TSUNAMI MAY HAVE CAUSED DISAPPEARANCE OF FABLED LAND OF ATLANTIS
| |
A tsunami that traveled hundreds of miles to reach as far as present-day Israel, might have triggered the legend of Atlantis, scientists now suggest. The new findings about this past tsunami could shed light on the destructive potential of future disasters, researchers added.
The islands that make up the small circular archipelago of Santorini, roughly 120 miles (200 km) southeast of Greece, are what remain of what once was a single island, before one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human antiquity shattered it in the Bronze Age some time between 1630 B.C. to 1550 B.C. [Photo shows part of Santori today]
Speculation has abounded as to whether the Santorini eruption inspired the legend of Atlantis, which Plato said drowned in the ocean. Although the isle is often regarded as just an invention, the explosion might have given rise to the story of a lost empire by helping to wipe out the real-life Minoan civilization that once dominated the Mediterranean, from which the myth of the bull-headed 'minotaur' comes.
The primary means by which the eruption potentially wreaked havoc on the Minoan civilization is by the giant tsunami it would have triggered. However, the precise effects of this eruption and killer wave have been a mystery for decades. Now scientists find the tsunami may have been powerful enough to race some 600 miles (1,000 km) from Santorini to reach the farthest eastern shores of the Mediterranean, leaving behind a layer of debris more than a foot thick by the coast of Israel. Researchers dove as far as 65 feet deep (20 meters) off the coast of Caesarea in Israel to collect tubes of sediment, or cores, more than 6 feet long (2 meters) from the seabed. "The work resembles a construction site with pneumatic hammers, heavy weights, floats to counter-weight equipment, hoses -- Each time we took the system down it took hours of surface preparation, planning, and discussion," said researcher Beverly Goodman, a marine geoarchaeologist at Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences at Eilat, Israel.
Within the cores, they found evidence of up to nearly 16 inches of sediment deposited roughly about the date of the Santorini eruption. The range of sizes of the particles making up this deposit is the kind one might find laid down by a tsunami -- storms, in comparison, cannot kick up the seafloor as much, and as such the range of particle sizes they generate is more limited. The discovery was very much an accident, Goodman noted. They were actually researching the demise of the harbor of ancient Caesarea, the cause of which remains hotly debated, with culprits including earthquakes and tsunamis.
"I was testing how two later Roman and Byzantine tsunami deposits could be characterized by studying the different grain sizes -- various sand, pebbles, rocks, ceramic pieces -- in the deposit. Based on determining this 'signature,' I then noticed that there were more than the expected number of tsunami deposits," she explained. "I had no expectation that remnants of the Santorini event would be present in the cores."
These findings support the idea that the Santorini eruption and the side effects from it, such as the tsunami, were massive. "In the case of the eastern Mediterranean, there seems to be a surprising dearth of archaeological sites along the coastline following the Santorini eruption event," Goodman said. Either archaeologists have failed to concentrate on this time span, "which isn't the case," she said, or the tsunami had a very real impact on coastal settlements.
The dramatic changes in life triggered by the tsunami "might have been part of the fabric of the Atlantis story," Goodman added. "The network of sea-based trade was rather sophisticated in that period, and colonies that were nearly solely dependent on those trade routes existed. It is hard to imagine that such a far-reaching disaster didn't cause them severe shortages in supplies, wealth and power."
Although Atlantis itself "is a myth and legend, it is informative about the experiences of the ancients," Goodman said. "It may very well be the case that those passing the story on had heard of or witnessed events in which coastal buildings went underwater because of earthquakes; beachfront towns were flooded during tsunamis; islands were created by underwater volcanic activity. There may be that grain of truth that lent legitimacy and a certain reality to the legend of Atlantis."
To better reconstruct the Santorini tsunami, the scientists plan to analyze deposits closer to the eruption, such as on Crete and in western parts of Turkey. Knowing the potential effect of tsunamis could be critical for the coastal planning and management, Goodman said, adding that the eastern Mediterranean is very highly populated and possesses considerable sensitive infrastructure such as power stations.
"I suppose there is always the question of whether I think another tsunami will occur in the eastern Med," Goodman said. "The answer is yes. I actually checked the elevation of the house I am moving to near Caesarea before agreeing to move there."
Goodman and her colleagues detailed their findings in the October, 2009, issue of the journal Geology.
|
DISCOVERED AT LAST -- THE LEGENDARY CITY OF ATLANTIS
| |
[Reuters, November, 2004]
A US researcher claims he has discovered the lost civilisation of Atlantis off Cyprus.
Robert Sarmast says a Mediterranean basin was flooded in a deluge about 9000 BC that submerged a rectangular site he believes was Atlantis. It lies 1500 metres below sea level, 80 kilometres off the south-eastern coast of Cyprus.
"We have definitely found it," Mr Sarmast said. Deepwater sonar scanning had indicated man-made structures on a submerged hill, including a wall three kilometres long, a walled hill summit and deep trenches.
"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar, as the artefacts are still buried under several metres of sediment, but the circumstantial and other evidence is irrefutable," he said.
Whether and where Atlantis existed has captured imaginations for centuries. Plato said Atlantis was an island nation where an advanced civilisation developed 11,500 years ago. Theories abound as to why it disappeared. Some say Atlantis was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster, but according to Greek mythology the civilisation was so corrupted by greed and power that it was destroyed by God. Sceptics believe Atlantis was a figment of Plato's imagination.
Mr Sarmast says he was led to Cyprus by clues in Plato's dialogues. Plato's reference to Atlantis lying opposite the Pillars of Hercules, which are believed to be the Straits of Gibraltar, have led explorers to focus on either the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland or the Azores off Portugal.
"People who dismiss this have not really done their homework," Mr Sarmast said. "Sceptics don't really understand. To understand the enigma of Atlantis you have to have good knowledge of ancient history, biblical references, the Sumerian culture and their tablets and so on."
|
THE MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL OF THE SUMERIAN PEOPLE
| |
The Sumerian speaking people settled in the land they called Sumer, in that region of the Fertile Crescent that lay along the southern portions of the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. The area is located just before those great tributaries dump their waters into the Persian Gulf -- in an area which is now known as southeastern Iraq. The Greeks later called the area "Mesopotamia," meaning "between the rivers." To the northeast (modern day Iran) was the Zagros Mountains, while to the southwest was the Arabian Desert.
What occurred there some 6000 years ago, has been called "the most crucial event in human history." Literally, seemingly out of nowhere, a highly advanced, thriving culture appeared sometime after 4000 B.C.E. (although some argue the Sumerians may have arrived as early as 8,500 B.C.E., or even much, much earlier). What is clear is that the Sumerians developed a highly sophisticated system of irrigation and agriculture, which took full advantage of the waters of the two rivers. They quickly established magnificent cities, advanced governing laws, and a written language.
The Sumerian language itself has been an enigma to linguists and scholars ever since the first tablets of that ancient language were re-discovered in the nineteenth century. It bears no relation, for example to Arabic, Assyrian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Indian, Jewish, Persian, or Phoenician, nor to any language from the African, Asian or European continents. It is the oldest sophisticated form of writing in existence, and dates from at least 3400 B.C.E.
These early writings, however, are neither crude nor primitive, and no other source as been identified as to where it might have been developed. As Laurence Gardner has said in Genesis of the Grail Kings, "It appeared in a complete and composite form, as if from another world, in the style known as cuneiform (wedge-shaped). There are now tens of thousands of clay tablets and cylinder-seals containing Sumerian texts describing everything from taxation and administrative records to essays and literature. It is a unique phenomena."
The most intriguing aspect of the Sumerians is their arrival on the scene with all of the attributes of civilization already formulated in what they termed "The Me." These attributes included everything from kingship and priesthood to the arts of love making, kindness, and song, to the crafts of scribes, builders, leather makers, wood and copper workers, to the perceptive ear, giving of judgments, and the making of beer. The Sumerian culture also included Sumerian Ethics which were a quantum leap above anything known before, and in many ways, definitively superior to modern day morality. An ORME History adds yet more intriguing aspects to this fascinating culture.
Fundamental to anything regarding the Sumerians are their gods and goddesses, whom as a group they called the Anunnaki (literally, "those who from heaven to earth came"). As in any later pantheon, the Anunnaki consisted of a number of very different personalities, that clashed with each other often and in an enormous variety of ways. While their very distinct personalities can be used to establish Archetypes, all of the evidence suggests that the Anunnaki were historical figures and not mythological.
The Sumerian Family Tree, in fact, distinguishes between those Gods and Goddesses who were born on earth (the new generation) and those born in heaven. The Sumerian texts also describe the Epic of Creation (of which Genesis is a condensed version), as well as a continuing semi-sibling rivalry between Enki and Enlil, their offspring, and those humans who voluntarily or otherwise began the process of choosing up sides.
Sumerian wisdom was also prevalent at an early stage -- the so-called father of mankind, Enki, being noted as extremely wise. Some examples of their thoughts can be derived from:
In a city that has no watch dogs, the fox is the overseer.
Flatter a young man, he'll give you anything.
Throw a scrap to a dog, he'll wag his tail.
A sweet word is everybody's friend.
If you take the field of an enemy, the enemy will come and take your field.
Conceiving is nice; pregnancy is irksome.
For a man's pleasure, there is marriage; On thinking it over, there is divorce.
Clearly, we're talking about some supremely wise beings here!
|
ALCHEMY AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
| |
THE TEMPLE AT MOUNT HOREB
In March 1904, the distinguished British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie [1] (1853-1942) made an astonishing discovery. He had gone to survey what the Old Testament referred to as Mount Horeb [2], the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. Buried under the sacred site was the remains of a huge Egyptian temple; subsequently dated back to 2600BC.
Among the treasures were obelisks, pillars, statues, tables, an altar, vases, amulets and wands. These ended up in museums scattered around the world. However the most remarkable find was a metallurgist's crucible and several tons of pure white powder which had been hidden underneath flagstones. Petrie despatched a sample of the mysterious white powder to the British Museum but no record of it remains. Unfortunately when Petrie finished surveying everything, he left the powder exposed and it was scattered by the desert winds.
The hieroglyphics on the temple walls mentioned an unknown substance called mfkzt [3]. The same hieroglyph had been found at other sites in Egypt, but it had never been decyphered. The closest it had come to translation was an extremely valuable gem, metal or mineral, and it was an unstable element. The hieroglyph for mfkzt was almost the same as the one for 'bread' - although obviously not the staple diet kind of bread, could it mean 'spiritual bread'? The scenes depicted on the temple walls were of gods and pharaohs being offered loaves of 'white bread' with inscriptions stating this was a magical, health-giving food. One carving read: 'The presentation of white bread that he may be given life'. Another showed a pharaoh feeding the bread to a god above the carving: 'He gave the gold of reward; the mouths rejoiced.'
MOSES
While Moses was busy up Mount Horeb receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites, waiting below, got bored. They gathered together all their gold, melted it down, fashioned a calf and then started to worship it. This annoyed Moses when he returned - so much so that he smashed the tablets of stone on which God had written the Commandments. According to the Book of Exodus, Moses 'burnt the golden calf in the fire, ground it into powder, scattered it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink it.' This was unusual because burning gold by conventional means produces molten gold, not gold powder. Clearly the Israelites could not have ingested molten gold without being killed.
Moses mixing powdered gold with water and feeding it to the chosen echoes the depictions on the temple walls, of the pharaohs feeding the gods magical white bread.
If it was 'spiritual bread' then it was hardly a punishment, Moses was feeding the people 'food of life' - an act of communion.
THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
It is generally thought that alchemists' aim was to discover the Philosophers' Stone which could change base metal into gold. However, alchemists' writings state that they believed the Stone itself was made of gold and their job was to study its magical properties, it supposedly having the ability to defy gravity. They were also interested in creating 'good medicines for general use' from it.
The 17th-century Eirenaeus Philalethes, an expert on alchemy, wrote: "Our stone is nothing but gold digested to the highest degree of purity and subtle fixation. We call it a stone because of its incombustible nature, but its appearance is that of very fine powder."
The mysterious mfkzt's literal description in hieroglyphics was "the noble precious stone." Could mfkzt be powdered gold? How could Moses or the ancient Egyptians turn gold into powder? The aim of alchemical lore in ancient Egypt was to achieve enlightened consciousness: e.g. to turn base human ignorance into spiritual gold.
The Bible states that Moses was raised in Egypt by the pharaoh's daughter. It is possible he was a follower of Pharaoh Akhenaten, the first ruler of Egypt to adopt monotheism. His upbringing ensured he learned the secrets of the ancients. This is how he was able to turn the golden calf of the Israelites into white powder which could be safely ingested. Using this knowledge he was able to instruct craftsmen to create the Ark of the Covenant.
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
The Ark was made of shittim [4] wood and it was plated inside and out with pure gold. It was probably about 2 metres long by 1 metre wide and high. The lid was made of gold, with a solid gold cherub at either end, facing each other. In order to support the cherubim, the lid would have had to weigh more than a ton. The current market value for such materials would be approximately £7 million.
Something very special obviously warranted such a lavish container. It is generally thought that the Ark was built specifically to house the stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments. However, Moses had smashed these in his anger at discovering the Israelites worshipping the false idol. God later commanded Moses to replace them, which he did, but these were the work of human hands, hardly warranting such a wondrous coffer.
According to the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament, the Ark also carried within it, a golden pot of white manna. The Ark hovered three fingers' width above the ground, so it could not be contaminated by the earth. How was this possible? Alchemists believed that powdered white gold had magical properties, including the ability to defy gravity. Perhaps this explains how four men could carry the Ark on poles between them. Even if the bearers had superhuman strength, the poles would have buckled under the weight of all that gold. There is an old Jewish saying: "The Ark bore its bearers."
NOTES:
1. He was Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University College, London.
2. Also known as Mount Sinai.
3. Known today as monatomic gold.
4. Now known as acacia.
|
TRACKING DOWN SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
| |
[Kibbutz Tzuba, Israel (CNSNews.com) August 19, 2004]
A recently discovered cave near Jerusalem could be the place where the New Testament prophet John the Baptist developed his ideas and got his start before he began baptising multitudes in the Jordan River, archaeologists said today. Although the cave's significance was discovered several years ago, it was kept a quasi-secret for scientific reasons until Monday, when archaeologists decided to go public with their findings.
Dr. Shimon Gibson, a British-born archaeologist, said he believes that the find will shed new light on the life of John the Baptist and baptism itself.
"By fitting together all of the new archaeological facts with the basic historical information that has been available (sometimes even buried) in scholarly literature for a long time -- I believe I am able to throw an amazing amount of light on the personality and mission of John the Baptist -- the man, the prophet," said Gibson.
The cave -- actually a cistern -- is located at the bottom of a rocky cliff in the orchards of the community of Kibbutz Tzuba, near Ein Kerem where John the Baptist was born, about seven miles from Jerusalem. Although members of Kibbutz Tzuba -- the Biblical Tzova -- had known about the cave for years, it was member Reuven Kalifon who suggested that Gibson take a look at it.
"We have an orchard there," said Kalifon. "Everybody at one time or another in his life would work in the orchards. In the wintertime, it would start raining, and people would look for a shelter."
The opening to the cave, hidden by bushes and filled with mud, was barely big enough to scramble into, but once inside, it was very deep, he said. During a general survey that Gibson was conducting in the area in 1999, Kalifon suggested that he visit the cave.
"We entered into the cave, we had to crawl on all fours, and then, behind a series of boulders against the walls -- the cave was full of soil almost up to the ceiling -- we were able to make out some drawings and move some of the boulders, and you could see the figure of John the Baptist," said Gibson. Excavations were then undertaken during the next four years on behalf of the University of North Carolina, he said.
According to Gibson, the primitive cave drawings etched in the walls were probably used by Byzantine monks starting in the 4th century A.D. as a teaching tool to tell new monks about the story of John the Baptist and his significance to Christianity.
Beneath the Byzantine-era finds in the cistern, Gibson and colleagues discovered a layer correlating to the time of John the Baptist.
"Those installations that we uncovered there were totally different from Jewish ritual purification practices of the time, and they much fit into what we know about the rites that [John] performed, based on the description of the baptism down in the Jordan Valley." Because of these findings, the proximity of the cistern to John's birthplace and the Byzantine tradition, which lasted hundreds of years, linking the cistern to John the Baptist, Gibson said he believes it could be the desert or wilderness place described in the Bible where John spent much of his youth.
John the Baptist -- a contemporary of Jesus who heralded his coming -- preached repentance and baptised people for the "remission of sins," the Bible records.
Although all four Gospels indicate that John baptised in the Jordan River -- nowhere near Kibbutz Tzuba -- Gibson said that he believes John had developed his ideas and practice of baptising earlier, perhaps even in this cave.
"The story of John down in the Jordan River has been highlighted in the Gospels for the obvious reason that that's the place Jesus was baptised by John, but this actually happened right at the end of his life," Gibson said.
"He was born in Ein Kerem region, and one assumes that he was baptising because he comes to the Jordan River with fully fledged ideas about baptism...In the Gospels, it talks about people from the city of Jerusalem streaming down to the Jordan River to be part of the rituals undertaken by John the Baptist, which means that basically, they knew about the rituals."
This particular cave contains those "archaeological features" that can be "linked to the rites as they are depicted in the Gospels," he said. Gibson, who heads the Jerusalem Archaeological Field Unit, a private research group, wrote a book on the findings, The Cave of John the Baptist, which is due to be published later this week.
Egon Lass, an American archaeologist who has been part of the excavations, described the site as "terribly unusual." Lass, who described himself as a "field archaeologist" who does not indulge in theories, nevertheless said the findings at the site do not conflict with Gibson's claims. But even at a first glance, the site is extraordinary, he said.
Twenty-eight "monumental steps" lead from the outside through the opening all the way down to the floor of the cistern. They are "monumental" because they span the entire width -- about four meters -- of the cistern, said Lass. As one descends the stairs, there is a large niche on the right side, which could have been used for bathers to place their clothing.
"Now, that would all be perfectly fine if you could go in three meters and hit a wall. Then you would have a mikveh [Jewish ritual immersion bath]," said Lass. But there is no wall. The cistern stretches for some 26 meters (85 feet) with a water reservoir at the far end and is about four meters (13 feet) high and wide. "This is huge," he said. "That's one thing that's unusual, very unusual."
According to three separate experts who dated the plaster on the walls, the cistern was dug during the Iron Age between 800 and 500 B.C. -- which preceded any of the other ritual baths in the country by a number of years. As the excavations continued, the archaeologists discovered a "huge stone" with an imprint of a large right foot. Next to it was a little basin connected by a channel that may have been used for some kind of oil or water anointing, Lass said.
There was no such ritual in Jewish tradition. It was definitely connected to a ritual and not just something practical, like washing the dirt off one's feet because it only fits one foot, Lass said. They also found hundreds of thousands of pottery shards, mostly from two- to three-liter jugs, indicating that the jars were used in some kind of rite. At the bottom of the steps is a sandy pathway that would have made it easier for participants to walk through the cave to the immersion pool without hurting their feet.
"This is also something that you don't find in a cave -- the pathway," Lass said. "People don't walk in water cisterns."Now you put all this together, and you have the drawings on the walls. If you want to interpret the drawings according to a logical scheme the way [Gibson] has done...I think you come up with a logical picture," he
said.
Lass said the archaeologists have not been in touch with the Vatican over their findings, but they were told by an Italian television reporter that thousands of people would now want to visit the site. "I hope people come and visit...it's a special site," said Kibbutz member Kalifon. "We're talking about a wonderful, wonderful site which is interesting for the Jewish public, and you can see the roots of Christianity."
|
|
|
|
