Lost Civilization

INTRODUCTION

Much thought has gone into the idea that history may not have got the genesis of civilisation correct. But this is totally ignored by academe. Historians and archaeologists are not to blame for this, as such. They can only work with the evidence before them. And the evidence in favour of an alternative genesis is slight.
The problem becomes worse with the role played by pseudoscholars. Personally, I believe they play an important role, going to places others fear to tread. But so often they take the slight evidence available and sensationalise it out of all proportion. Is there any wonder historians and archaeologists run a mile from any form of speculation? They may be wrong – they may feel they are wrong themselves – but if understanding of an alternate genesis of civilisation is to be had, it must be measured and sensible.
Here, I hope I do go forward in a measured and sensible way. Chances are historians and archaeologists will still class me as a pseudoscholar, but that is just snobbery. After all, I’m not a historian or archaeologist. And if I’m accepted as speaking sense, what’s the point of them training in the first place?
What follows are my impressions on the possibility of a lost world that was the genesis of civilisation. If you agree or disagree, or have something to add, join the debate. I must begin with that word that is anathema to historians and archaeologists. Stay calm. Atlantis.

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ATLANTIS

Did Atlantis once exist? We first hear of Atlantis in the ‘Timaeus’ and ‘Critias’; dialogues by the Greek philosopher Plato, written about 350BC. Claiming to have heard the story from Solon, who heard it from a priest of ancient Egypt, Atlantis was a fantastic island beyond the ‘Pillars of Hercules.’
Existing in the deep past, it had an ideal government and boasted immense wealth and power. Having superior technology, the Atlanteans were the ultimate of humanity, but eventually their growing corruptness led to their destruction, the island eventually sinking below the sea.
Derided by later Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, the story was seen as a simple myth until 1882 when US Congressman Ignatius Donnelly took an interest. Donnelly was fascinated by the similarities between ancient Egyptian culture and that of Central and South America.
Arguing that both cultures had a single source, he theorised that they were the products of the survivors of the destruction of Atlantis which, to him, was located in the Atlantic Ocean.
About the same time, the medium and founder of the Theosophical Society, Madame Helena Blavatsky argued that the Atlanteans were a psychically developed people known as the Fourth Root Race. A previous evolutionary stage of man, they were an expression of the assent (or descent?) from celestial beings.
At the turn of the century, occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner …

This essay has now moved to Anthony North’s new website. Read more of it here, including his own theories and more data including the Giza Plateau, Kennewick Man and much more.

© Anthony North, December 2008