Atlantis...possible?

[Kingpin1989]

Hey, just wondering if atlantis is possible, and where it may have been or is still, if it comes to it..Scientifically possible?

[ydoaPs]

plato was just describing a utopian society

[mossoi]

A lot of people (well, of those that believe it exists physically) reckon it might be beneath Antartica as the shape of the land under Antartica is similar to the believed shape of Atlantis.

[Ophiolite]

It very much depends upon what you mean by Atlantis. If you are thinking a continent sized land, located in the Atlantic Ocean, peopled by a culturally and technically advanced society, eventually destroyed by a cataclysm, then no: Not physically possible.

Continents and oceans have quite distinct properties (notably crustal thickness and composition) and are not interchangeable over historical timescales.

However, if by Atlantis you mean a civilisation, advanced for its time, but primitive compared with today's, located somewhere(!), destroyed by natural catastrophe, then there are a number of viable alternatives.

1.Current thinking favours the Minoan civilisation, centred in the Eastern Mediterranean and destroyed by the explosive eruption of Santorini around 1500BC.

2. The West Indies present several options including Cuba, Dominica and the Bahamas. Here destruction would have been in the form of rising sea levels.

3. A maritime culture based on the Azores.

 

'yourdadonapogos' suggests that Plato was just describing a utopian city. Clearly he, Plato, used the tale of destruction as a political warning to his contemporaries, but equally he was basing it upon fact. Atlantis is as mythical as today as Troy was before Schleimann discovered it.

[Sayonara]

'yourdadonapogos' suggests that Plato was just describing a utopian city

That's because he was mistakenly answering the question "did Atlantis exist?", because he doesn't read posts in the same way we do. He makes up his own words and swaps them with what's on the screen.

[Kingpin1989]

Atlantis is as mythical as today as Troy was before Schleimann discovered it.

 

Well, if this is the case, I see no plausible evidence that Atlantis is not possible. I like the West Indies theory because most evidence describes the downfall as watery, but the west indies was not discovered for some time, which makes the Minoan belief more plausible. Atlantis is just another Troy...

[Ophiolite]

Well, if this is the case, I see no plausible evidence that Atlantis is not possible. I like the West Indies theory because most evidence describes the downfall as watery, but the west indies was not discovered for some time, which makes the Minoan belief more plausible. Atlantis is just another Troy...

 

Well conventional views have the West Indies discovered 'recently': Columbus et al. However, there is abundant suggestive evidence pointing to much earlier contacts between the Old World and the New. For example:

 

2000-year-old Mediterranean amphorae found in wrecks of Honduras and Brazil.

http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/romanbust.htm

 

Traces of cocaine in Egyptian mummies (cocaine was originally only available from S America)

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/courses/en570/papers_2000/wells.html

 

Thor Heyerdahl's successful trans-atalantic voyage on Ra, a reed raft of Egyptian design.

http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/RAX.html?CFID=10280761&CFTOKEN=22971753&jsessionid=0630be544710$3D$DC$0

 

The evidence is strongly disputed and Heyerdahl's voyages dimissed as irrelevant by many experts, but largely on the grounds that it runs counter to the accepted view. So, not conclusive, but worthy of further consideration.

[Penticostal8]

I don't think there is an Atlantis. It has been amyth for many-many years and you'd think with the technology that we have today, we would have found.

 

I heard somewhere that people are believeing Atlantis to contain life. I don't find that possible. If there is an atlantis it would be a deserted underwater city of anchaint ruins

[drz]

only the crazies expect to find life in atlantis. Of course there are people who suggest atlantis is actually to be found on another planet.

 

I certainly believe plato was describing a real place, but as people tend to exaggerate, and its been a long, long time, its probably been blown out of proportion.

 

I remember watching a show on Discovery a few months ago about some guy who believes he's found atlantis. It is a stretch of land that was previously underwater. There is evidence of a past civilization, and the dimensions and layout described by plato match up quite closely to what he found.

 

Sorry I can't remember exact details like, where, or who, its been quite a while.

[Jthesnake08]

I personally aint sure about there being an Atlantis. You would think that scientist today could somehow have technology to find it.

[Sayonara]

There are plenty of sets of submerged candidate ruins. The problems getting positive identification arise because (a) it may not even exist and (b) there are different interpretations of the historical accounts.

[Kingpin1989]

I believe that there is enough evidence in the form of even the legend (it has been found in all areas of earth) to support the myth of Atlantis....but I could be wrong

[Ophiolite]

I believe that there is enough evidence in the form of even the legend (it has been found in all areas of earth) to support the myth of Atlantis....but I could be wrong

Can you clarify what you mean 'found in all areas of the earth'? The only original mention of Atlantis is in the Timaeus, written around 355 B.C. by Plato. All other references to Atlantis are references back to this work.

 

If you are talking about the universality of flood myths, that is an altogether different topic, not relevant to the Atlantis question.

 

Edit: Nobody picked me up on my obivious error: Plato continued his description of Atlantis in the uncompleted Critias written, probably, in the year before his death.

[Ophiolite]

I remember watching a show on Discovery a few months ago about some guy who believes he's found atlantis. It is a stretch of land that was previously underwater. There is evidence of a past civilization' date=' and the dimensions and layout described by plato match up quite closely to what he found.

[/quote']Possibly Graham Hancock. If you are interested try his book Underworld [iSBN 1-4000-4612-2]. If you live in the US Barnes & Nobles were selling it in hardback for $7.00.

[Guest x-lichtyears]

i saw a docu. last and it wass about that there probably was a civilization, even before the stoneage that was smarter than us .''why did the old maya's and aztecs knew sow mush but never inventid anything simple like a wheel?'' ''and the egyptions and the south americons knew so mush the same.'' there probely wass an other civilization that told them all these things .there thinking about where that civilization lived ..?atlantis? the scientifers had a lot of proofs that the civelization existed ..but where?

[philbo1965uk]

A word of warning Hancock sounds very plausable in all his books.However he fudges data a little to suit his argument,or fails to tell you something the rest of us would personally find significant,but he doesnt. eg;in one of his books he dates the sphinx 10,500bc which i personally believe,he goes further to establish this when he inputs astronomical data into a computer to see what the positions of celestial bodies were in this period and the sphinx faces its opposite leo...wow...but he moved the horizon a little lower as leo was actually below the horizon...still a good writer though

[philbo1965uk]

As for Atlantis,i think maybe the Antarctic is a good candidate based on the (piri rees maps...not sure if its correct spelling)

[Ophiolite]

A word of warning Hancock sounds very plausable in all his books.However he fudges data a little to suit his argument,......still a good writer though

I would rate Hancock the 'Best of the Weirdo's', the pseudo-science brigade like Daineken, Bauval, etc. His arguments are well reasoned, the uncertainties noted, the alternatives considered. Indeed I'm probably being grossly unfair to lump him into the pseudo-science camp - honourable amateur might be closer to the mark. At any rate, always entertaining.

[JohnB]

There is a common misconception that the Mayas etc didn't invent the wheel. The evidence is that they did, but with the topography of the land and only oxen to pull the carts, it would have been more trouble than it's worth to make the roads for the carts to travel on.

 

I've read most of Hancock's books and find them interesting and thought provoking.

[tecoyah]

Likely, there was a civilization more advanced than others in the past....as there are today. The accounts of Plato, point towards a compilation of advances, taken from multiple sources of the time and would point towards some level of "creative manipulation" by the author. I would lean towards Yourdad in the belief that this is indeed a work of fiction, attempting to instill a warning in his peers. Obviously to little effect.