Lost Atlantis Found and it Was Real

[JBGUSA]

The lost civilization of Atlantis was apparently found!!! Story, link in title, excerpts below:

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

By Zach Howard

NORTHAMPTON, Mass | Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:36am EST

NORTHAMPTON, Mass (Reuters) - A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

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While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

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Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."​

Given what we've seen on the news about the power of tsunamis, who knows, this may be true. In any case I want to believe it.

 

[Dreadnought]

Doesn't this sort of discovery pop up every few years?

 

[JBGUSA]

Doesn't this sort of discovery pop up every few years?

This is on a mainstream source so it strikes me as more likely to be well-researched and reliable.

 

[Dachs]

This is on a mainstream source so it strikes me as more likely to be well-researched and reliable.

Reuters also showed a map a few days ago that alleged that every person in California would be receiving a lethal dose of radiation...right about now.

It's a wire service, not an academic journal. History and archaeology reporting is only slightly better than science reporting (i.e. still very crappy).

 

[Terxpahseyton]

This is on a mainstream source so it strikes me as more likely to be well-researched and reliable.

Regarding Atlantis your default setting should be "blown out of proportion for the sake of sensationalism". No matter what media reports it. Not "oh it is reported by a popular source".

 

[Bugfatty300]

There's a docu about this on NatGeo right now.

 

[innonimatu]

The only "lost cities" in the area would be tartessian settlements, namely a supposed capital for this civilization. It would be interesting if some evidence was found that the demise of that civilization had been caused by some natural catastrophe. I will rule out the "Atlantis" thing, but not that these guys may have stumbled upon Tartessus.
These searches for "lost cities" depend very much on pure chance. Years ago I spent a couple of weeks helping to look for a lost roman city mentioned by Pliny and found nothing (like so many others before), then a few years later workers building a new highway some 10km northeast of where I had bee looking stumbled upon it. And proceeded to bury its forum under the highway...

 

[Davidka]

Yeah this is probably pure sensationalism. Still, I don't doubt that one day they will find the real Atlantis. And when that happens there will be little doubt that it is Atlantis, because they'll probably find tools that just don't belong to the era in which the city was built.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Yeah this is probably pure sensationalism. Still, I don't doubt that one day they will find the real Atlantis. And when that happens there will be little doubt that it is Atlantis, because they'll probably find tools that just don't belong to the era in which the city was built.

No they won't because the site of the place from where the legend was born is well known, incidentally being a major factor in the fall of Minoan Crete.

Oh, and that thing about the tools? Total baloney, the first mention of Atlantis as anything other than the large Bronze Age empire of Plato was probably HP Blavatsky, in her cultic book Secret Doctrine (I'm not linking to the any pages about the book, as even the wiki article is ridiculously biased). She's not a reliable source.

 

[Davidka]

Well sounds like you studied the topic, so I won't argue. I really liked Atlas Shrugged though

 

[GoodGame]

Doesn't this sort of discovery pop up every few years?

Yeah since like at least the 20th C. Florida, Greek isles, etc.. have been proposed.

The main problem with looking for it is that Plato is only citing mythic hearsay when he is cited. 1. it's a socaratic dialogue, which is more about discussion (parables, ideals) and not necessarily a factual news report: you have to believe that the characters really said what was said, and Plato wasn't just constructing them as characters; 2. The character Critas is citing myths he heard when he says it

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1571/1571-h/1571-h.htm

 

[Perfection]

3 FREE TECHS!

 

[ZeletDude]

So Atlantis is in Spain now? What ever happened to the idea of it in the Atlantic sinking or whatever.

 

[vogtmurr]

Interesting link Goodgame. Seems the legend Plato's Critias advocated was a war between Atlantis and the Greeks led by Athens 9,000 years ago ! But it does place it at the Pillars, so that kinda rules out Santorini. Maybe a tsunami from Etna or Stromboli ? Some of the Sea peoples may have originated in the western mediterranean.

 

[JBGUSA]

The main problem with looking for it is that Plato is only citing mythic hearsay when he is cited. 1. it's a socaratic dialogue, which is more about discussion (parables, ideals) and not necessarily a factual news report: you have to believe that the characters really said what was said, and Plato wasn't just constructing them as characters; 2. The character Critas is citing myths he heard when he says it

I'm guessing that the Old Testament would be a good analog, i.e. an oral history that is largely though not totally accurate. As for another view:

Donovan - Atlantis lyrics (link)

The continent of Atlantis was an island which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!

Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
I wanna see you some day
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
My antediluvian baby,
My antediluvian baby, I love you, girl,
Girl, I wanna see you some day.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah
I wanna see you some day, oh
My antediluvian baby.
My antediluvian baby, I wanna see you
My antediluvian baby, gotta tell me where she gone
I wanna see you some day
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, oh yeah
Oh glub glub, down down, yeah
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah yeah yeah

 

[Plotinus]

1. it's a socaratic dialogue, which is more about discussion (parables, ideals) and not necessarily a factual news report:

To be fair, neither Critias nor Timaeus (the two books in which the myth of Atlantis appears) is a Socratic dialogue, although they are both (technically) dialogues in which Socrates appears. In each case the dialogue form is not really used, and the bulk of the text is a single speech by the main character. These books aren't intended to portray philosophical discussion, as in the more familiar Platonic dialogues, but to express myths, something that Plato does frequently but normally by embedding the myths within discussions rather than making them the focus of the entire book, as he does in these two cases.

 

[LightSpectra]

This is kind of frustrating because I think discovering lost land-masses is fascinating in and of itself, but this has devolved into ridiculous pop-history because somebody in management decided it would sell better if somebody slapped the word "Atlantis" into the story.

 

[Serutan]

I've wondered for quite some time (pure speculation) if the Atlantis legend might have been
rooted in the flooding of the Black Sea basin, as remains of human settlement
have been found under water there.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Interesting link Goodgame. Seems the legend Plato's Critias advocated was a war between Atlantis and the Greeks led by Athens 9,000 years ago ! But it does place it at the Pillars, so that kinda rules out Santorini. Maybe a tsunami from Etna or Stromboli ? Some of the Sea peoples may have originated in the western mediterranean.

My point was that the Santorini explosion was probably the incident which was the the inspiration for the original, Platonic, Atlantis legend. Remember he placed an existance of Athens in 9,000 BC, an utterly fantastic date (fantastic as in fantasy, not great).

I haven't access to the book I'm working off at the moment, and can't remember title or author (was written in 2009). But as far as I can remember the author categorically states that even Aristotle maintained that the Atlantis legend was completely fabricated by Plato, to be used as an allegory of his main philosophical theories.

 

[vogtmurr]

I very much agree - the bit about Athens must be a fabrication. Why would they have to look further for inspiration than Thira and the collapse of Minoan civilization in the wake of the biggest eruption in historical times. But it seems every 'scholar' since has been trying to place 'Atlantis' far to the west near the Pillars.

I've wondered for quite some time (pure speculation) if the Atlantis legend might have been
rooted in the flooding of the Black Sea basin, as remains of human settlement
have been found under water there.

That would have to have been a very very long time ago would it not ? I mean the basin must have filled well before the last ice age. maybe even pliocene ; What kind of 'human' inhabitation are we talking about ?