Atlantis - Real?

Do you believe Atlantis existed?

  • Most definitely it existed!

    Votes: 24 34.3%
  • No way, no how.

    Votes: 15 21.4%
  • Maybe.

    Votes: 28 40.0%
  • Unsure.

    Votes: 3 4.3%

  • Total voters
    70
to be classed as advanced back then they onyl needed to have had bronze while others still had stone implements / tools

Has any one read david Gibbins atlantis?
the premise there was that atlantis was based in the black sea, the pillars of hercules (mentioned by plto) is the bosphorus straight and the cataclysmic deluge was when the med broke through the bosphorus gap.

and the premise that atlanteans helped found other nations or helped them grow, is the atlanteans migrating away from the dead sea , and its from this area that european language is possibly suposed to have origionated.

the book is a fun fictional piece but you can see where some of the details, well they do fit nicely.
 
I'm not entirely convinced of the credibility of the author mentioned in the first post, nor of Hancock (sorry guys, I have these points of aaaaaagh).

It seems bizarre if Atlantis was so important that it was never mentioned in any other contemporary or slightly later texts (unless you count Plato). If it existed, it surely would have taken part in the kind of trade which was going on around the whole area at the time and presumably would have been mentioned in economic records, or filtered through as a significant element in the myths of more than one culture/society/civilsiation.
 
This thread has actually got to be a rather interesting example of how people view/obtain archaeology. Unfortunatly site reports etc which should (hopefully) contain the barest facts and no wild fiction aren't very interesting, nor very easily available, so it's through that kind of fiction that ideas etc are spread.
 
We can't say for sure that advanced tech. to rival that of our time existed their, but we can say the very thing about "from an engineering point of view" how the pryamids were erected...There is evidence that points to the fact that large amounts of historical information and knowledge is missing. There is also some who believe there was at least one point in time that shows that the Sphinx was affected by water errosion. The carbon dating which indicates the presence of errosion from water dates back prior to the historical dates of the Trojan war, and coincedes to the happenings at Knossos.

This points to the Santorini blast and most probably the destruction of several civilizations simultaneously in the region via water flooding all at once (including the ones responsible for erecting the pryamids).
 
heavens mirror talks about the sphinx erosion as well and also a hidden room under it, ground surveys show there is one but there is no way in as yet.
 
There has been some new technology that can very accurately date when rock/material/stone has been removed from the ground. The Russians actually have perfected that process. 2 years ago a team of U.S. and russian geologists petitioned Egypt to do this new type of analysis on all of the pyramids and sphinx. They were denied access. Status qou likes the way history is (it appears).
 
We can't say for sure that advanced tech. to rival that of our time existed their, but we can say the very thing about "from an engineering point of view" how the pryamids were erected...There is evidence that points to the fact that large amounts of historical information and knowledge is missing. There is also some who believe there was at least one point in time that shows that the Sphinx was affected by water errosion. The carbon dating which indicates the presence of errosion from water dates back prior to the historical dates of the Trojan war, and coincedes to the happenings at Knossos.

This points to the Santorini blast and most probably the destruction of several civilizations simultaneously in the region via water flooding all at once (including the ones responsible for erecting the pryamids).

The Trojan war is probably not a good point by which to compare dates.One certainly can't use Hoemr as a method of absolute dating, and you have to take Schliemann with a pinch of salt too.

It's very likely that flooding was happening in Mesopotamia- where a lot of the myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh come from- but this was probably nothing major- just the Tigris/Euphrates. The Nile probably had some flooding episodes as well.
 
“The presenters were all hard-core members of the Scientific Establishment, something of a club one joins upon university graduation. You are expected to support your colleagues’ research, and they yours. If you don’t, you’ll be tossed out, and your tenure snatched away (see Ancient American, v. 3, issue 19/20, p. 72).”1 ROFL

Apparently he also plagarised.
 
However, the idea that there was an Atlantis with super technology beyond even the 21st century - that seems to go way beyond the remit of Plato, and essentially into the realm of fiction.
I also agree, otherwise archaeologists would have dug up cars, computers and TVs. But can I add that I don't think that is necessary for the myth of a "magical" place with super-technology.

Just look at the ancient Chinese as an example. They did astronomical observations that the western world did not match until the last millennium. The had paper making, printing, gunpowder, and the mariner's compass thousands of years before us. They invented modern agriculture, shipping, decimal mathematics, paper money, umbrellas, wheelbarrows, multi-stage rockets, brandy and whiskey, and the game of chess.

Any of those things would appear "magical" to someone in the Dark Ages. Marco Polo was not even believed by scholars of his time.

Given how advanced the Aztec and Mayan cultures were, is it inconceivable for there to have been somewhere called Atlantis?

Also there are the Egyptian airplanes
 
Valid point, Dave. I heard it wasn't until the start of the industrial revlution that we became as advanced in many ways as the Romans.

But, I doubt Atlantis, and always will. Mesopotamia is better ;)
 
I believe that there was a natural disaster on an island known to some as Atlantis, but find it hard to believe that the disaster was as serious as it is made out to be.
 
i know its a fiction book but the story does give a nice idea to what atlantis may have been, read Atlantis by david Gibbins.
a fictional adventure story that does get a little carried away at a couple of points but still raises interesting ideas
 
To the original poster: I suggest you also read
Atlantis - The Lost Continent Finally Found
by Prof. Arysio Nunes Santos, who is a Nuclear Physicist,
or go to his site to read his articles on the subject at
The True History Of Atlantis
I mentioned his book sometime ago in the paleolontology forum I think.

As for if Atlantis is real, the dreamer in me would like to believe such a civilisation existed in the distant past of earth history. However, I don't buy into the stuff about how technologically advanced they were, or that they could breathe underwater and could fly... I'd rather form my own conclusion based on Plato's account and let my imagination fill in the rest. I'm not going to let books claiming this and that spoil my perspective and vision on my Atlantis - however, I'm always open to new theories and sadly, people are merely recycling them these days, nothing new. Rationally speaking, there have been so many sunken civilisations and islands and continent? in the past, many of them could have been Atlantis at one time or another.
 
Atlantis is the kind of subject that makes classicists and egyptologists hurry out of the room to avoid the subject. That, or they laugh it off.

The world does seem to be filled with people interested in the Atlantis myth but many (not all) who have studied ancient history via university consider Atlantis to just be an imaginary place sprung from the mind of Plato.

My own dissertation (I study Classical Civilisation at University of Wales, Swansea) will be based around greek mythology and the truths behind the stories.....or at least, that's what I think I'm going to write about.

Anyway, my own theories on Atlantis is that a vast amount of the stuff Plato said (and we've got to remember that he is our ONLY source) are imaginary. Personally I believe that he created Atlantis just to describe his vision of a perfect society, a 'utopia' (which translates 'no place') and he drew on some mythological things to do so.

Homer (or whoever composed 'The Odyssey') writes of various mythical islands that Odysseus visits. These include Aeaea, Ogygia and Skaeria. Skaeria being important because it is described as having great ships that can travel far distances in short times (similar to the way Atlantis is described as a naval power) Also some of the descriptions of the island are similar to Plato's Atlantis (if memory serves)

My own belief is that 'Atlantis' was Minoan Crete which at one time had a large fleet and traded with a great deal of the eastern mediterranian. In the story of Theseus and the Minotaur it is said that Athens has to send boys and girls to Crete as tribute. Could it be possible that this myth does have an element of truth? Was Athens (which was a Mycenaean palace) of that time paying tribute to the Kings of Crete?

Also remember that Theseus slays the Minotaur and frees Athens from having to pay further tribute. Hmmm....well this does kind of link with a the Atlantis myth of a powerful thalassocracy that dominated Athens until a war happened. Also with the eruption on Thera and the eventual collapse of Minoan power could have inspired Plato.

So, in a nice summary, Atlantis did not exist and was the construct of various mythologies and Plato's own imagination. The closest you can get to Atlantis would be, in my own opinion, Minoan Crete of the late bronze age.

My ideas and beliefs may change once I've done more study but that's my current view.
 
Atlantis is the kind of subject that makes classicists and egyptologists hurry out of the room to avoid the subject. That, or they laugh it off.

The world does seem to be filled with people interested in the Atlantis myth but many (not all) who have studied ancient history via university consider Atlantis to just be an imaginary place sprung from the mind of Plato.

My own dissertation (I study Classical Civilisation at University of Wales, Swansea) will be based around greek mythology and the truths behind the stories.....or at least, that's what I think I'm going to write about.

Anyway, my own theories on Atlantis is that a vast amount of the stuff Plato said (and we've got to remember that he is our ONLY source) are imaginary. Personally I believe that he created Atlantis just to describe his vision of a perfect society, a 'utopia' (which translates 'no place') and he drew on some mythological things to do so.

Homer (or whoever composed 'The Odyssey') writes of various mythical islands that Odysseus visits. These include Aeaea, Ogygia and Skaeria. Skaeria being important because it is described as having great ships that can travel far distances in short times (similar to the way Atlantis is described as a naval power) Also some of the descriptions of the island are similar to Plato's Atlantis (if memory serves)

My own belief is that 'Atlantis' was Minoan Crete which at one time had a large fleet and traded with a great deal of the eastern mediterranian. In the story of Theseus and the Minotaur it is said that Athens has to send boys and girls to Crete as tribute. Could it be possible that this myth does have an element of truth? Was Athens (which was a Mycenaean palace) of that time paying tribute to the Kings of Crete?

Also remember that Theseus slays the Minotaur and frees Athens from having to pay further tribute. Hmmm....well this does kind of link with a the Atlantis myth of a powerful thalassocracy that dominated Athens until a war happened. Also with the eruption on Thera and the eventual collapse of Minoan power could have inspired Plato.

So, in a nice summary, Atlantis did not exist and was the construct of various mythologies and Plato's own imagination. The closest you can get to Atlantis would be, in my own opinion, Minoan Crete of the late bronze age.

My ideas and beliefs may change once I've done more study but that's my current view.


Well I must totally and utterly agree with this fantastic post. Spot on and saved me a lot of brain wracking for city names etc!
 
Well I must totally and utterly agree with this fantastic post. Spot on and saved me a lot of brain wracking for city names etc!

Thanks and welcome, hope to hear more from you in the future.

When it comes to Atlantis, I'm glad you agree with me!
 
Anyway, my own theories on Atlantis is that a vast amount of the stuff Plato said (and we've got to remember that he is our ONLY source) are imaginary. Personally I believe that he created Atlantis just to describe his vision of a perfect society, a 'utopia' (which translates 'no place') and he drew on some mythological things to do so.

What has always struck me as odd is how Plato put into Critias' mouth various things that make Atlantis anything but heroic or noble, never mind technologically advanced. In the Timaeus Atlantis is seeking to enslave the entire Mediterranean and is fought off by the 'noble' Hellenes.

Dunno how you get from there to a Utopia.
 
What has always struck me as odd is how Plato put into Critias' mouth various things that make Atlantis anything but heroic or noble, never mind technologically advanced. In the Timaeus Atlantis is seeking to enslave the entire Mediterranean and is fought off by the 'noble' Hellenes.

Dunno how you get from there to a Utopia.

Damn, there's my credibility down the toilet huh? Yeah, that was a mistake by me. I was confusing my works by Plato, thinking of Plato's Republic and forgetting that in the other works (Critias and Timaeus) were actually representing Atlantis as the opposite of Plato's perfect society.

Thanks for bringing that mistake forward but, despite my error, it still stands that Plato was making a political statement in his works and probably made up Atlantis just to get over his own views.

I'm gonna sulk now for making such an error.... *hides*
 

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