1996, color, 54 minutes, Discovery Channel
Summary
Few myths have been so powerful as that of the lost continent or city of Atlantis. A
creation of Plato, in his Timeaus Plato has Egyptian priests of Sais converse
with his ancestor Solon, and tell him of a country larger than Asia Minor and Lybia
together, the seat of a magnificent civilization far out in the western sea. In his Critias
Plato tells more of Atlantis, whose king ruled parts of Europe as far as the Baltic,
Caspian and Black seas. Atlantis had nearly 12,000,000 people. Its civilization was
wondrous. It all perished in a powerful calamity and sank beneath the sea.
Although most scholars interpret Atlantis to be an allegory of a Utopia, never having
existed at all, some have believed it to be true and have sought it. Some believe it to be
based on the Minoan civilization that controlled the Mediterranean and beyond, that
collapsed after the destruction of Thera and associated volcanic eruptions and tidal
waves. The video explores this hypothesis, interviewing Greek archaeologist Christos
Doumas. Still others look at Troy as its genesis.
Some have believed Plato's account to be an accurate statement of geography, with
the location in the western sea, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). The video
examines the possibility that the reference is to the Americas. Specifically, the video
looks at length at the site of Tiahuanaco in the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia. Many
comparisons are made with the warning that Tiahuanaco is recent made only at the start of
discussion and again at the end. With the site being so recent, comparisons are made to
the Olmec civilizations and its proposed connections to Africa (based on the features of
the Olmec heads).
Other contacts between Old and New Worlds is explored, particularly recent evidence of
cocaine and nicotine supposedly found in Egyptian mummies. Most of these evidences are
spotty and have problems. In the end, the narrator comments that it is okay to dream about
finding Atlantis, with Christos Doumas noting that it is only a dream, and that Atlantis
is something inside us, not existing in the real world.
Questions
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larry-zimmerman@uiowa.edu
University of Iowa Anthropology
08/18/98