Canada

Canada was first suggested to have had an ancient connection with the Mediterranean in a lecture^(f) to the Albany Institute of Boston in 1893 by Verplanck Colvin (1847-1920), an American lawyer and topographical engineer. He based this idea primarily on his interpretation of Plutarch‘s On the Apparent Face in the Moon’s Face and specifically named the St. Lawrence River as the site of an ancient Greek colony. 

Until relatively recently Canada has had little attention from Atlantis seekers. The nearest to such a claim came in 2002, when New Zealander, Ian A. Fox, published^[0782] his theory that Atlantis had been situated between Greenland and Canada’s Baffin Island.

A few years later, the earliest specific suggestion of a Canadian connection with Atlantis, that I am aware of, came from Samuel Poe in a truly dreadful book^[0847], in which he claimed the east coast of Canada and the United States had been Atlantean.

Then, Brian Johnston, a retailer of precious stones, created a website^(a) advocating Ontario as the location of Plato’s Atlantis. He offers a stone circle and what may be other megalithic standing stones along with many photos of the same as evidence. This is all held together by a large helping of speculation. Finally, after describing in some detail a site in Ontario’s Northumberland County, he concludes that the location “might not be Atlantis!”

Nevertheless, the idea that the ancient Greeks had an awareness of America has persisted, with some claiming that they had colonies in Canada. Among these are Lucio Russo, Ioannis Liritzis^(b) and Minas Tsikritsis^(d). Now Manolis Koutlis has gone one further and claims^[1617] that not only were there Greek colonies in Canada but that Atlantis had been situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence^(c). This raises the question of why or how Atlanteans or Greek colonists in Canada would launch an attack on Athens thousands of miles away. In my opinion, neither identification is credible.

At the 2005 Atlantis Conference, Emilio Spedicato also subscribed to the idea of early Greeks in Canada, specifically in the St. Lawrence Region ^[629.411]. However, he does not refer to Atlantis in this context as he has already nominated Hispaniola as Plato’s lost island.

All these advocates of an ancient Greek presence in Canada are greatly reliant on their interpretations of the writings of Plutarch^(g), a matter that has been dealt with by Jason Colavito^(e).

>Long after any ancient Greeks came to North America, hard evidence of Pre-Columbian visitors from Europe was confirmed with the discovery in 1978 of an 11th-century Norse settlement at L’anse aux Meadows in Canada. In 2022, the discovery in Newfoundland of a gold Henry VI quarter noble, minted in London between 1422 and 1427 generated some excitement. Unfortunately, coins can remain in circulation for many years, so, without knowing when the coin was lost in Canada, it cannot be claimed with any great certainty that it was misplaced before or after Columbus reached the Americas^(h).<

Also See: Henriette Mertz

^(a) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180319084638/https://atlantisincanada.com/

^(b) https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/did-ancient-greeks-sail-to-canada/

^(c) ENSKIA (archive.org)

^(d)   https://canada.greekreporter.com/2012/04/21/researcher-claims-ancient-greeks-made-it-to-america-before-columbus/

^(e) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/greek-scientists-claim-plutarch-recorded-ancient-greek-voyages-to-canadian-colony

^(f) Atlantis,Vol.23, No.3,May/June, 1970  

^(g) https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~dduke/lectures/plutarch-moonface.pdf 

^(h) Medieval Coin in Canada Challenges Story of North American Discovery | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net) *