Legends about the lost continent of Atlantis have been told for hundreds of years. Scientists are conducting new research to separate the legends and facts about Atlantis. One of those studies looks at the writings of the famous Greek philosopher Plato with a different perspective. It is claimed that Plato made various references to the Greek Alphabet regarding the lost civilization; these references can help us understand where Atlantis really is.
WRITING EXISTED A LONG TIME AGO
An article in the Greek Reporter points to Plato’s Timaeus, written in the 4th century BC. According to the text, which includes a conversation between Solon of Athens and an Egyptian priest, the priest tells Solon the story of Atlantis. According to the legend, the Egyptian priest tells Solon of Athens, “Just when you were beginning to receive letters and other necessities of civilized life, a flood came.” According to researchers, this dialogue in Timaeus proves that writing and civilization existed much earlier but were destroyed as a result of natural disasters.
END OF THE MYCENEAN AGE
Researchers pursuing the question “What does this statement by the Egyptian priest correspond to?” emphasize that the natural disasters that occurred overlap with those that occurred at the end of the Bronze Age, which was also the end of the Mycenaean Age. Indeed, in the text in question, the priest tells the Athenian Solon the following: “In the past, the most beautiful and noble human race that ever lived lived in your lands. You and your entire city come from a small seed, or a surviving remnant of them. This was unknown, for generations of survivors of the destruction died without leaving a written word.“
DARK AGES
Historians and archaeologists state that the phrase “the most beautiful and noble race of people who inhabited the Aegean in the past” necessarily refers to the Mycenaeans. At the end of the Bronze Age, this civilization experienced a great social collapse. The collapse was partly due to natural disasters and tsunamis that occurred during that period. After the 12th century BC, the “Dark Ages” began. As the Egyptian priest told Solon, the survivors left no written word. The period of ignorance continued until the 9th century BC. The civilizations that adopted the Phoenician Alphabet at that time later created the Greek Alphabet.
LINEAR B WRITING SYSTEM
Researchers pursuing the information in the Timaeus believe that the events related to Atlantis may have occurred during a period when the Greeks had an alphabet or other form of writing. The article in question states, ““Atlantis may have existed only a short time before the Greeks first began to write about it. So those who knew of Atlantis may have had the opportunity to write about it.” Based on the information that the Mycenaeans used the Linear B writing system before the Dark Ages, researchers claim that the real Atlantis was a nation that existed between 1500 BC at the earliest and 1200 BC at the latest.
ATLANTIS IS MINOS
The article states: “This helps us a lot in discovering the real Atlantis. In the period between 1500 and 1200 BC, there was only one nation that fit this basic profile: the Minoans. This is not surprising, since for decades many scholars have argued that the Atlantis story comes from distorted accounts of the Minoan civilization. The Minoans were a rich and powerful civilization that ruled over many of the Cycladic islands, including Santorini, which bears a striking resemblance to Plato’s description of the plan of Atlantis. Many of the Minoan traditions are similar to those described by Plato. The chronological evidence provided by the Greek Alphabet strongly supports the conclusion that the Atlantis story comes directly from the Minoan civilization.”
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