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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Ranko Jakovljevic
Danube *
The River Danube is the second-longest river in Europe, which was known to the ancient Greeks as ‘Istros’. It rises in Germany’s Black Forest and after passing through many countries, including four capital cities, it eventually empties into the Black Sea.
A number of researchers have associated the river with Plato’s Atlantis. One of the earliest was Nicolae Densusianu who proposed that Atlantis had been situated in ancient Dacia, his native Romania. Over a century later some of his ideas have been revived by other Romanian commentators such as Adrian Bucurescu and Alexandra Furdui, who also translated Densusianu’s monumental work into English.
Densusian’s nationalism is now frowned upon and there is an understandable suspicion that his modern Romanian supporters may have similar underlying motivations.
There is a gorge on the Danube known as the Iron Gates which provides part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania. Densusianu located the Pillars of Heracles at the Iron Gates, an idea supported by Ticleanu, Constantin & Nicolescu at the 2008 Atlantis Conference, who place Atlantis further west on the Pannonian Plain [750.365]. In 2020, Veljko Milkovic also placed the ‘Pillars’ at the Iron Gates on the Danube and Atlantis in the Pannonian Basin(c) in his book Panonska Atlantida [1932].
However, Ranko Jakovlievic expressed the view that the Iron Gates section of the Danube was the location of Atlantis!
Related to this, is the claim by an anonymous ‘Sherlock’ that Pindar’s Olympian Ode 3 suggested that the Pillars of Herakles had been situated at the confluence of the Seva and Danube rivers near modern Belgrade(b).
A recent book [1742] by Antonije Shkokljev & Slave Nikolovski–Katin also recount an ancient version of the ‘Labours of Hercules’ that took place in the Balkans.
Christian and Siegfried Schoppe locate Atlantis east of the Danube Delta on Snake Island (Zimiinyi) in the Black Sea, an idea now adopted by George K. Weller(a). [Zimiinyi, Ukrainian territory, was occupied by the Russians 25.02.22 as part of their invasion of Ukraine]
Iron Gate(s), The
The Iron Gate(s) is the name given to a gorge on the River Danube that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania. A century ago, Nicolae Densusianu proposed The Iron Gate as the location for the Pillars of Heracles, on the Danube in ancient Dacia, modern Romania.
A recent book [1742] by Antonije Shkokljev & Slave Nikolovski–Katin has related an ancient version of the ‘Labours of Hercules’ based in the Balkan-Danube region.
Recently, Ranko Jakovljevic expressed the view that the Iron Gate section of the Danube in Serbia was the location of Atlantis.
A paper presented to the 2008 Atlantis Conference by Ticleanu, Constantin & Nicolescu [750.375] has the ‘Pillars of Heracles’ located at the Iron Gate but placed Atlantis a little further west on what is now the Pannonian Plain.
>In 2020 Veljko Milkovic also placed the ‘Pillars’ at the Iron Gates on the Danube and Atlantis in the Pannonian Basin(c)(d) in his book Panonska Atlantida [1932].<
This minority view of Atlantis located in Eastern European is seen by a few commentators to be vindicated by the literate Vinca culture(b) of the Danubian region, although the Schoppes see the Vinca people as refugees from their original home in the Black Sea region(a).
For me, all those theories conflict with Plato’s unambiguous statement that the invading Atlanteans came from the west (Tim.25b & Crit.114c). In fact, what Plato actually said was that the invasion came from the Atlantic Sea (pelagos). Although there is some disagreement about the location of this Atlantic Sea, all candidates proposed so far are west of both Athens and Egypt.
(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20190819053842/https://www.black-sea-atlantis.com/schoppe.pdf
Densusianu, Nicolae *
Nicolae Densusianu (1846-1911) was a Romanian ethnologist and folklorist, although he was born in Transylvania, at the time 
part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He claimed that ancient Dacia had been the centre of a widespread Pelasgian Empire. His major work, published posthumously, Prehistoric Dacia, includes the suggestion that Atlantis had been located in Dacia, now Romania. The text of this extensive book, in English [1597]+, is available in its entirety on the Internet.
His excessive nationalism, popular during the communist regime, is now deemed unacceptable and his work discredited.
Nevertheless, interest in Densusianu and aspects of his theories have seen a resurgence in books from researchers such as Adrian Bucurescu and Alexandra Furdui.
Densusianu’s work has also been recently echoed in two books by the Serbian historian, Ranko Jakovljevic, although he moves the focus further west from Romania to his own native Serbia.
[1597]+ https://www.scribd.com/doc/240014812/Prehistoric-Dacia-Nicolae-Densusianu-1913 *
Pannonian Plain
The Pannonian Plain or Basin including the Great Plain of Hungary is a 
large feature in central and Eastern Europe that had been an inland sea in prehistoric times(b). It was formerly part of the ancient Roman province of Dacia. A paper was submitted to the 2008 Atlantis Conference in Athens by three Romanian researchers, M. Ticleanu, P. Constanin and R. Nicolescu proposing this region as the original location of Atlantis. This paper, together with a large number of maps, is now available on the internet(a).
The Pannonian theory should be studied in conjunction with the substantial work of Nicolae Densusianu who proposed in 1913 that the Pillars of Heracles had been situated on the Danube, as well as the more recent views of Ranko Jakovljevic who also proposes a Danubian solution to the Atlantis mystery.
>In 2020, Veljko Milkovic also placed the ‘Pillars’ at the Iron Gates on the Danube and Atlantis in the Pannonian Basin in his book Panonska Atlantida [1932] and in a short paper with maps on the internet(c).<
However, none of them explains the Atlantean invasion of Egypt and Athens coming from the west (Tim.25b & Crit.114c)! In fact, what Plato said was that the invasion came from the Atlantic Sea (pelagos). Although there is some disagreement about the location of this Atlantic Sea, all candidates proposed so far are west of both Athens and Egypt. Furthermore, there is no evidence, or even hint of a suggestion, that any peoples in the Pannonian region had control as far as “Tyrrhenia and Egypt”. Consequently, this Pannonian theory conflicts with the only unambiguous geographical description of Atlantean controlled territory provided by Plato.