Quest for Atlantis. The search for archaeological<\/p>\n
evidence of a legend<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
Leidschrift, jaargang 32, nummer 1, januari 2017<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/p>\n
As old as Stonehenge, the megalithic site of Carnac, in France, is not a stone<\/p>\n
circle or \u2018henge\u2019. It is, instead, four separate groupings of linear alignments<\/p>\n
consisting of more than three thousand upright stones or \u2018menhirs\u2019. As an<\/p>\n
archaeologist interested in the ability of ancient people to marshal the forces<\/p>\n
of enormous groups and coordinate their labor to produce monumental<\/p>\n
structures, I wanted to see Carnac for myself. My assistant during my 2001<\/p>\n
visit to the site was my then fifteen-year-old son Josh. At first, we had the<\/p>\n
place all to ourselves and, except for the rumble of traffic on a nearby<\/p>\n
roadway, it was easy to imagine Carnac as it was when new, more than 4,000<\/p>\n
years ago.<\/p>\n
That is when we saw him. He appeared to be, at first, nothing more<\/p>\n
than another visitor to the site, entranced, as we were, by its alien majesty.<\/p>\n
Curiously, however, each time I looked up from my reverie, he appeared to<\/p>\n
be moving surreptitiously toward us. When he finally peered out from<\/p>\n
behind the standing stone my son and I were examining, I was startled and<\/p>\n
more than a little concerned about this gentleman\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n
My French speaking abilities, already fairly limited, became even<\/p>\n
worse in my emotional state, but I managed to blurt out: \u2018Pardon? Que<\/p>\n
voulez-vous?\u2019 To which the stranger responded in heavily accented English:<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh, I am not French, I am Dutch. I am so sorry to disturb you. Pardon me,<\/p>\n
but aren\u2019t you an archaeologist?\u2019<\/p>\n
I was stunned. How could this person have known my profession? I<\/p>\n
responded: \u2018Well, yes, but how did you know that?\u2019 His response clarified<\/p>\n
the situation.<\/p>\n
I have recently seen you on a BBC documentary about the Lost<\/p>\n
Continent of Atlantis. I recognized you immediately and thought it<\/p>\n
such an amazing bit of luck, running into an archaeologist from the<\/p>\n
television here at this wonderful place. I have had a long layman\u2019s<\/p>\n
interest in archaeology and I thought the documentary was fantastic,<\/p>\n
so very interesting. I very much enjoyed your contribution to the<\/p>\n
show.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
64<\/p>\n
The program to which he was referring was titled Atlantis Uncovered. It was a<\/p>\n
1999 BBC documentary, part of their Horizon science series. 1 I had, indeed,<\/p>\n
been interviewed on the program, wherein I expressed my strong skepticism<\/p>\n
concerning the historicity of Atlantis.<\/p>\n
I admit, at that moment, to feeling rather full of myself as my new<\/p>\n
Dutch friend heaped praise upon the documentary, my profession in<\/p>\n
general, and me in particular. Of course, it did seem a bit odd when he<\/p>\n
leaned in and whispered, almost conspiratorially: \u2018Are you searching for<\/p>\n
Atlantis here?\u2019 I really had been unremittingly skeptical about the claim that<\/p>\n
Atlantis was a real place or even that Plato had based the dialogues in which<\/p>\n
the story appears on an actual location and series of events. At the<\/p>\n
conclusion of our conversation, the two of us shook hands and off he went,<\/p>\n
quite pleased, it appeared, to have met a \u2018real\u2019 archaeologist, one from the<\/p>\n
television no less.<\/p>\n
I turned to my son, perhaps a little too prideful, and said: \u2018You have<\/p>\n
to admit that was pretty impressive. Here we are, walking around an ancient<\/p>\n
megalithic monument in France and a Dutch guy recognizes me and praises<\/p>\n
my contribution to a television documentary produced by the BBC and<\/p>\n
then asks if I\u2019m searching for Atlantis. I\u2019m internationally famous! Aren\u2019t<\/p>\n
you impressed?\u2019 Josh gave me his best look of fake sincerity, put his hand<\/p>\n
on my shoulder and said: \u2018Gee dad; I guess you know you\u2019ve really made it<\/p>\n
when you have a fan club in Holland.\u2019<\/p>\n
The purpose of this story, however, is not to show how annoying<\/p>\n
teenagers can be, but to exemplify the abiding interest people have in the<\/p>\n
possibility that archaeological evidence proves that human history was<\/p>\n
greatly influenced by a precociously sophisticated ancient civilization which,<\/p>\n
despite its advanced technology, great wealth, and military power was<\/p>\n
destroyed by an unimaginable natural cataclysm about 11,600 years ago. The<\/p>\n
producers of the BBC documentary and my Dutch friend were certainly not<\/p>\n
the first to wonder if there was any truth to the tale told by Critias and<\/p>\n
passed along by Plato. That interest in Atlantis has inspired some to actually<\/p>\n
search for the truth behind Plato\u2019s story in the physical record provided by<\/p>\n
archaeology. I will summarize a number of these attempts in this paper.<\/p>\n
1 \u2018Atlantis Uncovered\u2019, BBC Horizon (1999).<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
65<\/p>\n
Finding Atlantis?<\/p>\n
Louis Figuier was a well-respected naturalist and scientist in the second half<\/p>\n
of the nineteenth century. The author of several books, the one most<\/p>\n
relevant to our discussion here is La Terre et Les Mers ou Description Physique<\/p>\n
du Globe \u2013 The Earth and the Seas or Description of the World. 2 In this work,<\/p>\n
Figuier appears to be the first author to assert that: 1) Plato\u2019s Atlantis was a<\/p>\n
veritable place; 2) it was located, not in the Atlantic, but in the<\/p>\n
Mediterranean and; 3) its demise as described in the Timaeus and Critias<\/p>\n
dialogues was precipitated by an actual event, specifically the volcanic<\/p>\n
eruption of Thera on the island historically called Santorini. 3 In La Terre et<\/p>\n
Les Mers, Figuier proposes that:<\/p>\n
In other words, we hope to establish that Plato\u2019s Atlantis, accepted<\/p>\n
by some, denied by others, interpreted a hundred ways at various<\/p>\n
times, has really existed, and disappeared beneath the waves, because<\/p>\n
of earthquakes similar to those seen today in the vicinity of Santorini.<\/p>\n
Plato\u2019s Atlantis was, in our view, an island in the archipelago of<\/p>\n
Greece. A volcanic upheaval swallowed it beneath the waters of the<\/p>\n
Mediterranean in prehistoric times.4<\/p>\n
Disputing the claims made by others that Atlantis was located in Palestine,<\/p>\n
Sweden, or America, Figuier maintains that Atlantis existed \u2018not beyond the<\/p>\n
Pillars of Hercules, as in the text of Timaeus, but we believe, in the Greek<\/p>\n
archipelago.\u2019 5 Like many authors who followed him, Figuier ignores many<\/p>\n
of the particulars of Critias\u2019s rather precise details concerning the location<\/p>\n
of Atlantis (in the Atlantic Ocean) as well as its size (\u2018greater in extent than<\/p>\n
Libya and Asia\u2019 6 ).<\/p>\n
At one time associated with Queen\u2019s College in Belfast, K.T. Frost<\/p>\n
followed Figuier in a correspondence titled \u2018The Lost Continent\u2019, published<\/p>\n
anonymously in The Times (London) on February 19, 1909. 7 There he asserts<\/p>\n
2 L. Figuier, La Terre et Les Mers ou Description Physique du Globe (Paris, 1872).<\/p>\n
3 Plato, Timaeus. http:\/\/classics.mit.edu\/Plato\/timaeus.html, accessed 16 October<\/p>\n
2016; Plato, Critias. http:\/\/classics.mit.edu\/Plato\/critias.html, accessed 16 October<\/p>\n
2016.<\/p>\n
4 Figuier, La Terre et Les Mers, 415; my translation.<\/p>\n
5 Ibidem, 420-421.<\/p>\n
6 Plato, Critias. http:\/\/classics.mit.edu\/Plato\/critias.html, accessed 16 October 2016.<\/p>\n
7 K.T. Frost, \u2018The Lost Continent\u2019, The Times, 19 February 1909, 10.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
66<\/p>\n
that the essence of Plato\u2019s Atlantis story was based on fact. He specifies that:<\/p>\n
\u2018The whole description of Atlantis which is given in the Timaeus and Critias<\/p>\n
has features so thoroughly Minoan that even Plato could not have invented<\/p>\n
so many unsuspecting facts.\u20198 Sir Arthur Evans had, in 1903, excavated the<\/p>\n
great, labyrinthine structure at Knossos on Crete and, in so doing, had<\/p>\n
discovered what he believed to be an ancient, lost civilization, that of the<\/p>\n
Minoans. Frost believed that this Minoan civilization had been the<\/p>\n
inspiration for Plato\u2019s Atlantis.<\/p>\n
Four years later, Frost abandoned his anonymity and expanded his<\/p>\n
thesis in an article published in The Journal of Hellenic Studies (1913). 9 Frost<\/p>\n
makes clear the thrust of his argument in the title of that article: \u2018The Critias<\/p>\n
and Minoan Crete\u2019. Frost reiterated in this article that much of Plato\u2019s<\/p>\n
description of the geography and culture of Atlantis was a remarkably close<\/p>\n
match to what was historically known and what had been archaeologically<\/p>\n
revealed about Minoan Crete, but his enumeration of similarities is quite<\/p>\n
generic. He notes, for example, that Plato\u2019s Atlantis was a \u2018great and<\/p>\n
wonderful empire\u2019 which held dominion over the sea in which it was<\/p>\n
located. 10 Beyond this Frost points out that the Atlanteans had expansionist<\/p>\n
ambitions, hoping to economically and politically dominate their neighbors.<\/p>\n
Frost then asks rhetorically: \u2018Could the political position of Cnossus (today<\/p>\n
spelled Knossos) be expressed more accurately?\u2019 11 Well, though such a<\/p>\n
summary of Atlantis as provided in Timaeus and Critias may seem to be an<\/p>\n
accurate match for Minoan Crete, it applies to virtually all civilizations, both<\/p>\n
ancient and modern. The very general nature of so many of the proposed<\/p>\n
identities between Atlantis and an archaeological source, especially Minoan<\/p>\n
Crete, is a fundamental problem that afflicts Frost\u2019s and, in truth, every<\/p>\n
attempt to link the literary creation of Plato to a real place.<\/p>\n
Frost clearly recognizes that in order to transport an island nation<\/p>\n
placed by Plato in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Pillars of Hercules (the<\/p>\n
Straits of Gibraltar), to a location within the Mediterranean where Crete is<\/p>\n
actually located, quite a bit of reworking needs to be done to Plato\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
Frost simply asserts that, regarding the location of Atlantis, the Egyptian<\/p>\n
source of the tale must simply have been confused. The details about<\/p>\n
8 Frost, \u2018The Lost Continent\u2019, 10.<\/p>\n
9 K.T. Frost, \u2018The Critias and Minoan Crete\u2019, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 33 (1913)<\/p>\n
189-206.<\/p>\n
10 Frost, \u2018The Critias and Minoan Crete\u2019, 197.<\/p>\n
11 Ibidem.<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
67<\/p>\n
Atlantis appearing in Critias, and which Frost acknowledges to be<\/p>\n
demonstrably false (for example, the significant role of elephants on the lost<\/p>\n
continent though they are wholly lacking in Minoan Crete), are dismissed as<\/p>\n
minor errors or embellishments which also can be ignored. 12 In other words,<\/p>\n
Frost picks and chooses those general details of Timaeus and Critias that<\/p>\n
match what was then known about Minoan Crete and ignores or<\/p>\n
rationalizes those that don\u2019t. Tellingly, concerning the precise and<\/p>\n
impossible dating of Atlantis and its utter destruction some 9,300 years<\/p>\n
before Plato, Frost has nothing to say at all.<\/p>\n
Making Crete Atlantis<\/p>\n
Following this, not much new was added to the Atlantis equation until<\/p>\n
Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos proposed a mechanism for the fall,<\/p>\n
not of Atlantis, but of the Minoan civilization, in an article published in the<\/p>\n
venerable British journal Antiquity in 1939. 13 Since Evans, archaeologists and<\/p>\n
historians have recognized that, beginning about 5,000 years ago, Minoan<\/p>\n
Crete had evolved into the dominant pre-Mycenaean and pre-Greek<\/p>\n
economic and political entity in the Mediterranean, an equal to that of<\/p>\n
Egypt to the east and south during the same time period. Centered on the<\/p>\n
island of Crete, the iconic architectural accomplishment of Minoan<\/p>\n
civilization is the sprawling complex at Knossos, a monumental palace\/civic<\/p>\n
center, built more than 3,800 years ago, which was home to their king, and<\/p>\n
was also the hub of Minoan economic and social life.<\/p>\n
Covering a vast expanse of 20,000 m 2 , the Knossos palace contains<\/p>\n
more than one thousand separate rooms in its three and sometimes four<\/p>\n
individual levels, including a central courtyard, a ceremonial bath, rooms for<\/p>\n
storage, living quarters adorned with frescos of dolphins and bulls, and a<\/p>\n
complex of elaborate rooms thought to have housed the king and his family<\/p>\n
(see fig. 1). Archaeologists Runnels and Murray characterize the palace at<\/p>\n
Knossos as, fundamentally, \u2018a village under one roof.\u2019 14 Upwards of 100,000<\/p>\n
people were citizens of the Minoan polity, living on Crete and surrounding<\/p>\n
12 Frost, \u2018The Critias and Minoan Crete\u2019, 204-205.<\/p>\n
13 S. Marinatos, \u2018The volcanic destruction of Minoan Crete\u2019, Antiquity 13 (1939)<\/p>\n
425-439.<\/p>\n
14 C. Runnels and P.M. Murray, Greece Before History: An Archaeological Companion and<\/p>\n
Guide (Stanford, CA 2001) 80.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
68<\/p>\n
islands in the Mediterranean. Crete\u2019s geographic position in the<\/p>\n
Mediterranean allowed for its control of trade in the region and it became a<\/p>\n
dominant maritime power with important harbors and a large fleet of<\/p>\n
seaworthy ships.<\/p>\n
Fig. 1: Photograph showing a small, reconstructed and refurbished<\/p>\n
segment of the expansive palace of Knossos on Crete. Photo:<\/p>\n
Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia. Https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/<\/p>\n
Knossos#\/media\/File:Knossos_-_North_Portico_02.jpg, accessed 1<\/p>\n
November 2016.<\/p>\n
An ancient and magnificent palace on Crete was an unexpected discovery<\/p>\n
and it comes as no surprise that it inspired speculation concerning a<\/p>\n
possible connection to Plato\u2019s tale of an advanced civilization. At the time<\/p>\n
of Marinatos\u2019s writing, radiocarbon dating had not yet been developed and<\/p>\n
chronologies were proposed based largely on the analysis of stratigraphy, by<\/p>\n
sequencing ceramics, and, where possible, through the analysis of historical<\/p>\n
documents. This uncertainty in dating the fall of the Minoan civilization<\/p>\n
resides at the core of the hypothesis he proposed in his 1939 Antiquity<\/p>\n
article. In that piece, Marinatos suggests a direct correspondence between<\/p>\n
the cataclysmic eruption of Thera \u2013 that Figuier had already associated with<\/p>\n
the fall of fabled Atlantis \u2013 and the destruction of the historical Minoan<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
69<\/p>\n
civilization. Marinatos proposed that this eruption, located just one hundred<\/p>\n
kilometers north of Crete, was the proximate cause of the fall of the<\/p>\n
Minoans.<\/p>\n
Using the paroxysmal 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the East Indies<\/p>\n
as a model for the destructive force of a pyroclastic volcanic eruption,<\/p>\n
Marinatos proposed that the Minoan civilization was virtually destroyed,<\/p>\n
nearly overnight, by a combination of the deposition of volcanic ejecta from<\/p>\n
Thera onto Crete, attendant powerful earthquake aftershocks of the<\/p>\n
eruption, and the devastating impact of gigantic sea waves, citing eyewitness<\/p>\n
accounts from Java and Sumatra of walls of water of ninety feet high<\/p>\n
crashing onto those coasts with disastrous effect. In Marinatos\u2019s view, a<\/p>\n
geographically small maritime civilization like that of Minoan Crete with a<\/p>\n
dense, urban population could not have survived the devastating impacts of<\/p>\n
such a natural catastrophe.<\/p>\n
In the 1939 article, Marinatos never suggests, even tangentially, that<\/p>\n
the historical destruction of a powerful maritime civilization in the<\/p>\n
Mediterranean located just a shade more than three hundred kilometers<\/p>\n
from Plato\u2019s Athens and a bit more than three thousand years before Plato<\/p>\n
wrote the Timaeus and Critias dialogues, might have in some measure<\/p>\n
inspired the tale of Atlantis. Nevertheless, the Marinatos Antiquity article<\/p>\n
was another key piece of the puzzle and it led to none other than Marinatos<\/p>\n
himself taking the next step and making overt the connection between<\/p>\n
Minoan Crete and Atlantis in an article he wrote in 1950 for the Greek<\/p>\n
journal Cretica Chronica (titled \u2018On the Legend of Atlantis\u201915 ), and which was<\/p>\n
later published as a 46-page booklet in English titled: Some Words About the<\/p>\n
Legend of Atlantis.16<\/p>\n
In that article, Marinatos takes Figuier\u2019s hypothesis that the eruption<\/p>\n
of Thera caused the destruction of Atlantis, combines it with Frost\u2019s<\/p>\n
hypothesis that Minoan Crete and Atlantis were one and the same, then<\/p>\n
overlays his hypothesis that the Minoan civilization was destroyed about<\/p>\n
3,500 years ago by the cataclysmic eruption of Thera, ties it up in a neat<\/p>\n
little package, and presents what has become the core of the modern claim<\/p>\n
that Atlantis was, essentially, Minoan Crete and that Crete\/Atlantis was<\/p>\n
destroyed by the eruption of Thera (see Table 1).<\/p>\n
15 S. Marinatos, \u2018On the legend of Atlantis\u2019, Cretica Chronica 4 (1950) 195-213.<\/p>\n
16 S. Marinatos, Some words about the legend of Atlantis (Athens 1971).<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
70<\/p>\n
Table 1: Chronology of the development of Figuier\u2019s hypothesis<\/p>\n
Marinatos asserts that surely the Egyptians experienced impacts from the<\/p>\n
cataclysmic eruption of Thera. At about the same time, the Minoans, about<\/p>\n
whom they were aware and with whom they traded, disappeared. This \u2018gave<\/p>\n
rise\u2019 among the Egyptians, \u2018to the myth of an island, beyond all measure<\/p>\n
powerful and rich, being submerged.\u2019 17 In his view, the Egyptian priests<\/p>\n
wrote down that bit of history, told it to the Greek sage Solon during his<\/p>\n
visit to Egypt, Solon recorded it, passed it down, and three hundred years<\/p>\n
later it was told by Critias. Finally, Plato recorded the story in the form of a<\/p>\n
dialogue that bears Critias\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Marinatos\u2019s synthesis of Figuier\u2019s, Frost\u2019s, and his own work was<\/p>\n
seductive, compelling, and convincing to many. Atlantis, as described by<\/p>\n
Plato through the testimony of Critias, was a vast and powerful ancient<\/p>\n
civilization until its destruction was wrought by a cataclysmic natural<\/p>\n
disaster. Minoan Crete was a vast and powerful ancient maritime civilization<\/p>\n
until its destruction was wrought by a cataclysmic natural disaster. Ergo,<\/p>\n
Atlantis and Minoan Crete were one and the same.<\/p>\n
17 Matintos, Some words about the legend of Atlantis, 46.<\/p>\n
Author Year Claim<\/p>\n
Louis Figuire 1872 Atlantis was destroyed by the<\/p>\n
eruption of Thera.<\/p>\n
K.T. Frost 1909, 1913 The Minoan civilization was<\/p>\n
Atlantis.<\/p>\n
Spyrindon Marinatos 1939 The Minoan civilization was<\/p>\n
destroyed by the eruption of<\/p>\n
Thera.<\/p>\n
Spyrindon Marinatos 1950 The Minoan civilization was<\/p>\n
Atlantis and was destroyed by the<\/p>\n
eruption of Thera.<\/p>\n
Angelos<\/p>\n
Galanopoulos and<\/p>\n
Edward Bacon<\/p>\n
1969 The Minoan civilization was<\/p>\n
Atlantis and major discrepancies<\/p>\n
between Plato\u2019s story and the<\/p>\n
archaeological record result from a<\/p>\n
math error.<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
71<\/p>\n
One significant problem with this neat equation is that we now know<\/p>\n
that the dating simply doesn\u2019t work. Certainly we cannot blame Marinatos<\/p>\n
for not having access to modern dating methods which, essentially, negate<\/p>\n
the underpinning of his argument. Though he was largely correct<\/p>\n
concerning the timing of the waning and eventual collapse of the Minoan<\/p>\n
Crete civilization, the dating he applied to the major eruption of Thera,<\/p>\n
which he believed to have occurred nearly simultaneously with the fall of<\/p>\n
Minoan Crete, turns out to have been off by more than a hundred years. A<\/p>\n
radiocarbon date derived from a twig recovered from a volcanic deposit on<\/p>\n
the flanks of the island (Santorini) left behind by the eruption of Thera<\/p>\n
produced an age of between 1627 and 1600 B.C. (or about 3,643 and 3,616<\/p>\n
years ago). 18 As the twig was growing on a tree that was killed in the<\/p>\n
eruption, that date places the eruption relatively precisely in the late<\/p>\n
seventeenth century B.C. (more than 3,600 years ago).<\/p>\n
Similar confirmatory dates have been derived in a research project<\/p>\n
directed by Sturt Manning. 19 In that work, 28 samples of seeds and twigs<\/p>\n
were recovered on the island of Santorini from volcanic deposits dating to<\/p>\n
the eruption of Thera. Those samples produced dates which ranged from<\/p>\n
1639 to 1616 B.C., confirming that the eruption of Thera occurred more<\/p>\n
than one hundred years before the documented collapse of Minoan Crete<\/p>\n
and, therefore, cannot have been the direct cause of its demise. This is<\/p>\n
fundamentally contradictory to a major element of Plato\u2019s tale for those<\/p>\n
who assert that Minoan Crete was Atlantis.<\/p>\n
Certainly, Marinatos was correct that the powerful eruption of Thera<\/p>\n
had a significant impact on the Minoan civilization. The sprawling palace at<\/p>\n
Knossos was severely damaged at about the time of the eruption and almost<\/p>\n
certainly Minoan harbors were destroyed by the ensuing tsunamis. However,<\/p>\n
in the overall trajectory of Minoan civilization, the destructive impact of the<\/p>\n
eruption of Thera registers only as a deflection not a destruction. The ability<\/p>\n
to withstand a powerful natural catastrophe, to persevere and rebuild its<\/p>\n
infrastructure, is the hallmark of a great civilization and Minoan Crete was<\/p>\n
just such a civilization. Surely it suffered an economic blow, but it<\/p>\n
rebounded, and quickly. The palace at Knossos was rebuilt, and Minoan<\/p>\n
dominance rose again.<\/p>\n
18 W.L. Friedrich et al., \u2018Santorini eruption dated to 1627-1600 B.C.\u2019, Science 312<\/p>\n
(2006) 548.<\/p>\n
19 S. Manning, \u2018Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C.\u2019,<\/p>\n
Science 312 (2006) 565-569.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
72<\/p>\n
So, ultimately, if Plato\u2019s purpose was to exemplify the destruction of<\/p>\n
a great power by a natural catastrophe visited upon them by the gods, then<\/p>\n
Minoan Crete was an imperfect bit of source material. The correspondences<\/p>\n
between history and philosophy are simply far too weak to make any sort of<\/p>\n
definitive or non-generic connection.<\/p>\n
A mathematical fix?<\/p>\n
Seismologist Angelos G. Galanopoulos, in a work co-authored by Edward<\/p>\n
Bacon titled Atlantis: The Truth Behind the Legend, proposes what he believes<\/p>\n
to be a simple mathematical fix to the problem of the metrical discrepancies<\/p>\n
between Plato and the archaeology of Minoan Crete. 20<\/p>\n
To begin, Galanopoulos and Bacon freely acknowledge that: \u2018The<\/p>\n
date of 9600 BC for Atlantis is both incredible and impossible.\u2019 21 Rather<\/p>\n
than reject the hypothesis that Atlantis was Minoan Crete because of this<\/p>\n
discrepancy, Galanopoulos and Bacon instead offer a workaround, asserting<\/p>\n
the following: \u2018This leads us to the inevitable conclusion that the mistakes in<\/p>\n
the date of the Atlantis catastrophe are systematic and not accidental; and<\/p>\n
arise in the same way.\u2019 22<\/p>\n
It would seem, however, that such a conclusion is \u2018inevitable\u2019 only if<\/p>\n
one is committed to confirming the hypothesis rather than testing it. The<\/p>\n
mathematical solution provided by Galanopoulos and Bacon is that some<\/p>\n
measurements provided by Plato regarding Atlantis \u2013 those that happen to<\/p>\n
conform to the archaeological record of the Minoans \u2013 are quite accurate,<\/p>\n
while others \u2013 those that contradict the archaeological record of the<\/p>\n
Minoans \u2013 are off by a factor of ten.<\/p>\n
As transmitted by Critias, Solon reported that Atlantis was destroyed<\/p>\n
nine thousand years ago (that\u2019s nine thousand years before he was told the<\/p>\n
story by the priests in 600 B.C., therefore, 9600 B.C. or about 11,600 years<\/p>\n
before the present). However, the eruption of Thera had occurred only<\/p>\n
(very roughly) nine hundred years before Solon recorded that fact. \u2018This<\/p>\n
seems to indicate,\u2019 Galanopoulos and Bacon maintain, \u2018that when Solon was<\/p>\n
transcribing the Egyptian writings the word or symbol representing<\/p>\n
20 A.G. Galanopoulos and E. Bacon, Atlantis: The Truth Behind the Legend (New York,<\/p>\n
NY 1969).<\/p>\n
21 Galanopoulos and Bacon, Atlantis, 42.<\/p>\n
22 Ibidem, 133.<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
73<\/p>\n
\u2018hundred\u2019 was mistaken for that representing one thousand.\u201923 So, though he<\/p>\n
recorded the Thera eruption \u2013 and the simultaneous destruction of Atlantis<\/p>\n
\u2013 as having occurred nine thousand years before his time, Solon meant to<\/p>\n
write \u2013 or should have written \u2013 nine hundred. This argument, however,<\/p>\n
appears to be little more than rationalization. It ignores the fact, as pointed<\/p>\n
out by Castleden, that the hieroglyph representing \u2018one hundred\u2019 (a coiled<\/p>\n
rope) cannot possibly be confused with the symbol representing one<\/p>\n
thousand (a lotus flower). 24<\/p>\n
The problems raised in identifying Atlantis as Minoan Crete are<\/p>\n
dismissed by Galanopoulos and Bacon as the result of confusion,<\/p>\n
embellishment, conflation, and simple error between the story first being<\/p>\n
recorded by the Egyptian priests (at, by the way, an unspecified time, and<\/p>\n
that record has never been found) and Plato recording it just a little before<\/p>\n
he died in 347 B.C. Certainly, traditions about a historical event, filtered<\/p>\n
through translation, passed down orally, and recorded hundreds of years<\/p>\n
later are subject to all manner of transformation. The arguments presented<\/p>\n
by Figuier, Frost, Marinatos, and Galanopoulos and Bacon aren\u2019t inherently<\/p>\n
unreasonable, but ultimately, in each case, much of Plato\u2019s Atlantis has to be<\/p>\n
ignored, altered, or rationalized.<\/p>\n
As the author L. Sprague de Camp phrased it: \u2018Now, while some of<\/p>\n
these points may be well taken, you cannot change all the details of Plato\u2019s<\/p>\n
story and still claim to have Plato\u2019s story.\u201925 Indeed, you cannot. Figure 2<\/p>\n
graphically depicts the lack of correspondence between Plato\u2019s description<\/p>\n
of Atlantis and the archaeology of Minoan Crete. Clearly there are, indeed,<\/p>\n
too many details to change to make Minoan Crete ancient Atlantis.<\/p>\n
23 Galanopoulos and Bacon, Atlantis, 133.<\/p>\n
24 R. Castleden, Atlantis Destroyed (London 1998).<\/p>\n
25 L. Sprague de Camp, Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and<\/p>\n
Literature (New York, NY 1954).<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
74<\/p>\n
Fig. 2: Pie graph showing the lack of correspondence between Plato\u2019s<\/p>\n
description of Atlantis and the actual archaeological record of<\/p>\n
Minoan Crete. Of forty-three very specific descriptions of the<\/p>\n
physical appearance of Atlantis by Plato in Timaeus and Critias \u2013 all of<\/p>\n
which should be reflected in the archaeological record \u2013 only 2% are<\/p>\n
supported archaeologically, 6% can be matched, but only by special<\/p>\n
pleading, 11% cannot be determined, and the largest slice of the \u2018pie\u2019,<\/p>\n
fully 81%, consists of cases in which Plato\u2019s Atlantean details are<\/p>\n
contradicted by the archaeological record of Minoan Crete. Source:<\/p>\n
K.L. Feder.<\/p>\n
Atlantis as Atlantis<\/p>\n
More than anyone else, we have Ignatius Donnelly and his monograph,<\/p>\n
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World to credit \u2013 or blame \u2013 for bringing the<\/p>\n
discussion of Atlantis into the broader public arena. 26 In this monograph,<\/p>\n
first published in 1882 and still widely available more than 130 years later,<\/p>\n
Donnelly makes no effort to reinterpret Plato, to move his Atlantis in space<\/p>\n
26 I. Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (New York, NY 1882).<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
75<\/p>\n
or time, or to identify it as a historically known ancient civilization.<\/p>\n
Donnelly is an Atlantean literalist and Timaeus and Critias are his bibles. For<\/p>\n
him, Atlantis was Atlantis, precisely as Plato presented it. None of Plato\u2019s<\/p>\n
story of a lost continent is, for Donnelly, allegory, cautionary tale, or<\/p>\n
philosophical treatise. It is all veritable, a forgotten and hidden history<\/p>\n
whose revelation and correct interpretation (by Donnelly, of course)<\/p>\n
inspires a historical epiphany.<\/p>\n
Donnelly\u2019s support for the historicity of Plato\u2019s Atlantis story is<\/p>\n
based largely on the approach of \u2018trait list comparisons,\u2019 a methodology that<\/p>\n
was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries within the<\/p>\n
diffusionist school of anthropology and cultural geography. The<\/p>\n
underpinning assumption in the diffusionist school was that most human<\/p>\n
groups are culturally static and do not progress unless and until new<\/p>\n
technologies are introduced into their territories by more advanced peoples<\/p>\n
who are, for whatever reason, intrinsically more inventive and creative. For<\/p>\n
many diffusionists there was a single source (often it was Egypt), or, at most,<\/p>\n
a very few \u2018mother cultures\u2019 from which all or at least most of human<\/p>\n
progress could be derived. Donnelly was a diffusionist, essentially data<\/p>\n
mining for cultural traits across the globe that he could trace back to the<\/p>\n
one true source of civilization: not Egypt, but Atlantis.<\/p>\n
The archaeological record was rich with source material from which<\/p>\n
Donnelly could compile his lists. For example, there were pyramids on<\/p>\n
either side of the Atlantic, among Egyptians on the east, and the Maya and<\/p>\n
Aztecs to the west. These cultures, Donnelly asserted, must have learned to<\/p>\n
build their pyramids from an even more ancient and even more advanced<\/p>\n
civilization: Atlantis \u2013 never mind that Egyptian and New World pyramids<\/p>\n
bear little resemblance to one another beyond the fact that they are larger<\/p>\n
on their bottoms than on their tops. Also, ancient people on either side of<\/p>\n
the Atlantic practiced agriculture. For Donnelly, they could only have made<\/p>\n
this great advance in subsistence by having been taught by an even more<\/p>\n
ancient and more advanced civilization: again, Atlantis \u2013 never mind that<\/p>\n
the plant and animal species domesticated and relied upon for subsistence<\/p>\n
on either side of the Atlantic were entirely different. Further, the ancient<\/p>\n
civilizations of the Old and New Worlds possessed writing systems.<\/p>\n
Donnelly maintained that they must have been taught to write by an even<\/p>\n
more advanced and ancient civilization: of course, Atlantis \u2013 never mind<\/p>\n
that the ancient writing systems on either side of the Atlantic were entirely<\/p>\n
different and mutually unintelligible.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
76<\/p>\n
As wrong as Donnelly may have been, however, it must be said that,<\/p>\n
as an inductive reasoner, he felt compelled to collect actual data in support<\/p>\n
of his hypothesis of an ancient Atlantean source for all human technological<\/p>\n
and scientific progress. For others, no such source material was necessary.<\/p>\n
Atlantis of the imagination<\/p>\n
America\u2019s \u2018sleeping prophet\u2019 Edgar Lynn Cayce, for example, didn\u2019t need to<\/p>\n
collect and collate historical or archaeological evidence. He could merely go<\/p>\n
to sleep and dream the details of ancient Atlantis, which he would then<\/p>\n
recount to his followers. 27 Cayce\u2019s evidence-free descriptions of the lost<\/p>\n
continent (and the imaginings his testimony inspired among his followers)<\/p>\n
included technologies that sound quite a bit like lasers, nuclear power,<\/p>\n
submarines, television, and aircraft, none of which, of course, are even<\/p>\n
hinted at by Plato. As author Paul Jordan points out, Cayce\u2019s descriptions of<\/p>\n
the sophistication and precocity of Atlantean technology include nothing<\/p>\n
beyond that with which he would have been familiar during the time he had<\/p>\n
his visions between the 1920s and 1940s. 28 There is no internet, smart<\/p>\n
phones, laptops, tablet computers, or even microwave ovens in Cayce\u2019s<\/p>\n
ancient Atlantis. Cayce, essentially, was little more than a science fiction<\/p>\n
author, and one with a rather limited imagination.<\/p>\n
Cayce asserted that Atlanteans fleeing the destruction of the<\/p>\n
continent arrived in Egypt where they built an underground \u2018hall of<\/p>\n
records.\u2019 29 No such hall of records has ever been found. Furthermore, it<\/p>\n
should go without saying that his prediction that parts of Atlantis would rise<\/p>\n
again sometime during 1968 or 1969 was not accurate.30<\/p>\n
Cayce also claimed that the islands of Bimini in the Caribbean were<\/p>\n
remnants of Atlantis and this, in part, inspired his followers to search for<\/p>\n
broader evidence of the lost continent in submarine deposits in the region. 31<\/p>\n
It was during one such search that a feature usually called \u2018the Bimini Wall\u2019<\/p>\n
was located. Interpreted by Cayce\u2019s followers as the remnant of an ancient<\/p>\n
wall or road and, potentially, the remains of an Atlantean structure, it<\/p>\n
27 E.E. Cayce, Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited (New York, NY 1997).<\/p>\n
28 P. Jordan, The Atlantis Syndrome (Sutton Mill, 2001).<\/p>\n
29 E.E. Cayce, Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited, 127.<\/p>\n
30 Ibidem, 159.<\/p>\n
31 Ibidem, 154.<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
77<\/p>\n
consisted of a large number of rectangular blocks of limestone, extending<\/p>\n
across a linear distance of about six hundred meters and ending with a<\/p>\n
curved section, giving the entire feature the appearance of a backwards<\/p>\n
letter J.<\/p>\n
Fig. 3: Photograph of a part of the geological feature mistakenly<\/p>\n
referred to by some as the \u2018Bimini Wall\u2019 or \u2018Bimini Road\u2019. Neither<\/p>\n
wall nor road, the rectangular blocks are elements of a common<\/p>\n
natural feature called beachrock. Photo: John Gifford.<\/p>\n
Geologists who examined the feature recognized it as an entirely natural<\/p>\n
formation called \u2018beachrock\u2019 (see fig. 3). 32 Perform an internet search under<\/p>\n
the term \u2018tessellated pavement\u2019 and you can see multiple examples from all<\/p>\n
over the world of far more impressive formations than the Bimini Wall. All<\/p>\n
of them are entirely natural. No artifacts \u2013 no tools, pottery shards, carvings<\/p>\n
\u2013 have ever been found associated with the Bimini Wall and radiocarbon<\/p>\n
32 J.A. Gifford and M.M. Ball, \u2018Investigation of submerged beachrock deposits off<\/p>\n
Bimini\u2019, National Geographic Society Research Reports 12 (1980) 21-38.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
78<\/p>\n
dating of shells incorporated in the limestone blocks in the feature indicates<\/p>\n
that it formed about 2,200 years ago, which certainly doesn\u2019t conform to<\/p>\n
any measurement of the age of Atlantis.<\/p>\n
Still searching<\/p>\n
The desire to find in antiquity a greatly advanced, hugely powerful and<\/p>\n
technologically precocious civilization appears to be a quest without an end.<\/p>\n
Historian Richard Freund suggested in 2011 that he had found Atlantis at<\/p>\n
an archaeological site in Spain. 33 Popular author Graham Hancock, while<\/p>\n
assiduously avoiding the \u2018A\u2019 word, posits the existence of a very Atlantis-<\/p>\n
sounding lost civilization in his 1996 book Fingerprints of the Gods. 34 In a<\/p>\n
more recent work, Magicians of the Gods, Hancock (2015) is now content to<\/p>\n
actually call that ancient lost civilization \u2018Atlantis.\u2019 35 This longing for<\/p>\n
Atlantis has resulted in Atlantis-themed attractions at popular theme parks<\/p>\n
in America (see fig. 4) and in Italy and even a feature-length Disney<\/p>\n
animated movie (Atlantis, the Lost Empire).<\/p>\n
33 E. Owen, \u2018The Lost City of Atlantis buried in Spanish Wetlands\u2019.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/europe\/spain\/8381219\/Lost-city-<\/p>\n
of-Atlantis-buried-in-Spanish-wetlands.html, 16 October 2016.<\/p>\n
34 G. Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth’s Lost Civilization (New<\/p>\n
York, NY 1995).<\/p>\n
35 G. Hancock, Magicians of the Gods (New York, NY 2015).<\/p>\n
Quest for Atlantis<\/p>\n
79<\/p>\n
Fig. 4: The producers of theme parks recognize the power of Atlantis.<\/p>\n
Here is seen a part of the Atlantis attraction at the Universal Orlando<\/p>\n
Resort, in Florida, U.S.A. Universal also has an attraction titled The<\/p>\n
Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At least visitors realize that Harry<\/p>\n
Potter is entirely fictional. I hope. Photo: K.L. Feder.<\/p>\n
In his book, Atlantis: the Antediluvian World, Ignatius Donnelly ends on an<\/p>\n
optimistic note concerning the future discovery of archaeological evidence<\/p>\n
that will convince even hard-nosed skeptics that Atlantis was just exactly as<\/p>\n
Critias (through Plato) described it and what he, Donnelly believed it to<\/p>\n
have been, the source of human cultural development:<\/p>\n
We are on the threshold. Scientific investigation is advancing in great<\/p>\n
strides. Who shall say that one hundred years from now the great<\/p>\n
museums of the world may not be adorned with gems, statues, arms,<\/p>\n
and implements from Atlantis, while the libraries of the world shall<\/p>\n
contain translations of its inscriptions, throwing new light upon all<\/p>\n
the past history of the human race, and all the great problems which<\/p>\n
now perplex the thinkers of our day?36<\/p>\n
Donnelly wrote this in 1882. It is now 2016, considerably more than one<\/p>\n
hundred years later, and we are still waiting for the realization of Donnelly\u2019s<\/p>\n
36 Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, 480.<\/p>\n
Kenneth L. Feder<\/p>\n
80<\/p>\n
hypothetical scenario. I suspect this is not because archaeologists and other<\/p>\n
scientists haven\u2019t looked hard enough for the lost continent but because,<\/p>\n
after all, Atlantis was located, not in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean or<\/p>\n
anywhere else on Earth, but instead in the mind of the great Greek<\/p>\n
philosopher, Plato.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Quest for Atlantis. The search for archaeological evidence of a legend Kenneth L. Feder Leidschrift, jaargang 32, nummer 1, januari 2017 Introduction As old as Stonehenge, the megalithic site of Carnac, in France, is not a stone circle or \u2018henge\u2019. It is, instead, four separate groupings of linear alignments consisting of more than three thousand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62241,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62240\/revisions\/62241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}