanford & Bradley’s theory, when combined with the story of the Red Paint People.

Harry Bourne is the author of a series of lengthy papers^(c) relating to African maritime history. Until I read some of his work I was unaware of the subject, with the only suggestion of Africans voyaging to the Americas was the existence of the mysterious Olmec stone heads. Bourne advised^(d) that Columbus noted “that blacks were also trading on the far side of the Atlantic in the Caribbean”, but does not cite the reference.

Similarly, “According to renowned American historan and linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard University, one of the strongest pieces of evidence to support the fact that Black people sailed to America before Christopher Columbus was a journal entry from Columbus himself. In Weiner’s book, Africa and the Discovery of America, he explains that Columbus noted in his journal that the Native Americans confirmed ‘black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears’.”^(x)

This whole subject could fill a library of its own and in no way is this entry intended to be a substitute for a comprehensive study of pre-Columbian America.

With their understandable Eurocentric view of the world a variety of commentators have advocated a range of pre-Columbian visitors to the Americas from this side of the Atlantic . There are a wide range of claims suggesting that such contacts included the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Sumerians, the Hyksos^(v), the Sea Peoples^(u), the Phoenicians, Egyptians^(k), Ancient Greeks^(y)(z), Minoans^(j) and Romans^(b)(e)(f). After that, there appears to have been an endless parade of transatlantic tourists proposed – Basques^(g), Scots ^[1769], Irish ^[2086]and Vikings ^[1824].

There is also a suggestion that Marco Polo visited America before Columbus^(h).

No investigation of early visitors to America should ignore the work of the controversial epigrapher Barry Fell, particularly his two books, America BC ^[1769] and Saga America ^[1770].

However, the more critical reviews of Fell’s work should also be read^(w).

^(a) Atlantis in the New World. – Atlan.org

^(b) Ancient Romans May Have Discovered Americas Before Columbus | Gaia

^(c) Black History WEB – African Maritime History Archive (50webs.com)

^(d) West Africa & The Sea In Later Antiquity: Short intro. & plan (modernghana.com) (4/5ths down page)

^(e) http://mexicolesstraveled.com/comalcalco.html

^(f) http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/mysteries/deccott.htm

^(g) https://www.archyde.com/did-the-basques-arrive-in-america-before-columbus/

^(h) https://www.dailygrail.com/2014/09/did-marco-polo-discover-america-in-the-13th-century/

⁽ⁱ⁾ Pre-Colonial North America – World History Encyclopedia

^(j) Minoans have been to America before Columbus (bristolgreeks.com)

^(k) Egyptian statuette recovered from Mexico is authentic: Antiquities ministry – Ancient Egypt – Antiquities – Ahram Online

^(l) Bradley T. Lepper The Columbus Dispatch • Sunday September 20, 2015

^(m) https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=jbms

⁽ⁿ⁾ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html?printService=print

^(o) http://www.academia.edu/5119515/On_thin_ice_Problems_with_Stanford_and_Bradley_s_Solutrean-Clovis_hypothesis

^(p) Genetic data does not support ancient trans-Atlantic migration, professor says | The University of Kansas (archive.org)

^(q) http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/critics-blast-cbc-documentary-on-solutrean-hypothesis-for-ignoring-racism

^(r) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/21/rejecting-the-solutrean-hypothesis-the-first-peoples-in-the-americas-were-not-from-europe

^(s) Solutrean hypothesis: genetics, the mammoth in the room: World Archaeology: Vol 46 , No 5 – Get Access (tandfonline.com)

^(t)(PDF) On thin ice: Problems with Stanford and Bradley’s proposed Solutrean colonisation of North America (researchgate.net)

^(u) Earth is my witness… Sea peoples reached Mesoamerica – COGNIARCHAE

^(v) (99+) PLUTARCH, THE OLMECS & THE HYKSOS SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA | The Mumble – Academia.edu

^(w) Barry Fell and His Big Idea: Wherein a Harvard Zoology Professor Tells the Tale Of All the Folks Who Got Here Before Columbus | News | The Harvard Crimson (thecrimson.com)

^(x) 10 Pieces of Evidence That Prove Black People Sailed to the Americas Long Before Columbus (atlantablackstar.com)

^(y)https://www.academia.edu/9066795/Did_the_Mapuche_of_Chile_travel_from_Homeric_Age_Greece *

^(z)https://www.academia.edu/32921347/ANCIENT_GREEKS_TRAVELLED_WORLDWIDE *

Tagged Ancient Greeks, Arysio dos Santos, Barry Fell, Basques, Bering Strait, Bradley T. Lepper, Bruce Bradley, Christopher Columbus, Dennis Stanford, Egyptians, Harry Bourne, Hyksos, Irish, Jennifer Raff, John L. Sorenson, Leo Weiner, Marco Polo, Michael J. O'Brien, Minoans, Mormons, Olmecs, Paleo Indians, Phoenicians, pre-Columbian America, Red Paint People, Richard Callaghan, Romans, Scots, Sea Peoples, Soultrean Hypothesis, Sumerians, Ten Lost Tribes, Vikings

Bosporus, The

Published June 27, 2022

?The Bosporus or Bosphorus is described by Wikipedia as “a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe, and divides Turkey by separating Anatolia from Thrace. It is the world’s narrowest strait used for international navigation. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, and by the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov.”

A number of modern commentators have promoted the Bosporus as the location of the Pillars of Herakles; Eberhard Zangger, Christian and Siegfried Schoppe and Werner E. Friedrich.

Arysio dos Santos in his book Atlantis ^[320.186] noted that “The Bosphorus was considered to be the site of the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ even before the name of these famous features was transplanted to the region of Gibraltar, where it remains stuck down to the present time. In reality, bosporus or bosphorus (or bosporos or bosphoros, rather, the Greek words from which the Latin name derives) means ‘cattle passage, oxford’ precisely because Hercules was said to have crossed there with the cattle he rustled from Geryon, in Erytheia.”

Tagged Anatolia, Arysio dos Santos, Asia, Bosporus, Christian & Siegfried Schoppe, Dardanelles, Eberhard Zangger, Erytheia, Europe, Geryon, Pillars of Herakles, Posphorus, Sea of Azov, Strait of Kerch, Thrace, Turkey, Werner E. Friedrich

Irwanto, Dhani

Published June 12, 2015

Dhani Irwanto (1962- ) is an Indonesian hydraulic engineer, who is the latest proponent of the Sundaland location for Atlantis, in his April 2015 book, Atlantis: The lost city is in the Java Sea^[¹⁰⁹³^]. A review of his book online^(a), shows quite clearly that the author has made a serious effort to match Plato’s narrative with his chosen location for Atlantis, namely off the southern coast of the island of Kalimantan in the Java Sea. Irwanto also uses his professional expertise to analyse Plato’s many references to the waterways of the Atlantean capital and its extensive plain. The review also includes a number of maps and video clips used to support Irwanto’s views.

Irwanto has also adopted^(c) the 32-point checklist of dos Santos and expanded it to 60 points. He has now published a YouTube video supporting his theory^(d). The first 30 pages of his book can be read online^(f).

Irwanto also claims that the biblical Garden of Eden and the legendary island of Taprobane were situated on the island of Kalimantan*. In an extensive online^(b)article in November 2015, he identified the Indonesian island of Sumatra as the land of Punt, which he thinks was also known as the Ophir referred to in the Old Testament (1 Kings 9.26 & 10.11).

In June 2017, Irwanto published an illustrated paper^(e) on Aurea Chersonesus, referred to by Ptolemy in his 2nd century Geographia . Irwanto has matched the details in Ptolemy’s description with a place in western Sumatra called Tanjungemas renowned for its gold mines in ancient times.

On his website, since the publication of his book, Irwanto had continued to add a number of detailed articles that are of interest to students of Atlantology. One example came in late 2021, when he added an extensive paper entitled Decoding Plato’s Narrative to Find Atlantis, using a visual format, infographics^(g) that is worth a look.

^(a) https://ahmadsamantho.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/a-new-theory-of-atlantis-disclosed/

^(b) https://atlantisjavasea.com/2015/11/14/land-of-punt-is-sumatera/

^(c) https://atlantisjavasea.com/2015/10/28/professor-arysio-nunes-dos-santos-initiator-of-indonesian-atlantis-theory/

^(d) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT23A12-tDc&feature=youtu.be

^(e) https://atlantisjavasea.com/2017/06/08/aurea-chersonesus-is-in-sumatera/

^(f) https://www.academia.edu/18597541/Atlantis_in_Java_Sea

^(g) https://atlantisjavasea.com/2021/10/17/decoding-platos-narrative-to-find-atlantis-in-infographics/

Tagged Arysio dos Santos, Aurea Chersonesus, checklist, Dhani Irwanto, Garden of Eden, Indonesia, Java Sea, Kalimantan, Kilmantan, Ophir, Ptolemy, Punt, Sumatra, Sundaland, Tanjungemas, Taprobane

Tartessos

Published June 12, 2010

Tartessos or Tartessus is generally accepted to have existed along the valley of the Guadalquivir River where the rich deposits of copper and silver led to the development of a powerful native civilisation, which traded with the Phoenicians, who had colonies along the south coast of Spain^(k).

A continuing debate is whether Tartessos was developed by a pre-Phoenician indigenous society or was a joint venture by locals along with the Phoenicians.^(o) One of the few modern English-language books about Tartessos was written by Sebastian Celestino & Carolina López-Ruiz and entitled Tartessos and the Phoenicians in Iberia ^[1900].

A 2022 BBC article offers some additional up-to-date developments in the studies of Tartessos^(v).

It is assumed by most commentators that Tartessos was identical to the wealthy city of Tarshish that is mentioned in the Bible. There have been persistent attempts over the past century to link Tartessos with Atlantis. The last king of Tartessia, in what is now Southern Spain, is noted by Herodotus to have been Arganthonios, who is claimed to have ruled from 630 BC until 550 BC. Similarly, Ephorus a 4th century BC historian describes Tartessos as ‘a very prosperous market.’ However, if these dates are only approximately true, then Atlantis cannot be identified with Tartessos as they nearly coincide with the lifetime of Solon, who received the story of Atlantis as being very ancient.

However, the suggested linkage of Tartessos with Atlantis is disputed by some Spanish researchers, such as Mario Mas Fenollar ^[1802] and Ester Rodríguez González⁽ⁿ⁾. Mas Fennolar has claimed that at least a thousand years separated the two. Arysio dos Santos frequently claimed that Atlantis was Tartessos throughout his Atlantis and the Pillars of Hercules ^[^1378].

Rodrigo Caro

The existence of a ‘Tartessian’ empire is receiving gradual acceptance. Strabo writes of their system of canals running from the Guadalquivir River and a culture that had written records dating back 6,000 years. Their alphabet was slightly different to the ‘Iberian’. The Carthaginians were said to have been captured by Tartessos after the reign of Arganthonios and after that, contact with Tartessos seems to have ended abruptly!

The exact location of this city is not known apart from being near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Andalusia. The Guadalquivir was known as Baetis by the Romans and Tartessos to the Greeks. The present-day Gulf of Cadiz was known as Tartessius Sinus (Gulf of Tartessus) in Roman times. Cadiz is accepted to be a corruption of Gades that in turn is believed to have been named after Gaderius. This idea was proposed as early as 1634 by Rodrigo Caro (image left), the Spanish historian and poet, in his Antigüedades y principado de la Ilustrísima ciudad de Sevilla, now available as a free ebook⁽ⁱ⁾.

In 1849, the German researcher Gustav Moritz Redslob (1804-1882) carried out a study of everything available relating to Tartessos and concluded that the lost city had been the town of Tortosa on the River Ebro situated near Tarragona in Catalonia. The idea seems to have received little support until recently, when Carles Camp published a paper supporting this contention^(w). It was written in Valenciano, which is related to Catalan and can be translated with Google Translate using the latter option.

A few years ago, Richard Cassaro endeavoured to link the megalithic walls of old Tarragona with the mythical one-eyed Cyclops and for good measure suggest a link with Atlantis^(l⁾. Concerning the giants, the images of doorways posted by Cassaro are too low to comfortably accommodate giants! Cassaro has previously made the same claim about megalithic structures in Italy^(m⁾

The German archaeologist Adolf Schulten spent many years searching unsuccessfully for Tartessos, in the region of the Guadalquivir. He believed that Tartessos had been founded by Lydians in 1150 BC, which became the centre of an ancient culture that was Atlantis or at least one of its colonies. Schulten also noted that Tartessos disappeared from historical records around 500 BC, which is after Solon’s visit to Egypt and so could not have been Atlantis.

Richard Hennig in the 1920s also supported the idea of Tartessos being Atlantis and situated in southern Spain. However, according to Atlantisforschung he later changed his opinion opting to adopt Spanuth’s Helgoland location instead^(x⁾.

Otto Jessen, a German geographer, also believed that there had been a connection between Atlantis and Tartessos. Jean Gattefosse was convinced that the Pillars of Heracles were at Tartessos, which he identifies as modern Seville. However, Mrs E. M. Whishaw, who studied in the area for 25 years at the beginning of the 20th century, believed that Tartessos was just a colony of Atlantis. The discovery of a ‘sun temple’ 8 meters under the streets of Seville led Mrs Whishaw to surmise^[⁰⁵³^] that Tartessos may be buried under that city. Edwin Björkman wrote a short book, The Search for Atlantis^[¹⁸¹^] in which he identified Atlantis with Tartessos and also Homer’s Scheria.

Steven A. Arts, the author of Mystery Airships in the Sky, also penned an article for Atlantis Rising in which he suggests that the Tarshish of the Old Testament is a reference to Tartessos and by extension to Atlantis^(r⁾!

More recently Karl Jürgen Hepke has written at length, on his website⁽^a⁾, about Tartessos. Dr Rainer W. Kühne, following the work of another German, Werner Wickboldt, had an article^[⁴²⁹^] published in Antiquity that highlighted satellite images of the Guadalquivir valley that he has identified as a possible location for Atlantis. Kühne published an article⁽^b⁾ outlining his reasons for identifying Tartessos as the model for Plato’s Atlantis.

Although there is a consensus that Tartessos was located in Iberia, there have been some refinements of the idea. One of these is the opinion of Peter Daughtrey, expressed in his book, Atlantis and the Silver City^[0893]in which he proposes that Tartessos was a state which extended from Gibraltar around the coast to include what is today Cadiz and on into Portugal’s Algarve having Silves as its ancient capital.

It was reported⁽^c⁾ in January 2010 that researchers were investigating the site in the Doñana National Park, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, identified by Dr Rainer Kühne as Atlantis in a 2011 paper^(s). In the same year, Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford garnered a lot of publicity when he visited the site and expressed the view that it was the location of Tartessos which he equates with Atlantis. The Jerusalem Post in seeking to give more balance to the discussion quoted archaeology professor Aren Maeir who commented that “Richard Freund is known as someone who makes ‘sensational’ finds. I would say that I am exceptionally skeptical about the thing, but I wouldn’t discount it 100% until I see the details, which haven’t been published as far as I know.”^(u⁾

A minority view is that Tarshish is related to Tarxien (Tarshin) in Malta, which, however, is located some miles inland with no connection to the sea. Another unusual theory is offered by Luana Monte, who has opted for Thera as Tartessos. She bases this view on a rather convoluted etymology^(e) which morphed its original name of Therasia into Therasios, which in Semitic languages having no vowels would read as ‘t.r.s.s’ and can be equated with Tarshish in the Bible, which in turn is generally accepted to refer to Tartessos.

Giorgio Valdés favours a Sardinian location for Tartessos^(f), an idea endorsed later by Giuseppe Mura in his 2018 book, published in Italian, Tartesso in Sardegna ^[^2068], the full title of which translates as Tartessos in Sardinia: Reasons, circumstances and methods used by ancient historians and geographers to remove Tartessos (the Tarshish of the Bible) from Caralis and place it in Spanish Andalusia. Caralis is an old name for Cagliari, the Sardinian capital.

Andis Kaulins has claimed that further south, in the same region, Carthage was possibly built on the remains of Tartessos, near the Pillars of Heracles^(j).

A more radical idea was put forward in 2012 by the Spanish researcher, José Angel Hernández, who proposed^(g)(h)that the Tarshish of the Bible was to be found in the coastal region of the Indus Valley, but that Tartessos was a colony of the Indus city of Lhotal and had been situated on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar!

A recent novel by C.E. Albertson^[¹³ ⁰^] uses the idea of an Atlantean Tartessos as a backdrop to the plot.

A relatively recent claim associating Tartessos with Atlantis came from Simcha Jacobovici in a promotional interview^(p⁾ for the 2017 National Geographic documentary, Atlantis Rising. In it, Jacobovici was joined by James Cameron as producer, but unfortunately, the documentary did not produce anything of any real substance despite a lot of pre-broadcast hype.

There is an extensive website⁽^d⁾ dealing with all aspects of Tartessos, including the full text of Schulten’s book on the city. Although this site is in Spanish, it is worthwhile using your Google translator to read an English version.

“Today, researchers consider Tartessos to be the Western Mediterranean’s first historical civilization. Now, at an excavation in Extremadura—a region of Spain that borders Portugal, just north of Seville—a new understanding of how that civilization may have ended is emerging from the orange and yellow soil. But the site, Casas del Turuñuelo, is also uncovering new questions.”^(q) First surveyed in 2014 it was in late 2021, a report emerged of exciting excavations there that may have a bearing on the demise of Tartessos. Work is currently on hold because of a dispute with landowners, with only a quarter of the site uncovered. The project director is Sebastian Celestino Perez. The Atlas Obscura website offers further background and details of discoveries at the site^(t).

^(a)http://web.archive.org/web/20170716221143/http://www.tolos.de/History%20E.htm

^(b) Meine Homepage (archive.org)

^(c)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7019522/Lost-city-of-Atlantis-could-be-buried-in-southern-Spain.html

^(d) TARTESSOS.INFO: LA IBERIA BEREBER (archive.org)

^(e) http://xmx.forumcommunity.net/?t=948627&st=105

^(f) http://gianfrancopintore.blogspot.ie/2010/09/atlantide-e-tartesso-tra-mito-e-realta.html

^(g) http://joseangelh.wordpress.com/category/mito-y-religion/

^(h) http://joseangelh.wordpress.com/category/arqueologia-e-historia/

⁽ⁱ⁾ http://books.google.ie/books/about/Antiguedades_y_Principado_de_la_ilustr%C3%AD.html?id=mIxBueFRuk0C&redir_esc=y

^(j) Pillars of Heracles – Alternative Location (archive.org)

^(k)Archive 3283 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(l) https://www.richardcassaro.com/atlantis-ruins-europe-megalithic-master-masonry-cyclopean-colony-tarraco-spain/

^(m) https://www.richardcassaro.com/atlantis-ruins-europe-megalithic-master-masonry-cyclopean-colony-tarraco-spain/

⁽ⁿ⁾ (PDF) Tarteso vs la Atlántida: un debate que trasciende al mito (researchgate.net)

^(o) (PDF) Definiendo Tarteso: indígenas y fenicios (researchgate.net)

^(p) Lost City of Atlantis And Its Incredible Connection to Jewish Temple (israel365news.com)

^(q) The Ancient People Who Burned Their Culture to the Ground – Atlas Obscura

^(r) Atlantis Rising magazine #36 http://pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At

^(s)https://atlantis.fyi/sources/the-archaeological-search-for-tartessos-tarshish-atlantis-and-other-human-settlements-in-the-donana-national-park

^(t) https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tartessos-casas-del-turunuelo

^(u) https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-news/the-deepest-jewish-encampment

^(v) https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220727-the-iberian-civilisation-that-vanished

^(w) https://www.inh.cat/articles/La-localitzacio-de-Tartessos-es-desconeguda.-Pot-ser-Tartessos-Tortosa- *

^(x) Richard Hennig – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog) *

Tagged Adolf Schulten, Andalusia, Arysio dos Santos, Baestis, C.E. Albertson, Carles Camp, Carolina López-Ruiz, Casas del Turuñuelo, Edwin Bjorkman, Ephorus, Ester Rodríguez González, Extramadura, Gades, Giorgio Valdes, Giuseppe Mura, Gustav Moritz Redslob, Helgoland, Indus Valley, Italy, James Cameron, Jean Gattefosse, José Angel Hernández, Karl Hepke, Luana Monte, Mario Mas Fenollar, Mrs Whishaw, National Geographic, Otto Jessen, Peter Daughtrey, Portugal, Rainer Kuhne, Richard Cassaro, Richard Freund, Richard Hennig, Rodrigo Caro, Sebastian Celestino, Sebastian Celestino Perez, Seville, Simcha Jacobovici, Tarshish, Tartessos, Thera, Tortosa, Valenciano

Sarmast, (Robert) Behzad

Published June 10, 2010

(Robert) Behzad Sarmast is an Iranian-American and an architect by profession. He abandoned his career to pursue his lifelong passion for ancient history. He is the author of a book^[⁵³⁵^], in which he controversially placed Atlantis near Cyprus. His website⁽^a⁾has an interesting collection of maps and diagrams. Coincidentally, the Urantia Book had previously identified a site in the Eastern Mediterranean as the location of Atlantis. Their description matches closely the underwater topography of Sarmast’s site and the

However, a 2016 sermon by Sarmast on the Urantia religion was published online

Urantians have not been slow to exploit this coincidence⁽^b⁾. However, the link between Sarmast and the Urantians has not been actively admitted, although Sarmast’s publisher, Byron Belitsos, revealed that Urantian funding had been used to obtain the 3D computer modelling of the underwater topography of the seafloor off Cyprus where Sarmast claims Atlantis was located. In October and November 2008 several blogs appeared under the name of Robert Sarmast⁽^c⁾. The content of these is religious in tone, although they make some references to Atlantis. However, a 2016 sermon by Sarmast on the Urantia religion was published online.

In 2003 Sarmast compiled a list of similarities between Plato’s description of Atlantis and the Urantia Book’s ‘Garden of Eden’^(d⁾.

Sarmast organised an expedition in late 2004 that produced ‘evidence’ of manmade structures, including two ‘walls’ over 3 km long. The site is about seventy miles east of Cyprus towards Syria. At a press conference to announce his discoveries Sarmast was challenged by, Michel Morrisseau, a French geologist who lives on Cyprus, to prove that the Mediterranean had been inundated more recently than the conventionally accepted five million years. Sarmast had no convincing response. However, after that he attempted to bolster his views with the unsupported assertion that earliest geographers knew of the breaching of the Gibraltar Dam and that ancient traditions had it that Hercules used his giant mace to smash open the Dam and allow the Atlantic to flood the Mediterranean and so led to the association of Hercules with Gibraltar.

Much more work must be done before Sarmast can rightfully claim that he has discovered Atlantis. In the meanwhile, raise funds for the next expedition, his website sought to charge a monthly fee to provide interested ‘members’ with additional information on the preparations for the second expedition. This took place in 2006 with inconclusive results.

Sarmast returned to Cyprus in June 2011 to film a documentary in support of his theory. He had support from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation as well as the History Channel together with some private investors. Filming took place during the Kataklysmos Festival which interestingly celebrates the Deluge and/or Flood of Deucalion.

Since 2013, almost nothing further has been heard from Sarmast, his blogspot^(c⁾ is empty and there are no updates on the Discovery of Atlantis website⁽^a⁾! It is informative to contrast today’s silence with the rhetoric of the initial 2003 press release^(e).

However, in 2014, Sarmast had the more than dubious honour of being included in the online Encyclopedia of American Loons^(h).

The Arysio dos Santos website offers a critical review of Sarmast’s book^(g). Benny Peiser was even more disparaging, describing Sarmast’s claim as The Great Atlantis Hoax⁽ⁱ⁾ on his CCNT network in 2004.

Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years two papers in 2014^(k⁾ and 2017^(j⁾ by Robert S. Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s idea that the Mediterranean region around Cyprus had been home to both Atlantis and a/the Garden of Eden. Around the same time, Sarmast was given an entry in the Encyclopedia of American Loons^(l).

⁽^a⁾See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180417053508/https://discoveryofatlantis.com/

^(b)The theory of evolution What scientists believe it is and isn`t (archive.org)

⁽^c⁾https://robertsarmast.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

^(d⁾ https://web.archive.org/web/20180710105515/https://www.squarecircles.com/articles/atlantiseden.htm

^(e⁾ https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/30/1064819881656.html

^(f) https://urantiareligion.com/transcript-for-urantia-religion-video/ {link broken May 2020}

^(g) Archive 3327

^(h) https://americanloons.blogspot.ie/2014/07/1109-robert-sarmast.html

⁽ⁱ⁾https://www.livescience.com/amp/91-claimed-discovery-atlantis-called-completely-bogus.html

^(j⁾ EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org)

^(k⁾ https://squarecircles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstEdenAnalysis.pdf

^(l⁾ Encyclopedia of American Loons: #1109: Robert Sarmast *

Tagged Arysio dos Santos, Benny Peiser, Byron Belitsos, Cyprus, Flood of Deucalion, Garden of Eden, Gibraltar Dam, Kataklysmos Festival, Michel Morrisseau, Robert S. Bates, Robert Sarmast, Urantia Book

Mahabharata

Published June 1, 2010

The Mahabharata and The Puranas are two of the ancient epics of Hinduism that refer to events dated between 1500 and 1000 BC and probably developed into their present form between 400 BC and 200 AD. However, Dr Manish Pandit has written three books advocating a date of 3067 BC for the Mahabharata War^(e).

These epics make mention of Attala, the white island, a continent located in the western ocean. This vague similarity with the name of Atlantis may be purely coincidental, but it is regularly produced as ‘evidence’ of pre-Platonic reference to Plato’s flooded island.

A brief, but highly speculative attempt to link Atlantis with the Mahabharata is offered by Santosh Kumar^(c).

A quite radical suggestion has come from the Italian writer, Michele Manher, who has proposed^(a) that Homer’s Iliad originated in India where elements of it can be identified in the Mahabharata!

Wikipedia notes^(d) that “the Greek writer Dio Chrysostom (c.40–c.120 CE) reported that Homer’s poetry was being sung even in India. Many scholars have taken this as evidence for the existence of a Mahabharata at this date, whose episodes Dio or his sources identify with the story of the Iliad.”

The website^(b) supporting the ‘Atlantis in Indonesia’ theory of Arysio dos Santos has an extensive article with the self-explanatory title of The Hindu Origin of the Myth of Atlantis.

>Sloppy research involving the Mahabharata, produced one of the most dramatic claims of the 20th century, namely, that atomic warfare had taken place in ancient India. In response to thls Joanna Gillan published an article giving a potted history of Mohenjo Daro and including a critical review of those, including David Davenport, who have tried to prove that the site was the location of an ancient nuclear war. Supporters of this idea have pointed to quotations from the Mahabharata in support of this idea. However, Gillan revealed that “Rather than being entirely fictitious, the passage is composed of a merging together of various unrelated passages scattered throughout the 200,000-verse epic, some of which are also questionable English translations of a questionable French translation of the original Sanskrit. When viewed in their original context, they are a little less convincing.”^(f)<

^(a)https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?id=100

^(b)The Hindu Origin of the Myth of Atlantis | Atlantis (archive.org)

^(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20170912013243/https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/atlantis-in-the-mahabharata

^(d) Mahabharata – Wikipedia

^(e) https://astronomyofindia.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/3067bce-dissection-of-theories-on-the-mahabharata/

^(f) Was the Mohenjo Daro ‘Massacre’ Real? | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net) *

Tagged Arysio dos Santos, Attala, Dio Chrysostom, Hinduism, Homer, Iliad, India, Indonesia, Joanna Gillen, Mahabharata, Manish Pandit, Michele Manher, Mohenjo Daro, Puranas, Santosh Kumar

Cyprus

Published May 29, 2010

Cyprus has now been shown to have had an agricultural settlement as early as 9000 BC^(c). In 2005, it was claimed that flints found on Cyprus and dated to a possible 10,000 BC, offered evidence of the earliest long-distance sea travel in contrast to earlier shore-hugging^(g). I would question this, since twelve thousand years ago sea levels were much lower and landmasses in the eastern Mediterranean were more extensive removing the need for lengthy sea travel. Cyprus would have been much more easily accessible and what is now the Aegean consisted of more land than water.

Cyprus was also added to the list of possible Atlantis sites with the publication of Discovery of Atlantis^[535] in 2003, which offered a radical new theory by Robert Sarmast. This theory is based principally on 3-D images of a section of the present seafloor near Cyprus. Sarmast has compiled an impressive list of similarities between Plato’s description of Atlantis and the underwater topography. He also claims to have identified a wall 3km long wall that intersects with another. A YouTube clip centred on Sarmast’s 2004 expedition is available online⁽ⁱ⁾.

Although it is true to say that this is a radical theory, it is not a completely new idea as the Urantia Book⁽^a⁾ had already suggested an Atlantis/ Eden off the coast of Cyprus. The Urantia Book specifically claims that this Eden was a long narrow peninsula almost an island projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea (Paper 73). This detail coincides remarkably with Sarmast’s claim.

I must point out, that in order to uncover this putative site, the sea level would have to be dropped 5,250 feet. Now, the only explanation for this would be the existence of at least one archaeoastronomer in the Mediterranean, probably at Gibraltar within the memory of man, a suggestion advocated by Sarmast but, crucially, without any supporting evidence. This is quite feasible, as it has been shown that the Mediterranean has dried out on a number of occasions in the past. Current orthodoxy places the last inundation of the Mediterranean by the Atlantic around five million years ago. However, Paulino Zamarro, among others, has postulated the existence of the Gibraltar Dam within human prehistory, which, if true, would add to the credibility of Sarmast’s theory. However, if the Mediterranean had dried out the result would have left Sarmast’s location with a thick salty deposit, a far cry from the fertile land described by Plato.

Supporters of Sarmast’s theory have drawn attention to the annual Festival of the Flood, an event unique to Cyprus when people in coastal towns sprinkle each other with water to commemorate the salvation of Noah.

In 2005, Philip Coppens published a review of Sarmast’s theory commenting “And some of the maps he and his team of researchers have been able to get from the area in question do seem to indicate that Atlantis may indeed be located there. Though much more work is required, at least, this possibility is more hopeful than so many of the alternatives…”^(h⁾

Nevertheless, Sarmast’s mile-deep location contradicts Plato’s description of the sunken capital of Atlantis that even in Solon’s or Plato’s time was described as existing in unnavigable shallows.

Since Plato, sea levels have only risen a few feet, not by a mile. Sarmast should have focused on demonstrating the existence of a landbridge or dam at Gibraltar or Sicily and witnessed by man. No landbridge – No Atlantis at Cyprus!

Professor Arysio dos Santos who wrote Atlantis: The Lost Continent Finally Found^[³²⁰^]in which he proclaimed his idea that Atlantis was located on the huge swathes of territory around Indonesia that were inundated at the end of the last Ice Age, has also written⁽^b⁾ a paper denouncing the claims of Robert Sarmast as “an obvious hoax and a possible scam”^[⁰³²⁰^.189]

However, Colin Wilson, who previously supported the idea of Atlantis in Antarctica^[063]switched his support to the Cyprus location, which led to him writing the foreword to the 2006 expanded edition of Sarmast’s book. In 2009, Robert L. Gielow, a fundamentalist creationist, also added his endorsement to Sarmast’s theory in another book^[808]. In two papers, in 2014^(k) & 2017^(l), Robert S. Bates offered further support to Sarmast’s location theories.

A further claim placing Atlantis south of Cyprus on a scarab-shaped underwater feature (33°N-33°E), has been made by blogger Nicolas Fenning. He has also suggested that Freemasonry, Macedonia and the Pharos Lighthouse, all have links with Atlantis. He also maintains that clues to its location were contained in DaVinci’s Last Supper^(d)!

Although little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, the idea of Atlantis near Cyprus was apparently given a boost in early 2018 when it was reported that Atlantis had been discovered off Paphos. However, any euphoria was quickly dissipated when the last lines of the report^(j)were reached. “*This news article was compiled from a press release issued by the CTO on April 1, which celebrates April Fool’s Day – a day where practical jokes and hoaxes are spread.”

In April 2022 it appeared that Sarmast is once again trying to resurrect interest in his Cypriot Atlantis location^(m). I have not had this report confirmed. However, I now see that Robert S. Bates, mentioned above, is due to have a short book ^[1961] published in February 2023 entitled The Eden-Atlantis Project which puts forward the case for a third expedition to find Eden/Atlantis near Cyprus. This proposed expedition seems to be led by Bates, now promoted to commodore, with minimal reference to Sarmast⁽ⁿ⁾.

>>In 2024, Jordi Guri Harth published Atlantis-The Cypriot Empire ^[2092] in an effort to regenerate support for the idea of Atlantis in Cyprus.<<

^(a) https://urantiabook.org/

⁽^b⁾ Statement on the Alleged Discovery of Atlantis Off Cyprus | Atlantis (archive.org)

^(c)https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/05/15/Oldest-Mediterranean-island-farm-uncovered/UPI-66221337120492/

^(d) https://atlantisrediscovered.weebly.com/atlantis-re-discovered.html

^(e) https://atlantisrediscovered.weebly.com/atlantis-re-discovered-part-ii.html

^(f)Archive 2775 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(g) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Dp8xBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT33&lpg=PT33&dq=flints+on+cyprus+10,000bc&source=bl&ots=EowAYLhDa1&sig=pMQMogJeph_aR93mcXeREPBXy6A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT7aHHwurJAhWDMhoKHceDDmcQ6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=flints%20on%20cyprus%2010%2C000bc&f=false

^(h) See: Archive 2934)

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcI7Zg0lxzA

^(j)https://cyprustraveller.com/atlantis-paphos-6828-2/ (link broken)

^(k) https://squarecircles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstEdenAnalysis.pdf

^(l) EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org)

^(m) https://www.travelmole.com/news/atlantis-discovered-near-cyprus/

⁽ⁿ⁾ http://edenatlantisproject.org/ *

Tagged Aegean, Antarctica, Arysio dos Santos, Atlantis, Colin Wilson, Cyprus, Freemasonry, Gibraltar Dam, Grden of Eden, Jordi Guri Harth, Landbridge, Leonardo da Vinci, Macedonia, Nicolas Fenning, Noah, Paphos, Paulino Zamarro, Pharos, Philip Coppens, Plato, Robert Gielow, Robert S. Bates, Robert Sarmast, Urantia Book

Garden of Eden *

Published April 5, 2010

The Garden of Eden, like Atlantis, has excited the imagination of many over the centuries. Its location has been the subject of what was sometimes wild speculation that offered a range of locations compared with the variety of sites proposed for Atlantis.

The traditional belief was that the ‘Garden’ had been situated in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris as noted in the Bible. Athanasius Kircher, who is better known to many for his speculative map of Atlantis located in the Atlantic Ocean also produced a plan of the Garden of Eden in what is now southern Iraq. David J. Gibson (1904-1966) arrived at a similar conclusion placing ‘Eden’ just south of Baghdad in his book, The Land of Eden Located, now available online^(t).

The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism offers a clue to the sort of difficulties that ‘Garden seekers’ must deal with, in the Garden of Eden entry. “as an earthly garden, its specific location within both the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature. Thus, some texts place it in the east (Gen 2:8; 1En.32; Jub 8:16; 2 En. [rec.32] 42:3, 65:10; Philo QG 1:7; Leg 1:56; Josephus, Ant. 1.3), while others place it in the west (Gen 3:24; Josephus, JW 2.155), north (Ezek 28:13; 1En. 61.1), or northwest (1 En.24-25, 70:3).”^(ap)

More recently, Robert McRoberts in an article about the rivers of Eden included a map by Arianna Ravenswood, who placed Eden northwest of Babylon in what is now the Iraqi Province of Diyala^(u).

Within the same region is a submerged location at the head of the Persian Gulf promoted by journalist, Dora Jane Hamblin (1920-1993),^(av)who highlighted^(av)the work of archaeologist, Juris Zarins (1945-2023)^(w). In his theory, the Bible’s Gihon River would correspond with the Karun River in Iran, and the Pishon River would match the Wadi Batin river system that had drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula. His suggestion about the Pishon River is supported by James A. Sauer (1945–1999) formerly of the American Center of Oriental Research although strongly criticized by the archaeological community^(x).

A number of commentators have suggested that the site of Eden is now under water, where lower sea levels during the Ice Age would have revealed land now submerged, such as in the Persian Gulf. The Red Sea has also been proposed.

Kircher’s Garden of Eden

The conventional idea has been enhanced in the opinion of some by the discoveries of the German archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, who believed that his excavations at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey have unearthed artefacts dating to 8000 BC when the people there changed from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This region also contains Ur and Harran, mentioned in the Old Testament and since Göblekli Tepe is located between the Tigris and Euphrates and is within view of the Taurus Mountains, it conforms remarkably to the topographical description of Eden in the Bible. Tom Knox speculated on this in an article in the UK’s Daily Mail Online^(aa).

It was no great surprise when I found at that least one commentator has proposed Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding area was the site of the Garden of Eden^(au).

Garold Spire jr, an American researcher, offers a strong case for placing Eden in southern Turkey at the Karaca Dag shield-volcano. He studied the sacred books of the Abrahamic religions and drew up a short list of characteristics that the Garden must have;

1) It must have been warm enough to be comfortable without protective clothing. Gen 2:25.

2) It must be uphill geographically, due to the fact that four rivers exited

from it, these are the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Pishon, and the Gihon. Gen 2:10-14

3) The Pishon must compass or border Havila where there is gold and onyx. Gen 2:11, 12.

4)The Gihon must compass or border the whole land of Cush. Gen 2:13

5) It must account for a flaming sword on its east side. Gen 3:24

6) It must be well watered, Gen 13:10 by a mist (in Hebrew) not rain, Gen 2:5-6, which came up from the earth.

Spire maintains that his Turkish location has all these features^(an).

Christopher Columbus believed that the source of the Orinoco River, in what is now known as Venezuela had been the location of Eden. Antonio de León Pinelo (1590-1660) was a Spanish chronicler who spent some years in South America and was also convinced that the Garden of Eden had been situated between the great rivers of South America^(k)!

The imaginative Augustus Le Plongeon claimed the Yucatan as the location of the ‘Garden’^(s)an idea endorsed by his wife, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon.

In more recent times, Ramiro Gonzales Yaksic (1966- ), the author of Earthly Paradise: The Garden of the Andes ^[1055] in which he claims to have identified the biblical Garden of Eden in his native Bolivia^(ar). Dieter Groban has written in support of Yaksic^(as).

James Bailey published Sailing to Paradise ^[^0150] in 1994, some years before Yaksic’s book, in which he added further support for his Atlantis in America contention. Additionally, he placed the Garden of Eden somewhere on the Bolivian Altiplano.

^[0150] in 1994, some years before Yaksic’s book, in which he added further support for his Atlantis in America contention. Additionally, he placed the Garden of Eden somewhere on the Bolivian Altiplano.

General Gordon of Khartoum fame was so impressed by the island of Preslin in the Seychelles that he declared it to be the Garden of Eden and its famed Coco de Mer and breadfruit plants to be the Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil. Science writer, Karl Shuker, has written an extensive article, Forbidden Fruit, for the January 2016 edition of Fortean Times, in which he gives the background to Gordon’s obsession and his inability to garner any serious support for it.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, it was reported^(r) that G. F. Becker (1847-1919) a geologist with the USGS nominated Luzon in the Philippines as the site of the biblical ‘Garden’, while Sven Hedin (1865-1952) a much-decorated Swedish geographer chose Janaidar a mythical city in Central Asia.

George H. Cooper, the American writer, identified Salisbury Plain ^[⁰²³⁶^.111] as the Garden of Eden along with its Wiltshire river system matching the Euphrates and Tigris in the Genesis story. W. Comyns Beaumont chose Britain’s Glastonbury as the site of the original Garden.

In the middle of the last century, a Baptist preacher, Elvy E. Callaway, announced that the Garden had been located in the vicinity of Bristol, Florida^(j).

David Rohl has studied the matter in great detail ^[²³⁰^] and located the ‘Garden’ in the northern Iranian province of East Azerbaijan near the city of Tabriz^(ad)(aj). Rohl’s reasoning is worthy of study and perhaps a comparison with the views of Emilio Spedicato, who offers his explanation for placing Eden in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley in two papers on the Internet⁽^b)(y⁾. Rohl was partly inspired by the work of Reginald A. Walker ^[1388/9].

The inventive David Hatcher Childress published an article in issue 31 of the Atlantis Rising magazine with the title of Central Asia’s Ancient Heart and a subtitle that asks the question ‘Could Afghanistan Once Have Been the Garden of Eden?’ He then proceeds to offer a couple of pages about ancient Mongolia, with little reference to either Afghanistan or the Garden of Eden!

Andrew Collins claims ^[⁰⁷³^] that the original Mesopotamian name for Eden was Kharsag, a view echoed by the late Christian O’Brien^(q). O’Brien’s nephew, Edmund Marriage, identifies the Bekka Valley in Lebanon as the location of Eden of Genesis. A new Lebanese location site is the subject of a website and forum^(h)(i). An excerpt from O’Brien’s book, relating to Eden, can be read online^(v).

Ari Zuker bravely suggests that the land of Israel was the Garden of Eden^(ao). John Appelt, an American pastor also supports this idea ^(at).

The Sabbah brothers, Roger and Messod, controversially place Eden in Egypt ^[³¹⁰^]and offer a range of evidence to support this contention. Ralph Ellis has also opted for Egypt in his book, Eden in Egypt^[⁰⁹⁵¹^] and claims that Adam and Eve were in reality, Akhenaton and Nefertiti! Ellis also supports his theory with two online papers providing excerpts from his books^(o)(p).

A Christian website, logoschristian.org, used to also claim that Eden had been located in the eastern Nile Delta, specifically named Al Mansura. In 1933, John G. Jackson wrote a paper advocating an African origin for the legend of the Garden of Eden. Jackson’s extreme Afrocentric views may have coloured his view of this subject!

Further to the west is the Tunisian town of Oudna, which has been nominated as Eden by one Patrick Archer on his somewhat sparse website⁽^d⁾.

Gerald Wells also identified some of his Algerian Atlantis territories as having included the biblical Garden of Eden^(aq⁾.

Another African location was put forward by Georg Hinzpeter over half a century ago when he suggested that the Ethiopian plateau had been the home of Adam & Eve before their eviction^(z).

Stephen E. Franklin has also opted for an African location for the Garden of Eden, placing it south of the Ahaggar Mountains near the Wadi Tafanasset in southern Algeria.^(ah⁾ He also claims that Mt. Tahat, the highest peak in the Ahaggars, was, according to Franklin, the original Atlas mountain referred to by Herodotus as the home of the Atlantes (sometimes Atarantes^(ai⁾). Sprague De Camp noted ^[194.191]that Paul Borchardt also identified the ancient Mt. Atlas with the Ahaggar Mountains rather than the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb! I should add that this identification of Mt. Atlas remains moot.

In 2014, Stan Deyo chose Tanzania as the location of the Garden of Eden^(h). Paulo Riven has also supported the region as the site of the ‘Garden’^(ak). This idea has been echoed elsewhere and more recently on a website dealing with the history of Israel^(f) and on a Christian website where the Ngorongoro Crater is specified^(g).

Carl Seaver has also offered an African location for the Garden. In a 2022 article, he reports that according to recent research, Botswana is the most likely location of the Garden and where humans originated. Eden sat in the Kalahari Desert, which used to be a wetland where the early humans lived. During this time, Lake Makgadikgadi stretched from Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe^(am).

In 2023 an African location for the Garden was again proposed by journalist, Tom Hale, who wrote^(al) “The so-called Cradle of Humankind can be found in South Africa around 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. This site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. Among the thousands of fossils found here, researchers have unearthed the remains of Australopithecus, an early ape-like human species dated to around 3.4 to 3.7 million years old.

It wasn’t until 200,000 to 300,000 years ago that modern Homo sapiens evolved. Once again, Africa was the location of this development, with modern humans most likely first emerging somewhere around modern-day Ethiopia.

So, if we’re looking for a scientific Garden of Eden, it looks like South Africa and Ethiopia are our best bet. Whether these sites were once home to a paradise where four rivers once met remains to be seen, however.”

What may appear just as implausible to many is the claim by Felice Vinci^[⁰¹⁹^], that the Eden story was imported from northern Europe, specifically from Finnish Lapland^(af⁾. At the end of the 19th century, William Fairfield Warren placed the Garden in the Arctic ^[0078].

Even more incredible is the assertion by the likes of William C. Chappell that the Garden of Eden was situated in the United States. His Mormon-inspired views are available as a free eBook⁽^c⁾ on the Internet. Interestingly, Jackson County, Missouri was the location of Eden revealed by Joseph Smith^(ac). the founder of Mormonism and well-known collector of wives.

A more ‘commercial’ suggestion has come from Dennis Brooks who suggested that Tarpon Springs, Florida, was originally the location of the Garden of Eden and that Tampa Bay contained the port of Atlantis.

The Urantia Book promotes the idea of two Edens, one near Cyprus and a second further east! In 2003, Robert Sarmast compiled a list of similarities between Plato’s account of Atlantis and the description of the Garden of Eden in the Urantia Book^(l).

In his 2004 book Finding Atlantis he claimed one of the Edens, noted in The Urantia Book, along with Atlantis had been situated near Cyprus, now in waters a mile deep! Two expeditions were organised to verify his claims, but nothing conclusive was found. Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, in 2018, Robert S. Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s ideas that the Mediterranean region around Cyprus had been home to both Atlantis and the Garden of Eden^(ae).

Stephen Oppenheimer has pointed out^[⁰⁰⁴^] that Genesis 2:8 reads that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden”. He argues (p.409) that this supports the idea of a ‘paradise’ in the Sundaland region. However, Oppenheimer does not equate Eden with Atlantis.

As Monty Python used to say “now for something completely different” – The North Pole. This suggestion has come from Gene Matlock who advocated that ‘Eden was the North Pole’ in a paper of the same name^(ab).

The Garden of Eden has been suggested by some as another name for Atlantis, representing as it does a mythical time of peace and abundance. However, Eden is never spoken of in terms of military might and commercial success attributed to Atlantis. One of the better-known proponents of this idea of an Atlantean Eden was the late Professor Arysio dos Santos⁽^a⁾ who was convinced that it was located in the South China Sea before the ending of the last Ice Age submerged large areas of Sundaland. Confusingly, he referred to Eden as ‘Lemurian Atlantis’, but added that “This Lemurian Atlantis of ours should not be confused with the purely fanciful counterparts of the Theosophists and other such followers of Mme. Blavatsky. Their ‘Lemuria’ is a hypothetical sunken continent of the mid-Pacific region, one which never existed at all.

Shortly before his death in 2005, Santos published ^[³²⁰^] his theories, expanding on material that he had made available on the Internet for some years. Frank Joseph also claims ^[¹⁰⁶^][¹⁰⁷^] that the Garden of Eden was located on the lost island of ‘Lemuria’ located in the Pacific.

Bill Hanson, who has authored a number of books on ancient ‘mysteries’, has recently written a work ^[³⁵²^] that links the Garden of Eden with Atlantis. He identifies five similarities between the two accounts:

Both prehistoric locations are regarded as ‘lost paradises’
The four rivers of Eden are reflected in the four waterways of Poseidon the island capital of Atlantis.
Atlantis started with ten kings and the Bible speaks of ten patriarchs.
Zeus destroyed Atlantis because mortals and gods mated, whereas the Bible records the mating of the ‘sons of God’ and human females.
Atlantis was flooded just as the Age of the Patriarchs ended with the flood of Noah.

The late Joseph Robert Jochmans identified^(g⁾ Atlantis with Eden in a comprehensive article on his website. John Nichols also wrote a long article^(e⁾ identifying Atlantis with the Garden of Eden and placing it on the Celtic Shelf about a hundred miles off the coast of France due west of Brest.

Frederick Dodson in a hefty 523-page book^[989]claims an Atlantis-Garden of Eden connection⁽ⁿ⁾. In 2018, the Catalan researcher, José Luis Espejo also equated Atlantis with the Garden of Eden^[¹⁶⁰⁷^].

In 2022, a writer, hiding behind the nom de plume of ‘gserpent’, produced a lengthy article blending Atlantis, Eden and Lemuria into one heap of literary manure⁽^ag⁾.

Currently. the sadly benighted Iraq is trying to lure tourists to spend their holidays in ‘the Garden of Eden’^(m⁾!

⁽^a⁾http://www.lost-civilizations.net/atlantis-corroborating-evidence-page-12.html

⁽^b⁾kharsag (grazian-archive.com)

⁽^c⁾http://losttruthfound.com/gardenofedenfound.pdf

⁽^d⁾https://patrickofatlantis.com/

⁽^e⁾ https://jjswn35.wordpress.com/article/atlantis-eden-how-to-find-2vfxjftuay98o-9/

⁽^f⁾ The Garden of Eden – Tribes of Atlantis (archive.org) *

^(g) See: Archive 3602

^(h)The Garden of Eden – Found in Rashaya El-Wadi – the-lebanon.com (archive.org) ^or Archive 3182

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-garden-of-eden-origin-of-agriculture-found-near-rashaya-el-wadi-lebanon.7535161/*

^(j) Weird Florida (archive.org)

^(k) See: Archive 2999