Below are a selection of books that will give you a background in understanding the growing appreciation that many ancient cultures have, periodically, been destroyed by ‘natural catastrophes’. Abrupt climate changes – many of which are now believed to have been caused by astronomical events such as impacts of asteroids, comets, meteorite storms, and the associated ‘dust-loading’ of the upper atmosphere – seem to be increasingly regarded as the major cause of civilisation collapse in prehistory. Massive earthquakes, intense volcanic activity, and earth-crust displacements on a hemispheric scale in ancient times, are increasingly being viewed as the probable consequences of just such episodes of celestial bombardment.
Besides the ‘cosmic impact’ event of 65 million years ago, which is now accepted as having contributed to the final demise of the dinosaurs, the focus of attention is increasingly
on events around 2350 BC when many Bronze Age societies around the world collapsed simultaneously, and also on the period at the end of the last ice age around ten to twelve thousand years ago. It is this earlier period at the start of the Holocene that efforts to locate Atlantis are currently focussed upon. Researchers who take seriously the stories about Atlantis first re-told in writing in Plato’s Timaeus and Critias dialogues, have consistently been ridiculed by orthodox archæologists and prehistorians. To many of these ‘experts’ the “A” word is complete and total anathema, and many of the ‘fanciful suggestions’ they have offered for ‘what Plato really meant’ have been nothing short of laughable.
But just beneath the surface the myths of Atlantis continue to fascinate most people if they are honest. There are many, many archæological discoveries hidden away in the basements of museums around the world because their very existence does not fit in with currently accepted theories about prehistory. Yet folktales and memories about cataclysms, catastrophes and floods which supposedly destroyed the ‘mythical’ continents such as Atlantis, Lemuria and other ancient civilisations, remain an important part of the ‘living traditions’ of many cultures. Are these peoples descendened from the survivors of the ancient cataclysms we now know happened at the end of the last Ice Age? They refuse to go away, and new discoveries being made each year point in the direction of sophisticated civilisation in ancient times …
simply click on the book covers to order those titles directly from Amazon.com, or click on theUK editionlink to order directly from Amazon.co.uk. We have selected a variety of books from
‘the fringe’ and from ‘the mainstream’ archæological researchers and writers.
Some titles may not be available in both US and UK editions.
all comments are editorial and customer reviews posted on the Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk websites
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“Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History”
byWilliam B. F. Ryan, Walter C. Pitman, William Haxby (Illustrator)
“For thousands of years, the legend of a great flood has endured in the biblical story of Noah and in such Middle Eastern myths as the epic of Gilgamesh. Few believed that such a catastrophic deluge had actually occurred. But now two distinguished geophysicists have discovered an event that changed history, a sensational flood 7,600 years ago in what is today the Black Sea. Ancient clay tablets excavated from the ruins of biblical Nineveh more than a hundred years ago revealed a much older version of the same flood legend. Archaeologists searched the length and breadth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia for evidence of such a flood, to no avail. Then, as earth scientists made new discoveries about the history of rapid climate change, they learned that the Mediterranean had once been a desert and that five million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean burst through the Strait of Gibraltar and refilled the Mediterranean basin.”
“From Atlantis to the Sphinx: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World” byColin Wilson
“Wilson’s bestseller explores the mysteries of the pyramids and how they were built by a highly advanced archaic civilization. Recent discoveries of ancient water damage to the Sphinx have thrown the scientific world into a tizzy with the suggestion that Egypt’s legendary monuments might be thousands of years older than previously believed. In his astonishing new bestseller, Colin Wilson delves into these explosive new findings and takes us on a grand tour of the knowledge amassed by researchers over the centuries. He explores mysteries that have puzzled humanity since Plato: Was there an ancient civilization, destroyed by a great catastrophe, whose survivors built the Sphinx some 10,500 years before Christ? Did they possess a knowledge system that could orchestrate the transport of stones weighing thousands of tons, an accomplishment that still baffles modern engineers?”
“The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization”
“All human cultures, from classical and biblical to native North and South American, share the myth of an ancient deluge, often coinciding with a rain of fire from the heavens. What accounts for this shared myth of environmental catastrophe? Now, in The Destruction of Atlantis, author Frank Joseph links this worldwide cultural phenomenon to the story of the lost civilization of Atlantis, which in a single day and night disappeared into the sea in a violent cataclysm. In the most comprehensive account of this legendary island, Joseph provides compelling evidence that Atlantis was at the root of all subsequent human civilizations. Brilliantly refuting years of modern skepticism, Joseph combines evidence from archaeology, geology, astronomy, and ancient lore to locate Atlantis in the context of Near Eastern Bronze Age society at the end of the 13th century B.C.”
“Hope writes knowingly on the nature of Atlantis and Atlanteans and ofthe world-wide myths that survived the Golden Age. Unfortunately,Hope’s account suffers from a reliance on Ignatius Donnelly’s 19thcentury placement of Atlantis as “opposed to the Pillars ofHeracles (Straits of Gibraltar) rather than “across” fromthem as Plato wrote. Thus Hope, like many others, posits Atlantis as asunken island in the Atlantic (geologially unsustainable), rather thanas the “island-continent” Plato described.”
“Gateway to Atlantis: The Search for the Source of a Lost Civilization”
“A historian’s investigation that may have solved one of humankind’s greatest and most enduring mysteries: the location of the “Lost City” of Atlantis. More than 2,350 years ago Plato wrote of the fabulous island empire of Atlantis, which ruled the ocean as well as parts of the “opposite continent” – what we know today as the Americas – until the single “terrible day and night” that destroyed it in a storm of earthquakes and floods. And now, after years of travel and research, Andrew Collins has gathered convincing evidence that may establish not only that Atlantis did indeed exist but also that remnants of it survive today. Collins’s journey into the past follows the clues left by Plato, and they take him far beyond Crete and the Mediterranean, where scholars in recent times have located Atlantis. So do mummies in Egypt, Roman wreckage in the West Atlantic, the African features of great stone heads in Mexico, and the explosion of a comet 10,500 years ago.”
“Atlantis – The Andes Solution: South America As the Legendary Continent of Atlantis” byJames M. Allen & John Blashford-Snell (Foreword)
“The ancient city of Atlantis was lost after being devastated by floods and earthquakes about 9000BC according to Plato. He wrote of its magnificence and described its geographical location in great detail. Over the centuries many theories have grown up regarding its precise location. Jim Allen, a former aerial intelligence interpreter for the RAF, made a discovery. He located a site on the Altoplano in what is now modern Bolivia, where he has found the remains of the canal system described by Plato. Plato’s description of an island city on a plain encircled by mountains fits the Altiplano like a glove. Furthermore the fabled city was set on a lake and plated in gold, silver, bronze, tin and a mysterious metal called “orichalcum” – all those metals are only found together in great profusion in Bolivia.”
“Plato’s legend of Atlantis has become notorious among scholars as the absurdest lie in literature. Atlantis Destroyed explores the possibility that the account given by Plato is historically true. Rodney Castleden first considers the location of Atlantis re-examining two suggestions put forward in the early twentieth century; Minoan Crete and Minoan Thera. He outlines the latest research findings on Knossos and Bronze Age Thera, discussing the material culture, trade empire and agricultural system, writing and wall paintings, art, religion and society of the Minoan civilization. Castleden demonstrates the many parallels between Plato’s narrative and the Minoan Civilization in the Aegean.”
“The so-called “Stone Age” (technically called the Palaeolithic, lasting from 2.4 to 10,000 million years ago) inevitably conjures up Flintstone-like images of peoples, what social anthropologists call “idiot communities”. Rudgley seeks to alter this misconception, which originated with 19th-century notions of progress and Darwinistic superiority. He argues that the achievements of prehistoric times, ranging from the technicalities of mining and stone tool-making, through surgery and the origins of writing to art, have been downplayed in popular accounts. Recent advances in dating have shown that previous ideas about the chronology of many aspects of Palaeolithic culture were quite erroneous, especially with regard to the art of the period. Art from the earliest phase of the Upper Palaeolithic shows, as Rudgley says, “an equal mastery … to that of the later phases”.”
“Discovery of Atlantis: Startling New Evidence and the Case for Cyprus” byRobert Sarmast
“Plato provided 53 physical clues in his famous dialogue Critias–the original account of the story of Atlantis that is the sole basis of all Atlantis research. Discovery of Atlantis proves that the island of Cyprus and the underwater landscape just south of Cyprus is a perfect match with 51 of these clues. Exclusive 3D bathymetric maps based on new scientific data show for the first time a stretch of sunken land off of Cyprus. The general layout of the landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato is easily discernible on this underwater landmass, as well as the precise location of its capital–Atlantis City. This robust empirical data is joined with other original findings based on mythological analysis and historical research, making the case for Cyprus increasingly obvious.”
“Lost Cities of Atlantis Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean”
“David Hatcher Childress has written a series of these books, and in this one, he tends to conflate and expand the Atlantis myth past the bounds of any possible credibility. The Hittities, the Harrapans, the Egyptians, the megalithic builders of Malta and the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Europe…it’s as if David figures if he claims Atlantis was everywhere and did everything, eventually he’ll get it right by sheer thoroughness. This being said, I loved the book. I was a little sad that he didn’t do more with events like the possible Hittite/Mycenaean connection to the Iliad and how that might have played out in the post Santorini Bronze Age Aegean, but that’s a mere quibble. Just for postulating that the ancient Celts used a gold disc to fire a laser beam into a barrow, Childress earns my loyal readership. An excellent collection of fancies that may hold more truth than they appear to.”
this is page two more books about Atlantis theories on pages 1 | 3
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October 2002Morien Instituteillustrated interview with
Professor Masaaki Kimura of the University of the Ruykyus, Okinawa, Japan
about the discovery of: