The traces of Atlantis
Index
- Introduction
- Athens: the seat of the “Nordic race”?
- Red hair and haplogroup R1b
- Doggerland: An Atlantean Outpost?
- Conclusions
Introduction
This article represents an integration of the previous one, in which we had identified the island of Atlantis based mainly on the geographical information provided by Plato in his writings. In this work, however, we will turn our attention to the data provided by genetics, anthropology and mythology, to verify if the traces of this mythical civilization are still present among us.
Athens: the seat of the “Nordic race”?
According to what Plato wrote, about 11,600 years ago two great powers collided: Atlantis and Athens. Now, the characteristics of this "Athens" do not match at all with those of Mediterranean Athens: various clues instead led us to locate it further north, in present-day southern Sweden.
In the Critias, the origin of Athens and its inhabitants is traced back to the gods Hephaestus and Athena, who
"there, having given birth to natives, good men, placed in their minds the idea of an orderly political constitution" (109 AD).
Let's also overlook the true nature of the "gods" (were they perhaps kings, like the Egyptians ?); what interests us here is the fact that the region of "Athens" (Attica) is presented as the original nucleus of a population. Therefore it is natural to ask whether this statement is verifiable.
Southern Scandinavia, in fact, represents the nucleus of origin of haplogroup I1 (haplogroups are genetic markers). It is a very ancient haplogroup, and its distribution is related to the diffusion of the so-called "Nordic race" (more properly: "Nordic phenotype"). The "Nordics" are typically slender and tall in stature, with a meso-dolichocephalic skull, and have blond hair and light eyes. Curiously, the goddess Athena had the epithet of glaucopis, which some translate as "clear-eyed". Are the Athenians mentioned by Plato the ancient (indeed: very ancient) Swedes? I would say that is a hypothesis to be taken into consideration.
Red hair and haplogroup R1b
Now we come to Atlantis. Unlike Attica, the island is described as having already been inhabited by the arrival of Poseidon (Critias, 113c-d). But what might the Atlanteans have looked like? We can get an idea by looking at the maps below.
The two maps, as indicated in the caption, show the diffusion in Europe of haplogroup R1b and red hair respectively: these two characteristics are closely related to each other above the 45th parallel north: further south the sun's rays become more intense and this makes lighter phototypes less advantageous.
As can be easily seen, the presence of haplogroup R1b (and consequently of red hair) is highest in north-western Europe (Ireland, Scotland, Wales) and becomes increasingly rare as one proceeds towards the south-east. It is at least curious to note that the submerged area of Rockall, if it were on the surface, would appear as an irradiation point of this haplogroup. So did the Atlanteans have fair skin and red hair?
It is commonly believed that haplogroup R1b arrived in Western Europe only in relatively recent times, through progressive migrations from the east that occurred over the centuries. Be that as it may, it is also very common in the Basque people, which according to some studies would seem to have very ancient origins. Other studies hypothesized that the colonization of Northern Europe and North Africa after the last glaciation had taken place starting from the Franco-Cantabrian region, coincidentally seat of the Basque people. If Rockall was indeed subaerial during the Late Dryas, was it also settled? Or on the contrary, were its inhabitants who escaped the catastrophe (re-)colonising Europe? For now, the question remains open.
Doggerland: An Atlantean Outpost?
According to the words of the Platonic dialogues, the dominion of Atlantis had extended" in Libya up to Egypt and in Europe up to Tyrrhenia" (Timaeus, 25a; Critias, 114c). In the previous article we assumed that the terms "Libya" and "Tirrenia" actually indicated the regions into which the territory of Doggerland was divided. Doggerland was a large portion of land that occupied what is now the North Sea, connecting what is now Great Britain to the European continent. Over the millennia, due to rising sea levels, this area has been completely submerged. However, in the period known as Recent Dryas (10.800-9600 BC) it was still quite extensive and could very well host several populations.
Now, since Doggerland was a sort of "middle ground" between Atlantis (Rockall) and primitive Athens, we hypothesized that the empire of Atlantis had extended precisely to these territories: perhaps from here the Atlanteans would have gathered the forces to also attack Athens. We know from the Timaeus that the war ended with the defeat of Atlantis and that even the peoples "on this side of the Pillars of Hercules" subjected to it were freed (25c). Despite this, it is unlikely that the socio-cultural substrate of the island has been completely erased, for at least two reasons:
- If the natural upheavals (which did not involve only Atlantis: Timaeus, 25c-d) were only shortly after the war events, the liberated peoples did not have the time for a real socio-political reorganization;
- It is probable that the Atlanteans had scattered colonies in the conquered regions: the surviving colonists would have easily maintained their customs even after the disappearance of the motherland.
Of course, we cannot know if these colonies ever actually existed. However, if Doggerland was actually subject to the dominion of Atlantis, we should be able to trace some traces.
But hadn't Doggerland – also – disappeared? In reality, a tiny portion still exist today: it is the island of Heligoland, in German Helgoland ("sacred land"), located in the North Sea. Well, some researchers have identified this region as ... Atlantis! Indeed, there are some interesting similarities between this island and the Platonic Atlantis. Let's see an example.
In ancient times Heligoland was dedicated to the worship of the god Forseti. According to the myth, the abode of the god, Glitnir (ie "shining"), had walls, pillars and columns of gold and a roof of silver. Plato similarly describes the Atlantean temple dedicated to Poseidon: “Externally the temple was all clad in silver, but not the high pinnacles of the roof, which were of gold. Inside, the ceiling appeared entirely of ivory, everywhere variegated with gold, silver and orichalcum [a mysterious metal, perhaps copper]; they also decorated the rest with orichalcum: walls, columns, floor” (Critias, 116AD).
Moreover, Forseti's abode was "the best court for men and for the gods". And similarly in the aforementioned temple of Poseidon the ten kings of Atlantis met every five or six years: "In these meetings they deliberated on common affairs, they sought whether any of them had transgressed the laws and, if so, they judged him" (Critias, 119d). And before passing the sentence they performed a solemn ritual which included the hunting and the sacrifice of a bull (ibid ., 119d- 120c).
In short: was Heligoland Atlantis? Unlikely, given that his geography does not reflect that of Plato's island at all. It is more probable that it was actually (when it was still part of Doggerland) a colony: the reference to a "shining abode" could have been a vague memory of the ancient temple of Poseidon (which later became Forseti?).
Conclusions
What we have formulated in this article are (and for now, remain) simple hypotheses. However, I think I have sufficiently shown how much the re-reading of Platonic texts in the light of current knowledge can reserve considerable surprises. And perhaps the greatest of these is to discover that the very ancient civilization described in such detail by the famous philosopher is much "closer" to us than we had imagined.
Note
This article is an english translation of the italian article "Le Tracce di Atlantide" by Merlo Bianco. You can find the original article here: https://merlobianco.altervista.org/le-tracce-di-atlantide/
