Atlantis Research Paper

Atlantis research paper

This is a research paper on Atlantis I did in school a couple of years ago. The images that accompany it can be found here

It is in the nature of humanity to believe in things that cannot be proven. Every civilization in history has legends and myths. The legend of Atlantis, a lost continent, has survived for over 2000 years, a myth found in many texts and movies. Writers have created whole pantheons for Atlantis. While there may have been an island that sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Plato’s Atlantis is hidden in the remnants of a destroyed civilization in the Mediterranean Sea.

Plato tells the readers of Timaeus “In a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men [the Greeks] in a body
The biggest problem is the location of Thera, and the timeframe of the volcanic eruption. Thera is found in the mid-eastern part of the Mediterranean, while Plato placed Atlantis outside the Pillars of Hercules, in the Atlantic Ocean. Thera erupted 900 years before Plato’s time, whereas Plato says Atlantis sank into the sea 9000 years before he told the story. This can easily be explained by the human tendency to exaggerate when telling a story, much like the “whopper story” - a caught fish, really eight inches long, becomes two or three feet long. Plato may have exaggerated (or maybe Solon did) to make the story sound better.

In addition, there is a scientific premise called Occam’s Razor, which states that for any problem, the simplest solution is usually correct. Based on the evidence found in Crete, the Minoan civilization would appear to be the simplest solution to the problem of Atlantis. Artwork from Egypt that allegedly depicts the Minoans tells us that they were advanced, as Atlantis probably was. Based on what archeologists know, the theory seems
Exploration of the seas has revealed islands that slowly sank beneath the waves, much like Hawaii is slowly sinking today. Other civilizations have stories of disappearing lands, such as Avalon, from the legends of King Arthur, the Mayan land of Mu, and an island in the Indian Ocean, Lemuria. It is interesting that all of these civilizations have stories of vanishing isles, and that we have maps that could not have been drawn by any known civilization other than our own.

Deep-sea exploration indicates that islands that used to be active volcanoes slowly sank after they stopped erupting. These “disappearing” islands may have been seen, and may have inspired the myths of vanishing islands. The myths, if seen by some as more than legend, could have inspired many stories, including the exaggeration of the tale of Atlantis.

There is an island on top of what is today the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that disappears in a series of maps (Hapgood 65). Plato tells his readers that Atlantis was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. That island over the Mid-Atlantic ridge could have inspired the location of Atlantis, even if it did not meet a violent end. Perhaps Plato merged history with myth, creating a new legend that has kept historians, archeologists, oceanographers and novelists dreaming, searching and