Atlantean Cultural Explosion

One aspect of the Atlantean Story that needs to be addressed and I now think can be addressed is the aspect of historic time. What is meant by that is the upper and lower bounds and their rationale. First we note that the original Story after Plato gave an antiquity that provided a lower bound of around 9000 BC. This never made much sense and was further confounded by the failure to properly recognize the Santorini eruption a thousand years earlier. Whatever the validity of the details, the dating aspects were not understood by Plato. This is completely acceptable and common in ancient records.

Putting that aside, he did deliver recognition of the existence of an ancient civilization based on the Atlantic littoral and it has been our task to flesh out its history in ever greater detail. That has been advancing wonderfully.

1 The big event was the building of the Great Pyramid itself around 2420 BC. The importance of this cannot be overstated. It fueled demand for high quality bronze metal that could only be satisfied by the native copper quickly found in Lake Superior. I suspect the same impulse – remember Jason and the Argonauts? - took Minoan seamen into every cranny around the globe in search of metal supplies.

2 This led to a burst of station building and that included additional demand for the construction of ceremonial platforms in many of these locations. There is evidence of astronomical significance on location choices besides.

3 What needs to be understood though, is that this was a sea connected polity that was palace based. Because these palaces relied on copper as currency, their local impact was quite different than what we normally expect. I see no evidence of a raw feudalism at work here and we must presume that the locals accepted merchant princes into their midst for the obvious spending benefits they brought.

4 Seen in that light, the spectacular platforms make a great deal of good sense. They consume taxes and employ the better part of the local population in something other than killing each other and their 'benefactors' The tax was mostly in the form of a labor tax in any event and the metal was most likely an exclusive preserve of the new elite.

5 The fact that they were built everywhere the Minoans/Atlanteans encountered large populations, but never built in their homeland pretty well tells the story. Egypt must have had a special place in the hearts of these canny traders. Whatever the initial impulse was, it is clear that the idea was pushed everywhere just as today we supply obsolete arms to all comers however ridiculous it may seem.

6 Prior to 2420 BC, the Bronze Age had evolved in the Middle East at least in some form or the other. Yet quality was certainly a huge problem that blocked wide adoption and usage.

The Bronze Age, once it got its Atlantean sea legs facilitated movements of peoples, development of cities were the economics supported it and a general development in time of the idea of money. It triggered the rise of some form of literacy that evolved into the present systems.

That leaves us with the problem of the prehistory of this world from around five thousand years ago when shipping became common place and possible to just after the collapse of the Ice Age. The archaeological record shows an unrelenting stone age world with scant urban development. That was the back ground tapestry at least and it entailed little movement of peoples. The reason is simple. There were no trade goods that made it worthwhile.

To put this in perspective the stone age world of the Pacific Northwest had easy shipping routes from Alaska through California. There was a large population in various deltas. Yet in real terms, movement was slight for nine thousand years. There was simply little available that could not be produced at home.

It took a giant pyramid to fire up the forges of the Minoans and to bring about Atlantis. Once the ruling class got it, it became a world wide phenomena.

One other conjecture is also worth noting. I have noted that agricultural man appears as a deliberate establishment around nine thousand years ago in at least several separate locales on Earth. It is plausible that their rapid spread absorbed the indigenous non agricultural populations over the next few thousands of years. In that case, metal working may have been a specific advantage in their tool kit.

I bring this up because it is not apparent that the hunter gatherers go willingly into the farm life way. Thus a population genetically predisposed to do just that would expand and through inter marriage soon absorb that tendency in smaller surrounding populations. There are plenty of original populations that have shown a complete inability to adapt however willing. The Eskimos in particular cannot come south and prosper. That is an extreme case but it does suggest we need to put thought to it.

Whatever the original situation, it is true that general inter marriage has mostly succeeded in eliminating any such genetic issue and it is also pretty clear that our general imposition of literacy and late maturation has massively improved our general adaptability.