A Lost Civilization in NW Europe?
The academic who connected Atlantis with Ireland and the Megalithic Culture is now looking for a still older lost culture in the North Sea. He suspects some aspects of the Atlantis tale may in fact be historic memories from as far back as the Ice Age. An expedition may be urgent due to the risk of destruction by oil exploration and bottom trawling.
Miami, FL (PRWEB) August 15, 2005 -- Many suggestions have been advanced for
the location of Plato’s fabled lost island and empire called “Atlantis.” With
one exception the hypotheses have been based on conjecture, and not tested
scientifically.
The exception is the study by Dr. Ulf Erlingsson,
presented in his book, “Atlantis from a Geographer’s Perspective: Mapping the
Fairy Land” in 2004. Recently he addressed the scientific community at the
international conference “The Atlantis Hypothesis: Searching for a Lost Land” on
Milos, Greece, July 11-13, 2005.
Dr. Erlingsson is not the first one to
advance the hypothesis that the Empire of Atlantis is linked to the Megalithic
Culture. They were the builders of large-stone tombs in Europe and Africa, from
about 5,600 to 2,800 BC. However, he is the first one to test this
scientifically, and come up with a statistically significant match. At the
Atlantis conference, this was the only location hypothesis that was supported by
a scientific study.
The hypothesis was initially regarded as
controversial at the conference, compared to the more traditional hypothesis of
a location near the Straits of Gibraltar. But after reviewing the arguments,
several scholars started seriously considering a location in NW Europe. If so,
Atlantis might be based on historical annals from a lost European civilization
stretching over nearly ten thousand years, and not refer to one single time and
place.
In his analysis, Erlingsson deduced that only Ireland could have
been the island of Atlantis, if the empire was the Megalithic Culture. When
comparing Ireland to Atlantis, he ended up with several significant geographic
matches. Quoting archaeology textbooks, he argued that also the archaeology
supports the hypothesis, since Ireland is rather unique both in terms of the
architecture, and in the density and age of megalithic tombs.
The sinking
of Atlantis was tentatively associated with Dogger Bank in the North Sea in
Erlingsson’s book. This former island was destroyed by the Storegga tsunami
around 6,100 BC. At the Atlantis conference Erlingsson added that a plain south
of Dogger Bank was flooded at precisely the time indicated by Plato, and that
the site has been identified by archaeologists as one of the best sites for
human dwellings by the end of the Ice Age.
Dr. Erlingsson, who during his
time at Uppsala University was in charge of the under-water exploration vessel
Akusta, is planning to investigate the bottoms of the North Sea. “There is one
particular site of interest,” he says, but is not willing to reveal which. His
worst nightmare is that oil exploration or bottom trawling may already have
ruined the ruins.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb272691.htm