Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found

[emad]

A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered.

Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water.

The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago.

Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4153008.stm

[tk2kewl]

1. Sounded exciting...

but then the big letdown at the end of the article...

"But the mapping of the island carried out by Dr Gutscher failed to turn up any manmade structures and also showed that the island was much smaller than previously believed.

This could make it less likely that the island was inhabited by a civilisation."

[Art_from_Ark]

2. There is an island near Malta that is submerged

and has man-made structures. Some people think that may be Atlantis.

http://www.maltadiscovery.com/v3/eng/index.html

[Zorro]

3. I subscribe to the Santorini as Atlantis theory

That is, Santorini combined with the pre-literate memories contained in ancient oral histories of the Minoan culture on Crete and its cataclysmic destruction -- around the time Santorini popped its cork.

In a similar vein, there was a fascinating book published about 20 years ago that mapped Ulysses' travels around the Med; instead of tracing a route that took him from one end to the other, the authors could correlate relatively local Aegean landmarks and harbors to the story. My point is that reliance on oral tradition can be misleading, because it's relatively common to exaggerate the details when there is no written history. Just ask any fisherman.

Atlantis outside the Pillars of Hercules? It would sound good to the ancient Greeks. Probably a lot more exotic than the reality that Atlantis was in their own backyard.

[SteppingRazor]

4. I subscribe to the "If Atlantis existed, so did Zeus" Theory

:evilgrin:

[beam me up scottie]

5. How dare you question the

existence of Zeus!

Next you'll be trying to tell me there's no Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[SteppingRazor]

6. Hey, I NEVER SAID THAT!

Don't you dare put words in my mouth!

ALL HAIL HIS NOODLY APENDAGES!!!!!

[beam me up scottie]

7. We are not worthy!

Meatballs be with you.

[SteppingRazor]

8. And also with you, brother.

I long for the day when the Flying Spaghetti Monster will sit in judgement, casting the non-believers into the Lake of Boiling Bolognese!

[beam me up scottie]

9. That's "Sister BMUS"

And I savor the thought of the infidels broiling in the layers of Lasagna Hell.

[SidDithers]

10. All hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster!...

<-----
I've been touched by his noodly appendage too :)



Sid

[beam me up scottie]

11. ACK !!!

GROVELBOT ATE THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

MAKE HIM SPIT IT OUT!

[Dogmudgeon]

12. A lot of places were submerged 12 kYA

The last ice age was coming to an end and huge amounts of water were being released. The oceans also rose by some 75 meters and I'm sure the climate didn't stay stable either. The Younger-Dryas epoch was ushered in all at once by an enormous ice avalanche in Eastern Quebec that released a huge glacial lake into the North Atlantic.

The legends of "Atlantis" could well have had several sources in legends of cities that were drowned. We have only started to look at areas that were once coastal but are now underwater. That's why I don't immediately dismiss these new discoveries of "Atlantis", although Atlantis per se is probably a mythical story.

Like most things in natural science, this puzzle is going to take time and work to figure out.

--p!

[Pepperbelly]

13. there is probably a hard kernel of truth in the middle of that myth.

Probably didn't bear much resemblence to what Plato described or, for that matter, the way it was portrayed in a Sergio Corbucci flick in the 1960s.

This one ... from Genesis 6 -- "4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

I'd like to know the kernel behind that one.

[salvorhardin]

14. I think we have archaeological evidence on that one

:-)

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Giants?

Some years ago, there was talk of large, semi-sapient homonids, called Gigantopithecenes, being the source of those legends. It turned out that Gigantopithecus wasn't an homonid at all, but a very large ape that lived in Asia about 6 MYA, and disappeared long before Homo emerged. (The Wikipedia article mentions that Gigantopithecus might have been around 200 kYA, but I have no attribution for that, and bigfoot theories are purely speculative.)

In most languages, stature is a metaphor for accomplishment or honor -- as in "Kennedy was a giant of a man" or "Bush is a small, small man". I see no reason why that should not have been the case among the Hebrews at the time the Torah was written down. The "sons of God" reference could indicate that these people were associated with religion, magic, or were held in high esteem.

If moderns were talking about them, they might say that they were giants with big heads. Perhaps this is how future archeologists will find out about Donald Trump. :)

A second possibility is that these "giants" were part of a large community of unusually tall people, perhaps Indo-Europeans, like the Hyksos. I don't mean 8 feet tall, but 6'4" would be enough to be noticed by 5'4" pre-Hebrew semites.

Either way, it's all just speculation, since it's a litarary allusion, but it does give us at least two decent leads to follow up on -- a linguistic theory and a missing-peoples theory.

--p!