Curiosity tonight-Atlantis Uncovered

[malaise]

Since Plato's first dramatic account around 360 BC of an island sinking into the ocean, philosophers, historians and writers have debated whether the disappearance of Atlantis was real or a legend. Now, new evidence suggests that Atlantis is more than a myth and the island, so long shrouded in mystery, may have left clues to its destruction.

[Scuba]

1. Tease.

[WinkyDink]

2. Is there a link to whatever you refer to? MAYBE LIKE THIS?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTEOM_ZzKKk

[NYC_SKP]

5. Discovery and Discovery HD, tonight, 8:00pm Pacific on Dish.

I get dish, can't help on the others...

:hi:

[WinkyDink]

23. Thank you! It's one of my favorite topics (me and millions! LOL!)!

[gateley]

3. Just think of all the civilizations that may have existed that are

now lost forever. This is cool -- thanks!!

:hi:

[malaise]

7. A huge section of Port Royal in Jamaica sank after a

major earthquake and tsunami in 1692

http://www.noquartergiven.net/jamaica.htm

[gateley]

9. That is so cool! I read both parts of Port Royal and was on

my way to Spanish Town and Kingston but the link didn't work, so I came home. :)

Thanks!!

[malaise]

13. LOL

:hi:

[white_wolf]

4. I could be wrong, but didn't Plato himself see Atlantis was just something he made up?

[NYC_SKP]

6. He just continued an oral tradition of a story that would have occured 9,000 years earlier.

More or less...

[SheilaT]

10. Was he even claiming that? I do know that

his account of Atlantis is absolutely the first such account. No one else has ever, to the best of my knowledge, claimed an earlier version of the story. Every single thing about Atlantis, even if it claims earlier and older sources, all come after (and usually many centuries after) Plato's account.

[14thColony]

21. While pre-Platonic references are thin, they do exist

Hellanicus of Mytilene was a Greek historiographer, and among one of the first to try to sort out myth from real events in Greek history. Of his thirty works, one volume is called Atlantis. While only fragments remain, what does remain tracks with Plato's account he claims derives from the Egyptians via Solon. As Hellanicus died 50 years prior to Plato writing Timaeus and Critius, it seems unlikely Plato could have been his source.

Hellanicus' fragmentary account in Atlantis seems similar to and may have been derived from a Greek epic poem, a fragment of which appears to have been preserved in the much-later Oxyrhynchus Papyri, but would nonetheless have to predate Hellanicus for him to have used it as a source.

While not much of a reference in comparison to Hellanicus, Herodotus himself, in Clio, specifically mentions that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) is called "the Atlantis sea/the sea of Atlantis" depending on the translation. As Herodutus died 65 years prior to Plato's writings, again it is unlikley Plato could have been his source for this name.

Please note that I am not saying I believe Atlantis existed or not, but merely addressing the fact that there are surviving fragments of pre-Platonic references to Atlantis. That is all.

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. There are Native south and Central American legends

which are similar to the Greek legend.

I'm going for the melting icecaps theory myself.

[TheWraith]

24. Not the case. Hellanicus "Atlantis" had absolutely nothing in common with Plato's.

It was a story about the daughter of the Titan Atlas, not a sunken city.

And yes, Plato made up Atlantis as a "hypothetical city." It was and is completely fictitious, mostly appearing to be drawn from an exaggerated description of the city-state of Thera and it's destruction, and nobody in the ancient world seriously believed it was real. That's strictly a modern belief because nobody has read the original text.

[14thColony]

17. No, quite the opposite

Plato, while expressing some reservations, passed on what he asserted more than once was, as far as he knew, an accurate account of historical events. The fact he cites Solon as the ultimate source (an historical figure of unimpeacheable credibility to Greeks of the day) and credits the Egyptians with having knowledge the Greeks did not have (something probably a bit uncomfortable for his readers of the time), tends to indicate he was relating something he believed to have actually happened. To create a fraud involving Solon and simultaneously credit the Egyptians as superior in knowledge to the Greeks seems unlikely, if not a potential career-ender if discovered.

Not saying it happened, just that Plato appears to have been confident enough that it did happen to commit the two previous things to paper.

[htuttle]

8. I think 'Atlantis' is the remnant of a legend about a coastal megalithic civilization...

...that was inundated when the glaciers melted after the last ice age.

Maybe.

:shrug:

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. The Coastal Flooding equalled the lost of land mass of China and Europe

Worldwide mankind loves settling near estuaries and the sea the loss of that amount of land would have been catastrophic.especially with glacier outburst floods that occurred at the end of the ice age.

I.m fascinated by the ancient giant megalithic stone structures where
hunter gathers all of a sudden had the the technology to move,carve, shape and place 50- 500 ton blocks of granite perfectly..

Hey If you want something to last, survive and make a statement
look at Göbekli Tepe, Sacsayhuamán, Ollantaytambo and other places

[MilesColtrane]

11. I've seen it before.

Oh....ATLANTIS Uncovered...


Nevermind

[malaise]

14. Bwaaaaaaaaaaah hahahahaha

:rofl:

[JCMach1]

15. How about some real archaelogy instead of the pseudo stuff?

Some of the 'real' finding are enough to boggle the mind.

[JCMach1]

18. To answer myself: just one recent amazing find...

Maya Royal Tombs Found With Rare Woman Ruler



A woman ruler's skeleton—her head mysteriously placed between two bowls—is one of two royal burials recently found at the Maya ruins of Nakum in Guatemala... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110922-rare-mayan-female-ruler-tomb-found-guatemala/?now=2011-09-22-00:01

[malaise]

19. That is impressive

Good find

[Motown_Johnny]

16. every couple of years there is "new evidence" of Atlantis, and it is never real

Atlantis was most probably Crete

[KharmaTrain]

20. The Leading Candidate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini

I've long been fascinated with this island...and would love to travel and climb those cliffs sometime. This volcano did a Krakatoa type eruption around 6000BC that coincides with the "disaperance" of the Minoan civilization and that the stories passed along to the Greek scribes. Another culprit is Mount Etna that may have seen one of its faces slide into the sea during an eruption that caused the massive Tsunami.