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NEWS September 2023
September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]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 »
Moses
Eys, Peter van
Peter (Petrus) Van Eys was an 18th-century Dutch scholar, who wrote in his 1715 Ph.D. dissertation [1222] on Plato, of the connections he perceived between Moses and the story of Atlantis. This led him to conclude that Atlantis had been situated in the Holy Land, a view popular until that time.
>Atlantisforschung, commenting on Van Eys, concluded(a) that “it should be noted that the heyday of the ‘Atlantis in the Holy Land’ thesis’ was already over in his day. It is true that in 1826 – a year before the publication of his doctoral thesis – the ‘dissertation sur le Critias de Platon’ by the French scholar Claude-Mathieu Olivier appeared, who took the view that Plato’s Atlantis report basically represents a description of events from the early days of the Jewish people. However, these and similar writings of the 18th century only represented the short-lived renaissance of an already outdated ‘Bible-true view of Atlantis’.”<
(a) Peter van Eys – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog) *
Heracles *
Heracles (Herakles) was a Greek mythical hero(c), later known to the Romans as Hercules. He is one of several mythical heroes who were reportedly abandoned as babies(f).
There is also a claim that the Greek Herakles had a much earlier namesake the patron of Tyre and known as Melqart, which translates as ‘king of the city’. “Melqart was considered by the Phoenicians to represent the monarchy, perhaps the king even represented the god, or vice-versa, so that the two became one and the same. The ruler was known by the similar term mlk-qrt, and the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel criticises the kings of Tyre for considering themselves god on earth”(i).
He has also been identified with the biblical Samson(a) and the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh(b). Dhani Irwanto who claims that Atlantis was situated in Indonesia has tried to link Herakles with the Javanese mythical figure of Kala [1093.118]. However, Dos Santos who also advocated an Atlantis location in the same region decided that Hercules was originally the Hindu hero Vishnu [320.129], quoting Megasthenes (350-290 BC), the Greek geographer, in support of his contention. Others have referred to Megasthenes as identifying Hercules with Krishna(e)(g). The list of associations seems to go on and on, including the Scandanavian Hoder, Akkadian Nergal, Roman Mars and Ireland’s Cú Chulainn(h).
The penitential twelve labours of Hercules have long been associated with the zodiac(j), which is reminiscent of the warriors in the Iliad who have also been associated with the zodiac!(k) Alice A. Bailey was probably the best-known exponent of this back in the 1980s, in The Labours of Hercules [1163].
He is usually portrayed as brandishing a club and wearing a lion’s head as a helmet, probably because he, like Samson, reputedly unarmed, overcame lions and since lions were not part of the fauna of ancient Greece it is reasonable to assume that at least this part of the tale had an Asian or African origin, but the similarities don’t end there(a).
Euhemerists have suggested that he was a real historical figure, possibly a former king of Argos.
A more controversial suggestion has been made by Emmet J. Sweeney, in his 2001 book, Arthur and Stonehenge[0918], in which the blurb for the book claims that “Arthur himself, he was the primitive bear-god “Artos”, the Celtic version of Hercules. Originally portrayed with a bear-skin over his head and shoulders and carrying a great oaken club, he became the prototype of the Greek Hercules when Hellenic traders, braving the wild waters of the Atlantic in search of tin, heard his story from the Britons.” However, Sweeney also identifies Moses “as an alter ego of Hercules.” in his Atlantis: The Evidence of Science[700.198].
There appears to have been a cult of Heracles that may have extended as far as Britain, where the Cerne Abbas chalk figure is sometimes claimed to represent him(d).
The term ‘Pillars of Heracles’ was used by the ancient Greeks to define the outer reaches of their limited seagoing range. This changed over time as their nautical capabilities improved. Some of the earlier ‘Pillars’ were located at the entrance to the Black Sea and the Strait of Sicily and the Strait of Messina. Later the term was applied exclusively to the Strait of Gibraltar.
(a) Archive 3444
(b) https://phoenicia.org/greek.html
(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles
(d) https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/dorset/ancient/cerne-abbas.htm
(e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megasthenes’_Herakles
(f) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/moses-as-abandoned-hero/
(g) Shri Krishna and Hercules – indian and greek mythology – Indian mythology (archive.org)
(h) https://www.aeonjournal.com/articles/samson/samson.html
(i) https://edukalife.blogspot.com/2015/01/congregation-bible-study-week-starting.html
(j) The Twelve Labours of Hercules (Herakles) (archive.org) *
Flem-Ath, Rand & Rose
Rand and Rose Flem-Ath live in British Columbia, Canada. Both are librarians and have spent several years in the British Museum assembling evidence that they believe supports their contention that Antarctica was the home of Plato’s Atlantis. Together they wrote a highly controversial book, When the Sky Fell [0062], promoting the Antarctic location, which included an Introduction by the late Colin Wilson.
In 2000, Rand published his second book[063], co-authored with Colin Wilson on the subject of ancient civilisations including Atlantis. However, Wilson subsequently changed his views and switched his support to Robert Sarmast’s theory of Atlantis being located off Cyprus. Wilson revealed later, in a 2007 edition of From Atlantis to the Sphinx [p381], that he was unhappy with the final content of The Atlantis Blueprint stating that “it did not represent his views” and wrote an account in Fortean Times(f) of how that book evolved.
In 2014, the Flem-Aths published Killing Moses[1090], which is a speculative account of the life and particularly the death of Moses, even identifying his killer(e)(g). Their narrative builds on ideas originally expressed by Sigmund Freud [1091]. In 2017, they published From Atlantis to the Promised Land 1594], which is a recycling of a variety of material already published by them over the past forty years. Rose Flem-Ath is also a thriller writer[297].
The Flem-Aths used to maintain an interesting and well-illustrated website(a). It recently included a paper on their theory of crustal displacement written over twenty years ago(d).
Professor Steven Earle at the Geology Department of Malaspina University in British Columbia uses the Flem-Ath’s Crustal Displacement hypothesis as the basis for his students to write an essay on its inconsistency with our current understanding of crustal and mantle processes(b).>Geologist Paul Heinrich offers a number of flaws in the claims of the Flem-Aths, particularly relating to glacial evidence that they have used to justify their Pole Shift contentions.(h)<Further criticism of the Flem-Aths work is offered by David L. Mohn(c), a Christian writer.
A new revised and expanded hardcopy edition of When the Sky Fell, entitled Atlantis Beneath the Ice, was published in 2012[981].
To put the Flem-Ath theory in its historical context see my Antarctica entry, where I show that they were not the first to suggest the southern pole as the location of Atlantis, a distinction that belongs to Roberto Rengifo, nearly a century ago.
(a) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170720023341/https://www.flem-ath.com/
(b) Wayback Machine (archive.org)
(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20141005025030/http:/www.ccs-hk.org:80/DM/pyramids/Atlantis.html or See Archive 2858
(d) See Archive 2893
(f) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20190107190740/https://subscribe.forteantimes.com/
(g) Atlantis Rising magazine #110 At – PDF Archive *
Exodus
The Biblical Exodus has been linked by some with the time of the destruction of Atlantis. J. G. Bennett has firmly identified the 2nd millennium BC eruption of Thera with the destruction of Atlantis(f) and in turn, the effect of the volcanic fallout on the Egyptian nation generating the Plagues of Egypt recorded in Exodus.
The fixing of the date of the biblical Exodus is still debated, compounding the broader problem of synchronising the Bronze Age chronologies of the eastern Mediterranean. The early arguments were usually the preserve of biblical scholars(t). However, a wider audience became aware of some of the difficulties when Immanuel Velikovsky published Ages in Chaos [039] and offered some solutions. Since then further revisions have been proposed by Peter James and David Rohl, but the Exodus date is still not definitively fixed(m). On top of all that, other events that should provide reliable chronological ‘anchors’, such as the Trojan War or the eruption of Thera continue to generate dispute as well.
Dr Hans Goedicke, a leading Austrian Egyptologist, expressed a similar view regarding an Exodus link in a 1981 lecture, leading to quite a media stir(c). Ian Wilson, best known for The Turin Shroud, has calculated that the volcanic plume from the Theran eruption would have been clearly visible from the Nile Delta [979.112].
Riaan Booysen believes(b) that two Exodus events can be linked with three possible Theran eruptions and has identified the Israelites as the Hyksos. Ralph Ellis has also linked the biblical Exodus with the expulsion of the Hyksos and devoted a short book[0656] to the idea.
Russell Jacquet-Acea, an American researcher, has written a three-part paper on dating the biblical Exodus, that includes the radical suggestion that there were three exoduses from Egypt(m)(n)(o).
Immanuel Velikovsky and others believed that the controversial Ipuwer Papyrus provides evidence in support of the biblical Exodus as well as the ‘Plagues of Egypt’(d). In 2018, Anne Habermehl delivered a paper to a creationist conference in which she concluded: “that the Ipuwer Papyrus displays strong extra-biblical evidence for the historicity of the Exodus in its description of a chaotic Egypt that would have resulted from the biblical 10 plagues.”(i).
Emilio Spedicato links the biblical Exodus with the explosion of Phaëton in 1447 BC, without any reference to the destruction of Atlantis, which, based on his interpretation of Plato’s text, he associates with a much earlier catastrophe(a).
Alfred de Grazia offers a radical interpretation of the Exodus in God’s Fire [1538], in which he saw the Exodus as a highly organised, rather than an opportunistic event. He also attributed some level of electrical knowledge to Moses, whom he credits with the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, if not the ‘invention’ of Yahweh himself!
Perhaps the most extreme Exodus theory has been presented by Finkelstein & Silberman, who have claimed that “the saga of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt is neither historical truth nor literary fiction” [280.70]. However, the same disbelieving Finkelstein is now going on a search for the Ark of the Covenant(e)!
Flavio Barbiero has now produced an extensive paper(g) in which he precisely dates the Exodus to the night between the 14th and 15th of July of 1208 B.C. (2/3 July of today).
It is important to point out that the historical reality of the Exodus is now being scrutinised as never before, generating growing scepticism. Both Jewish and Christian scholars have expressed serious doubts(s).
William Austin is just one of many who have devoted years to a study of the Exodus dating controversy. The result of his labours is Before the Exodus, a 500-page offering and a condensed version of From Noah to Moses now available on the academia.edu website(u) together with a number of other papers.
“If and when the Exodus occurred is one of the most controversial topics in biblical scholarship. Religious fundamentalists believe it is absolutely true. Skeptics doubt it occurred at all, and neither has any means to prove their case! My approach to the problem has been to assume that much of the controversy is due to an erasure of factual Israelite history in the Old Testament account. It is very difficult to read the Old Testament, then to scroll through Egyptian history and say, “Aha! There’s the Exodus. Read the Bible here; read the papyrus there… See, it all matches. Case closed.” It is very difficult, or it would have been done. This is not to say that the Exodus didn’t occur, it just didn’t occur exactly as recorded in the Old Testament of Christian Bibles.”
Gérard Gertoux noted that estimates for the date of the Exodus ranged from 2150 to 650 BC and so to narrow such an extensive range, he embarked on a forensic study of the problem. In a book(p), The Pharaoh of the Exodus: Fairy tale or real history? [1890] and a 22-page paper(h)(h2) he identified Pharoah Seqenenre Taa, who died on 10 May 1533 BC, as the Pharoah of the Exodus.
Unfortunately, the biblical Exodus has generated several controversies; was it a historical reality, its precise date, the route taken and the identity of the pharaoh of the Exodus? Regarding the last, Rameses II is linked by many with the Exodus, while others have nominated Tutankhamun (Collins & Ogilvie-Herald [1898]), Dudimose (Velikovsky(j), Rohl [229]), Amenemhat IV (Habermehl(k)) Ramesess V (Aboulfotouh(l)) and to these, we may add many others who have been proposed(k). This debate has a long way to go yet.
A more recent (April 2022) article by Jonah Cohen highlights the range of individuals proposed as the pharaoh of the Exodus and suggests that the mystery may not be solvable!(q) Another 2022 article by Gerald Eising opted firmly for Amenhotep II(r).
>As you can see the actual date of the Exodus is disputed, but the difficulties don’t there. Moses the charismatic leader of the Israelites has generated a separate set of problems. Ahmed Osman has identified Moses as the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten [1849]. Graham Phillips, among others, claims that Moses was two different people, living at different times [0034]! Immanuel Velikovsky has linked Akhenaten with Oedipus in Greek mythology [2041]. D.M.Murdock concluded [2058] that Moses cannot be discovered in history, whether as Akhenaten or another historical personage. Compounding all this confusion is the idea that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch and yet, in it, he managed to describe his own death and burial!!<
(a) https://interval.louisiana.edu/conferences/2007_Stenger/Slides_of_talks/mose8-6.pdf
(b) https://riaanbooysen.com/misc/167-book-announcement
(c) Archive 2490 | (atlantipedia.ie)
(e) https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/02/new-search-begins-for-the-ark-of-the-covenant/
(f) https://www.systematics.org/journal/vol1-2/geophysics/systematics-vol1-no2-127-156.htm
(g) https://www.q-mag.org/a-precise-chronology-of-exodus.html
(h) (99+) (PDF) Absolute chronology of Exodus | Gerard GERTOUX – Academia.edu
(i) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329770320_The_Ipuwer_Papyrus_and_the_Exodus
(j) The True Story of Moses and the Pharaoh According to Velikovsky (hermetics.org)
(q) Who was the Exodus Pharaoh? (jns.org)
(r) Who was the Pharaoh of Exodus? – Tidings
(s) https://aroyking.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/has-archaeology-proven-that-the-biblical-exodus-is-a-myth/
(t) https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_exodus_date.html
(u) https://www.academia.edu/20426570/The_Hebrew_chronology_from_Noah_to_Moses_corrected_for_half-years
Cecrops
Cecrops (Kekrops) was, according to tradition, reputed to have been the first king of Athens and is the earliest Athenian name referred
to by Plato along with Erechtheus, Erichthonius and Erisichthon (Crit.110a). There was an early belief that Cecrops was originally a native of Saïs, in Egypt, who emigrated to Greece, where he founded Athens. However, this claim was disputed, even in ancient times(a). This, if true, conflicts with Plato, who states (Tim.23e) that Saïs was founded after Athens, not the other way around.!
>One site has suggested that Cecrops and Moses had a lot in common. “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? After even a cursory examination of the two, it is hard to deny that the founding “myths” of Athens share many curious and intricate coincidences with Jewish history and the symbolisms of Jerusalem. For as the founding myth of Athens goes; Cecrops (herein presented as the Athenian version of Moses), lead the Athenians up out of the land of Egypt.” (d)<
Cecrops is usually depicted as a man with a serpent’s tail, without any clear reason, which for me is vaguely reminiscent of Oannes in Mesopotamian mythology, who had a man’s head with the body of a fish!
Eusebius of Caesarea placed Cecrop’s reign between 1556 and 1506 BC, which if verifiable would provide a possible ‘anchor’ for arriving at a credible date for the destruction of Atlantis.
Wikipedia offers a list of the early kings of Athens which includes two monarchs named Cecrops, the first who is dated according to Eusebius’ calculation and the second, Cecrops II, who supposedly reigned from 1347 BC until 1307 BC!(c)
The existence of Cecrops as a real person who reigned over Athens during the 2nd millennium BC is given further support by the Parian Marble.
None of these earliest kings reigned before the middle of the second millennium BC, which would seem to argue against Atlantis attacking Athens eight millennia earlier, long before the city even existed or had a ruler.<
Atlantisforschung offers a more extensive article about Cecrops(b).
(a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecrops_I
(b) Kekrops I. – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)
(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Athens
(d) https://mosesegyptianised.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/moses-and-cecrops/ *
Barbiero, Flavio
Flavio Barbiero was born in 1942 in Pula, Croatia. He entered the Naval Academy at Livorno in 1961. He pursued his scientific studies at Pisa’s University from where he graduated as an engineer in 1967. He has spent most of his professional life in the Research Centre of the Italian Navy, working on interdisciplinary projects, where he became a specialist in gyroscopic phenomena. He retired in 1998 with the rank of Admiral.
Barbiero is quite clearly a cultured man with a wide range of interests and has been fortunate in being able to combine his naval career with his other activities as a researcher, writer, and lecturer. He has organized and led two scientific expeditions to the Antarctic (in 1976 and 1978). As a member of the Italian Scientific Institution – Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, he participated in archaeological researches in Israel. Barbiero is the author of many articles and books on a variety of subjects, ranging from geology to the Bible. His most recent book, La Bibbia Senza Segreti[1425], is still to be released in an English translation under the title The Book of the Law.
He has also written a paper(f) on the location of Mt. Sinai, which he places in the Negev Desert at Har Karkom, following the work of Prof. Emmanuel Anati
Since 1974, Barbiero has, been an ardent promoter of the controversial idea of Atlantis being located in Antarctica. This belief is the result of his studies into the possibility of a rapid pole shift. He submitted a paper on the subject to the 2008 Atlantis Conference in Athens. Some excerpts are available online(b) with an English translation provided. A more extensive paper in support of his views was published on Graham Hancock’s website in 2006(a).
It is worth noting that although his book[0061] predates the more widely publicised work of the Flem-Aths, it was published in Italian and was probably unknown to them when they published their own book[0062] and as far as I can determine, Barbiero’s original work, Una civiltà sotto ghiaccio, (One Civilisation Under the Ice), is still only available in Italian. Like the Flem-Aths, Barbiero has also proposed a Pole Shift that was caused by an impact with an asteroid or comet(d).
In 2007, Barbiero delivered a paper(e) to the 2007 Conference on Quantavolution in the Swiss town of Kandersteg. The theme of his address concerned the possible effects of an asteroidal or cometary impact with the Earth with particular reference to pole shifts. He has some interesting comments, but for many, such as myself, the section with the mathematical formulae is rather daunting.
However, in 2010 he published, in English, The Secret Society of Moses[1102] , in which he investigates the disappearance of Moses’ descendants from the historical record.
Barbiero has also written an extensive paper(c) in which he precisely dates the biblical Exodus to the night of the 14th and 15th of July of 1208 B.C.
>In 2020, Barbiero published A Frozen Civilisation: Atlantis in Antarctica [1746] and The Bible without Secrets [1745], both in English, which appear to be translations of earlier works. As an engineer, he takes a scientific approach to the question of Atlantis’ location and where necessary throws in a formula or two to support his thesis.<
(a) https://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/BarbieroF1.php
>(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20160401211555/http://www.carro.it/amici/flavio/english.html<
(c) https://www.q-mag.org/a-precise-chronology-of-exodus.html
(e) https://www.2007-q-conference.grazian-archive.com/changesofrotatio/confer-kandersteg-poles-ingl.pdf
(f) https://www.qconference-athens-2011.grazian-archive.com/flaviobarbiero/mount-horeb-1-.pdf
Matlock, Gene
Gene D. Matlock (1928- ) was born in El Dorado, Kansas. He claims that from the age of twelve onward, he developed an interest in foreign languages and human beliefs.
After high school, he went to study at the University of New Mexico, and then went to Mexico City College, in Mexico, where he got a B.A. degree in Spanish and Latin American Affairs in December 1951. While in Mexico he became aware that somehow the ancient Mexicans had maintained close cultural and religious ties with India. He was drafted into the Marine Corps after graduating from Mexico City College and sent to Korea. After getting out of the Marines, he ‘travelled up and down Central America, from Mexico to Panama‘.
In New Orleans he earned a Masters Degree in Spanish at Tulane University. After teaching for a year in a New Orleans high school, he returned to Kansas where he taught for a year at Campus High School in Haysville, a few miles outside Wichita. He became a high school teacher in the Azusa Unified School District and retired after 27 years. He now lives in the California High Desert and spends his time researching the origins of Native Americans and their religions.
He believes that India ruled our prehistoric world including parts of America and that Atlantis was located in South-East Mexico at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan[472]. In an attempt to link his Mexican location with Plato’s description of Atlantis Matlock contends that the ‘elephants’ mentioned by Plato were in fact the long-snouted tapirs of Meso-America!(c) Furthermore, he claims that there was a connection between India, the Phoenicians, Atlantis and Mexico. Matlock has a widely quoted Internet article(a) on the connection between Abraham and India, beginning with the identification of Abraham and his wife Sarai with the Hindu god Brahma and his wife Saraisvati.>In 2000, Matlock published Jesus and Moses Are Buried in India, Birthplace of Abraham and the Hebrews[473], in which he develops this theme further.<
A supportive book by the controversial Sri G. Ananda (Gregory Alexander) entitled Brahma: The God of Abraham[1187] was published in 2014. However, this idea is hotly debated on the Internet by all interested parties, Christian, Muslim and Hindu.
Matlock is forced to admit that “My readers should know that the ‘Atlantis’ described in this book may not be the same as Plato’s ‘Atlantis’. I’m just proving that there was once a part of the world called ‘Atlantis’ – that a part of Mexico once had the Sanskrit name Atlán, Tlan or Toltán, whose citizens were known as Atlantecas and Atlantl”. He then continues with “if my ‘Atlantis’ is not the real ‘Atlantis’ no one will ever find the one Plato mentioned”.
In 2014, Matlock wrote an article(d) advocating the rewriting of ancient history. He appears to have been inspired by the amazing discoveries at Gobekli Tepe.
Matlock has written a number of books[474][475] none of which have generated any serious critical endorsement, in fact some critiques have been more than unkind. You can judge for yourself by reading some of his radical ideas on the Viewzone website(a)(b).
>He has also contributed to Graham Hancock’s website under the name of Gene Douglas!(e)<
(a) https://www.viewzone.com/hinduturk.html
(b) https://www.viewzone.com/abraham.html
(c) https://viewzone.com/atlantis22.html
(d) https://www.turk.org.au/must-we-rewrite-ancient-history-by-gene-d-matlock/
>(e) https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?1,139807,139807<
Bull Cult
A Bull Cult is noted by Plato as one of the characteristics of the culture of Atlantis. Unfortunately, it does little to identify the location of Atlantis since the bull featured prominently in the culture of so many ancient peoples and continues today, principally in the bullfights of Spain, Portugal, and Mexico.
In northern Italy, there was a Gaulish tribe called the Taurini during the first and second centuries BC. The bull was also a symbol of the southern Italic tribes, in a region which Plato informs us was occupied by Atlanteans(e). In Sicily, modern Taormina was formerly known as Tauromenium in Roman times, which may suggest an even earlier association with a bull cult!
Mithraism, which originated in Iranian mythology and developed rapidly in Italy in the first century AD, included in its beliefs, the killing of a bull by the deity Mithras(g).
Writing in Egerton Sykes’ Atlantis in 1955 (Vol.8 No.3), Vera Howe outlined the extent of the bull cults which ranged from Assyria, across the Mediterranean and up to the British Isles. In Volume 10, No. 4, Käte Müller Lisowski (1883-1960) also wrote of bull links between Crete and Ireland. In the February 1963 (Vol.16 No.1) edition of the same journal, it is recounted that Ireland had bull feasts and bull-fighting in ancient times. There is also evidence of a bull cult among the Picts of Scotland(h). Let us not forget that the Israelites began to worship a golden bull-calf when they thought that they had been abandoned by Moses(b).
It is generally accepted that the bull was also associated with lunar religions(a) as the horns resembled the crescent-Moon. Even today the crescent is one of the principal icons of the Islamic faith.
At the 2005 Atlantis Conference, Professor Stavros Papamarinopoulos delivered a paper(i) outlining the Bronze Age bull rituals in Egypt and the Aegean and their parallels in Iberia. In the Temple of Seti at Abydos there is a well-known wall carving depicting Seti I and his son Ramses II roping a bull and further along the wall, sacrificing it.
Felice Vinci draws attention to the fact that both Plato and Homer (Iliad 20.403-404 & Odyssey 13.181) refer to the sacrifice of bulls to Poseidon.
Robert Ishoy had pointed out bull carvings in Sardinia. The Minoan bull jumpers on Crete are widely known. The Egyptians had a cult of Apis the Bull, a fact 
mentioned by R. McQuillen in support of his Egyptian Atlantis theory. When the Israelites rebelled they worshipped a golden calf or more correctly a young bull (Exodus 32). Exodus 29.36 also instructs the priests that “Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement.“
In the seventeenth century, Olof Rudbeck associated the ancient Swedish custom of sacrificing a bull to Odin with the bull immolation described in Plato’s Atlantis.
Carvings of bulls’ heads decorated the home of ancient Anatolia in modern Turkey. There are bull carvings to be seen at Tarxien in Malta and not far away in Northern Tunisia ancient carvings of bulls are also to be found(c). The ancient Celts also included bulls in their ceremonies. The Assyrians had a bull-god as their guardian. The oldest church in Toulouse is dedicated to St. Taur, a possible reference to an earlier bull cult. Further afield, in India, there is a bull-taming sport, jallikattu, which is practised annually in the villages of the southern state of Tamil Nadu and is recently the subject of a failed attempt to ban it(f).
Dhani Irwanto, who claims a Sundaland location for Atlantis has proposed that Plato’s mention of bulls was the result a distorted account of the original Atlantis narrative brought by refugees from Indonesia and was a reference to the local water buffalo!
Peter James in a short appendix to his book, The Sunken Kingdom[047] supports a Lydian origin for the Atlantis tale and argued that Plato’s text makes no reference to the bull-leaping game depicted in Minoan art. However, quoted the studies of the British anthropologist Jane Harrison(1850-1928) who discovered [600]+ that a coin from Troy’s Roman period depicted a bull being sacrificed in exactly the same manner as Plato’s description, namely, suspended from a pillar. The Roman bull sacrifice ritual was known as ‘taurobolium’.
James also provides other instances of possible Atlantean-style bull worship in the same region which also contains his proposed location for Atlantis, ancient Sipylus.
In conclusion, therefore, it must be obvious from the above that Plato’s reference to bull rituals is no definitive guide to finding an exclusive location and so probably has limited value in any quest for Atlantis.
[600]+ https://archive.org/details/themisstudyofsoc00harr *
(a) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170705055429/https://www.touregypt.net:80/egypt-info/magazine-mag04012001-magf5.htm
(b) https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07514.html
(c) 22 | Hadrumetum – Hidjaba – Haouanet – G. Camps and M. Longerstay – Éditions Peeters (archive.org) (French) *
(d) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Italy
(e) Timaeus 25b & Critias 114c
(f) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-38705616
(g) https://www.ancient.eu/Mithraic_Mysteries/
Phillips, Graham
Graham Phillips is a British investigator with a number of books [034][035][036] on ‘alternative history’ to his credit. One of them [034] originally entitled Act of God was republished in the USA with the title of Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt. This 358-page volume contains just TWO pages on Atlantis where the author suggests that the 2nd millennium BC eruption of Thera was the cause of the destruction of Atlantis. This unscrupulous retitling is a sad reflection of the standards of American publishers.
In 2004, Phillips published Templars and of the Ark of the Covenant [1345] in which the promotional blurb claims that he has “compelling evidence that the Knights Templar may have taken the Ark of the Covenant to the British Isles” and “offers compelling documentation that the Ark may be located in the English countryside, not far from the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon.” I note the repeated use of the word ‘may’.>He also suggests that at least one of the stone tablets on which the original Ten Commandments were inscribed may have been brought to England!<
His most recent book [036] offers evidence of a close encounter between the earth and a comet in 1485 BC that produced an apparition that may have appeared twenty times the size of a full moon. Phillips claims that it had a profound effect on those that witnessed it and led to widespread forms of monotheism, including that of Moses and Akhenaten. What is even more radical is his claim that the comet’s tail contained an amino acid such as vasopressin that can make humans more aggressive and which led to a simultaneous outbreak of wars in many parts of the world between nations that had previously lived in harmony with each other. This particular aggressive phase appears to have subsided after a period of about ten years.
His most recent (2019) offering, Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge [1914] has a different approach to understanding Stonehenge, as explained by the cover notes “Graham argues that, with stones aligned to the sun, stars, and positions of the moon, stone circles were not just astronomical calendars, as some scholars have proposed, but were part of an elaborate system to determine precise timings necessary for the cultivation of medicinal plants. The Druids, he reveals, had medical knowledge well beyond their time, and may even have found a cure for cancer. Graham also discovers that the Megalithic people developed phenomenal memory techniques, resulting in a priesthood that became both the guardians of the stone circles and the living libraries of inherited knowledge. Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge uncovers the long-forgotten secrets of the Megalithic people and the true extent of their astonishing achievements: a vast network of monuments, as important to the ancient peoples of the British Isles as the internet is for us today. The true purpose of Stonehenge is ultimately revealed. It was not just a religious monument, but served a vital, practical function – as a prehistoric healthcare facility.”
Late July 2023 saw the publication of Phillips’ The Mystery of Doggerland: Atlantis in the North Sea [2063]. To be candid, this has book little to do with Atlantis, as Phillips believes that only two locations are worthy of consideration as the inspiration for the Atlantis myth – Santorini (Thera) and the Caribbean (Bahamas). Since there is no evidence that Plato even knew that the Bahamas existed and the Minoan Hypothesis conflicts with too much of Plato’s account, there is little left. His speculations extend to suggesting that ‘orichalcum’ was an early word for platinum!
However, I would prefer to end on a positive note and advise that if you are interested in Neolithic megaliths, you will find this book informative, particularly if you are intrigued by the history and ancient monuments of Orkneys, where the earliest stone circles in the British Isles are to be found. He places a sunken Thule (Tu-lay) just north of the Orkneys. The distance from the Orkneys to Doggerland is nearly 1000 km so the connection eluded me.
>Phillips has been featured as ‘Author of the Month’ on Graham Hancock’s website(b) and his book has been reviewed briefly by Jason Colavito(c).<
I consider the inclusion of Atlantis and Doggerland in the title was the work of publishers to boost sales, but they could at least have ended the subtitle with an exclamation or question mark.
Graham Phillips has also an official website(a).
(a) http://www.grahamphillips.net/
(b) The Mystery of Doggerland – Graham Hancock Official Website *
(c) Review of Ancient Aliens S19E16: “The Gods of Greece” – JASON COLAVITO *
Egypt
Egypt occupies the northeastern corner of Africa. However, the ancient Egyptians considered themselves 
Asian (Tim. 24b). Over its long history, Egypt itself was overrun by a variety of invaders – Hyksos, Kushites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.
In practical terms, its territory consisted of a few miles on either side of the Nile together with its large Delta. In an expansionist period in the 2nd millennium BC, Egypt controlled parts of what are now Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Libya.
The exact extent of Egyptian-controlled territory in Libya at the time of Atlantis is unclear. We do know that “In the mid-13th century BC, Marmarica was dominated by an Egyptian fortress chain stretching along the coast as far west as the area around Marsa Matruh; by the early 12th century, Egypt claimed overlordship of Cyrenaican tribes as well. At one point a ruler chosen by Egypt was set up (briefly!) over the combined tribes of Meshwesh, Libu, and Soped.”(r)
A Wikipedia map(q) suggests that Egyptian New Kingdom control stretched at least halfway towards Syrtis Major, which has been proposed by some as the location of Atlantis.
As most are aware the history of Egypt is inextricably linked with that of the Old Testament, leading to the suggestion by some, such as Ahmed Osman(k), that individuals in the Egyptian 18th Dynasty can be identified with some of the Hebrew Patriarchs, most notably Moses and the heretic king Akhenaten. Interestingly, this linkage had been put forward previously by Sigmund Freud!
>Charles N. Pope has endorsed Osman’s identification of Moses as Akhenaten in his online book Living in Truth: Archaeology and the Patriarchs(z).<
Osman goes further and contends that the main tenets of Christianity developed on the banks of the Nile [1852] and additionally “provides a convincing argument that Jesus himself came out of Egypt.” This is in sharp contrast to those that claim that both Moses and Jesus are completely fictitious characters(l).
Egypt was viewed by the Greeks of Plato’s time as guardians of ancient history and wisdom and consequently was a place of pilgrimage for many of its greatest philosophers, who travelled there to be initiated into the cults of Isis and Osiris. Gustav Parthey (1798-1872), the German antiquarian, researched the education of 40 leading philosophers, writers and politicians of ancient Greece and found that all had studied under Egyptian priests. Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) suggested that Plato travelled to Heliopolis and was a disciple of the Egyptian priest Sechnuphis. Other classical writers such as Strabo and Plutarch have confirmed this(i).
Zsofia Frei has published a paper defending the idea that Greek philosophy came from Egypt(s).
Despite this, the Greeks arrogantly referred to all non-Greeks, including the Atlanteans (Crit. 113a) as ‘barbarians’. It is of interest that Athene after whom the Greek capital is named originated in Egypt where she was worshipped as Neith.
The late Philip Coppens went as far as to suggest(a) that Greece was an Egyptian colony!
Plato’s text seems to infer that the destruction of Atlantis in 9600 BC was contemporary with Egyptian civilisation, raising archaeological questions regarding the earliest date for the establishment of an organised society in Egypt. Unfortunately, there is not a lot to support this contention. The oldest known art in Egypt was discovered in 2007 when petroglyphs were estimated to be 15,000 years old(u). The earliest culture along the Nile, identified by archaeologists is that of what is known as the Badarian dating to around 4500 BC. They produced basic pottery, and jewellery and used stone tools although they had some knowledge of metals. The Badarians were followed by the Naqada who led on to what we identify as the spectacular ancient Egyptian civilisation. However, in 2007, rock carvings, similar in style to the Lascaux paintings were discovered near the village of Qurta, 650km south of Cairo. The 160 carvings, spread over 1.5km of the rock face, discovered so far, mainly depict wild bulls and have been dated to 13000 BC(h)
September 2013 saw the publication(c)(d) of a more definitive date for the start of the state of Egypt, beginning with the reign of king Aha circa 3100 BC. Before that, early agriculture in Egypt appears to date back to around 5000 BC(t). This eventually led to the establishment of permanent agricultural villages. In time some of these grew into towns and cities eventually leading to Dynastic Egypt. This undermines even more firmly the claims of the Egyptians that their country was founded around 8,600 BC as reported by Plato.
It is not surprising that ancient Egypt has presented us with very many unanswered questions, some of which have been compiled, posted on Wikipedia but subsequently removed(g).
Many writers have remarked how all aspects of ancient Egyptian culture seem to have arrived fully developed, while later dynasties did not surpass some of the achievements of the earlier ones! The conclusion of some is that the fully matured civilisation of the early Egyptians was a legacy from elsewhere.
Sanchuniathon refers to the original kings of Egypt calling them ‘Aleteans’. Albert Slosman claims[551] that survivors from Atlantis had migrated to Egypt. The archaeologist, Marcelle Weissen-Szumianska, in a 1965 book, Origines Atlantiques des Anciens Egyptiens [837], maintained that the pre-pharaonic Egyptians originated in Atlantis, which had been situated in Morocco! Others suggest that Egypt was an Atlantean colony. The idea was brought to a ridiculous level by Augustus Le Plongeon who claimed that Egypt was a Mayan colony!
A more grounded study by Alapan Roy Chowdhury investigates the claim put forward by some researchers that there are remarkable similarities between the cultures of ancient India and Egypt(v-y)*. “Was there a real connection or are these similarities only coincidences?”(j) The tributetohinduism.com website(n) develops this idea further.
Robert Schoch has controversially dated the construction of the Sphinx to between 7000-5000 BC, while the megalithic structures at Nabta Playa suggest a sophisticated culture in that region around 5000 BC. Even if both these early dates are correct they are still over four and a half millennia short of Plato’s date. This most likely explanation is that Plato’s number of 9,000 years before Solon is incorrect as 9000 is too neat and may have been a siglum used to express a large but uncertain number or is an exaggeration just as today we speak of having ‘a million and one things to do’.
In 1897, a Russian scientist, A.N. Karnozhitsky was probably the earliest commentator to propose a close link between Egypt and Atlantis, placing the Pillars of Heracles near Sais and locating Atlantis itself not far from the western mouth of the Nile.
Some years ago, Egypt was again been proposed as the original Atlantis, in a still (June 2021) unpublished book, The Joshua Crossing, by N. R. James. However, 2006 saw a paper presented by Professor Hossam Aboulfotouh of Minia University, Egypt, placed Atlantis in the Nile Delta. The following year R. McQuillen also offered an Egyptian location for Atlantis, placing it at Pharos near Alexandria.
In 2020 Jean-Pierre Pätznick, a French Egyptologist published an article in Pharaon magazine (No 41) about Atlantis and Egypt(o). Thorwald C. Franke has written a critical review of the paper(p).
More recently (March 2021), Diego Ratti, published Atletenu [1821], in which he placed Atlantis in Egypt, with its capital located at Avaris, better known before now as the capital of the Hyksos. He questions a number of the English translations of the Greek text, offering his own where ‘appropriate’. The book is carefully constructed and well-illustrated, but, although he appears to match some of Plato’s Atlantis details with the Nile Delta, there was not enough to convince me.
A novel idea has been put forward by Mary Whispering Wind(b), who bravely offers the idea that the Atlantean province of Egypt was, Colchis, situated on the east coast of the Black Sea! She bases her claim on an interpretation of Herodotus (Book II.104/5) who was commenting on circumcision being only practised by Egyptians, Ethiopians and Colchians, in my mind, stretching what Herodotus said beyond the acceptable.
An even more radical suggestion was made by Reinoud M. de Jong in a 2009 paper(f) where he boldly claimed “that during the whole period of the (Michigan) copper trade, America was part of the Egyptian Empire” and during the Old Kingdom “this huge empire was known as Atlantis”!
One blogger, from California, has gone so far as to suggest that the ‘Egypt’ that Solon visited was on the shores of the Sea of Marmara!(e)
Margaret Bunson’s Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt [1872]+ is now available online.
[1872]+(99+) Bunson – Encyclopedia of ancient Egypt | Iffa Hamzah – Academia.edu
(a) See Archive 2136
(b) https://atlantis-today.com/Atlantis_Atlantis_Code.htm
(d) https://ancientfoods.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/egypt-wasnt-built-in-a-day-but-it-did-rise-quickly/
(e) https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=253407&st=45#entry4895373
(f) https://megalithicresearch.blogspot.com/2009/12/copper-trade-with-old-world-poverty.html
(g) https://www.historyandheadlines.com/list-of-unsolved-problems-in-egyptology/
(i) https://www.vision.org/history-of-ancient-egyptian-city-of-heliopolis-influence-on-modern-culture-41
(j) https://pathoflight15.wordpress.com/author/alapan88/
(k) http://www.domainofman.com/ankhemmaat/contents.html
(l) Jesus Moses were Invented – Bible Dates (archive.org)
(o) (99+) (PDF) Atlantis: ‘Lost in Translations’ – In Search of the Egyptian Version | Jean-Pierre PÄTZNICK – Academia.edu (French with English translation available)
(p) https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-paetznick.htm
(q) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Kingdom_of_Egypt
(r) https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/egyptians-and-libyans-in-the-new-kingdom/
(s) (99+) Egypt and the origins of greek philosophy | Zsofia Frei – Academia.edu
(t) How old is ancient Egypt? | Live Science
(u) http://africascience.blogspot.com/2007/07/egypts-oldest-known-art-identified-is.html
(v) (99+) BHAARATIYAS IN EGYPT | Alapan Roy Chowdhury – Academia.edu *
(w) (99+) BHAARATIYAS IN EGYPT (Part-2) | Alapan Roy Chowdhury – Academia.edu *
(x) (99+) BHAARATIYAS IN EGYPT (Part-3) | Alapan Roy Chowdhury – Academia.edu *
(y) (99+) BHAARATIYAS IN EGYPT (Part-4) | Alapan Roy Chowdhury – Academia.edu *
(z) http://www.domainofman.com/book/chap-16.html *