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1/ Ok, today on #Archaeology_Online we'll try and navigatre our way through a #thread with an indecipherable text, archaeology & geography to try & make sense of the myth of #Atlantis. Get a cup of coffee & something against headaches. Let's start. >>
@nickfshort @nidgethompson
@nickfshort @nidgethompson
2/ >> Atlantis appears in the writings of Greek philosopher Plato, from a questionable source. He writes that he heard of Atlantis from Solon, the Athenian statesman, who heard it from an Egyptian priest, who told him of an advanced culture 9000 years "before our time." >>
3/ >> The "time" is the time of Plato, 4-5 c. BC. According to Plato Atlantis existed around 9500 BC, placing it in the Neolithic period, when man only began farming. A problematic dating. >>
* Estimated location of Atlantis on a 17th c. map (Africa & America are upside down).
* Estimated location of Atlantis on a 17th c. map (Africa & America are upside down).
4/ >> What about the location of Atlantis? (Remember, headache).
"for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together..."
* The full text about the location of Atlantis.
"for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together..."
* The full text about the location of Atlantis.
5/ >> Now let's dismantle this text. The pillars of Hercules are the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain & Jebel Musa in Morocco. Between them pass the Straits of Gibraltar, known in ancient times as the western edge of the world. >>
* Marking of the pillars in the rock of Gibraltar.
* Marking of the pillars in the rock of Gibraltar.
6/ >> Plato describes the island as larger than Libya & Asia. Regarding this description, remember the geographical scope of the period, the size of the world was much smaller than our world & the names "Libya & Asia" are general & not necessarily the countries known today. >>
7/ >> The quote confuses even more "...of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean..."
What are the other islands, & the veritable ocean? >>
What are the other islands, & the veritable ocean? >>
8/ >> There's more! "...is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent..." Some suggested the Aegean Sea. >>
* Papyri mentioning Atlantis.
* Papyri mentioning Atlantis.
9/ >> There were 2 options for placing Atlantis in the Aegean. The first, Santorini, with the 17th c. BC eruption being the reason that civilization sank into the ocean. There are impressive Minoan remains in Santorini but are they more advanced than Plato's Greece? Not sure.
10/ >> The second Aegean Sea proposal was the Cyclades archipelago. This is a group of 220 islands located between Athens and Crete, the claim is that these are remains of one large island, and the islands seen today are the remnants after it sunk. >>
* The Cyclades Islands.
* The Cyclades Islands.
11/ >> There is still one big problem with placing Atlantis in the Aegean Sea & attributing its culture to the Minoan culture. The name Atlantis indicates the island's locaiton in the Atlantic Ocean, & the most reliable place in Plato's quote places Atlantis west of Gibraltar. >>
12/ >> To this day it is still not clear what place Plato was talking about which he dubbed Atlantis, but it ignited the imagination of the whole world, with quite a few people busy searching for it. Will it be found one day? First we need to prove it existed.
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