The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend

by Eberhard Zangger

A popularly held view of the Atlantis legend is that it describes a continent in the midst of the Atlantic, containing an advanced civilization, submerged over 11,500 years ago. This misconception--along with others that have placed Atlantis in places like Greenland, Sri Lanka & Sweden--originates from the long-winded transmission of the legend, which was originally retrieved from Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions & eventually recorded by Plato c. 350 BC. Now Dr Zangger, a geoarcheologist, with years of fieldwork experience in the Mediterranean, has discovered the true nature of Plato's story & the real location of Atlantis in his book, The Flood from Heaven, which draws on modern science, legends & ancient poetry to solve one of the world's mysteries. The story of Atlantis is actually an ancient Egyptian account of the Trojan War. Under the auspices of Stanford U. & the German Archeological Institute, he conducted a geoarcheological research program in Greece between 1984 & '88, where drill cores taken near Bronze Age citadels led to this conclusion. Like Homer, Plato was relating the story of a war involving bronze weapons, chariots & 1200 ships. Both Homer & Plato discuss the fact that the Greeks, despite desertion by allies & deadly perils, were able to lead the forces of a united army to a victory in a land, like Troy, characterized by its position at narrow straits of difficult navigability, hot & cold springs, strong northern winds & artificial canals. These similarities & insights as well as others form a theory of such significance that it will have as much impact on the study of Mediterranean prehistory as did Schliemann's discovery of Troy.

Genres: History, Ancient History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Mark Isaak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zangger presents the case that the Atlantis written about by Plato was actually Troy. He argues that descriptions of Troy and Atlantis match -- except of course in time, location, size, geography, and manner of destruction. He does make a good case that Atlantis being an island could be a mistranslation, and that the Pillars of Hercules could refer to the Bosporus. However, several of the other matches he enumerates could match practically any Mediterranean settlement, and some of the others (e.g., concentric waterways around the city) are not a particularly good match to begin with. He claims to approach the subject scientifically, but he never proposes any specific test, e.g., "Finding thus-and-so would confirm or refute my hypothesis." He does, however, raise a couple good questions (Why did Plato go into such detail about Atlantis geography? Why did he leave Critias unfinished?), but having found answers he likes, he stops trying to consider others. And the book does give a decent introduction to Mycenaean civilization, and his linking its collapse to the Trojan War sounds plausible.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contrary to the description of this book, Zangger doesn't prove that Plato's Atlantis story was actually a description of Troy. More accurately, he toys with such a notion. Personally, I found his arguments unconvincing. In addition to having to ignore glaring discrepancies, his argument also depends on the assumption that Plato, the teller of the tale in his Timaeus and Critias, is an accurate reporter, but also that there was a chain of such honest reporting stretching back centuries to an Egyptian priest and Plato's supposed ancestor, Solon. Given that Plato was not adverse to spinning yarns in other dialogues, this is quite an assumption.

Although Zangger's arguments are, in my opinion, weak, his writing style is quite accessible.

[Diego Alessandro Lopez Ramirez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well that was weird

[reherrma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lokalisierungshypothesen zu Atlantis sind begründete, argumentativ gestützte Vermutungen über den Ort, an dem Atlantis gelegen haben soll. Ausgehend von der von Platon gegebenen Beschreibung und der Annahme, dass es sich um eine real existente Stadt handle, wird versucht, deren ursprüngliche Lage zu ermitteln. Erste Hypothesen wurden bereits in der Antike aufgestellt. In zunehmendem Maße werden solche Hypothesen seit der Renaissance entwickelt, nachdem das Atlantis-Motiv im Zuge der Entdeckung Amerikas wieder verstärkt aufgegriffen und diskutiert wurde. Es ist daher kein Wunder, dass es inzwischen sehr viele, mehr oder weniger wahrscheinliche, Lokalisierungshypothesen gibt, seit 1992 mit diesem Buch von Eberhard Zangger gibt es eine neue und m.E. eine sehr wahrscheinliche. Zangger vermutet, durch mehrere Indizien überzeugend dargelegt, das homerische Troja als der Ort von Atlantis.
Er geht dabei mit verschiedenen Diziplinen an das Thema heran zum ersten die literarischen Analyse der Atlantis Texte von Platon, der in seinen um 360 v. Chr. verfassten Dialogen „Timaios“ und „Kritias“ die Stadt genau beschrieben hat.
Desweiteren ist Zangger ein Geo-Archäologe, und geht mit seiner Spezialdisziplin an das Thema heran und findet in der Geologie um das heutige Troja zusammen mit den Ausgrabungen des historischen Trojas Übereinstimmungen mit den Atlantis-Texten Platons.
Zangger bietet in seinem Buch eine spannende Krimigeschichte um die Suche nach Übereinstimmungen zwischen literarischer Überlieferungen und archäologischen Erkenntnissen verbunden mit einem Panorama der Bronzezeit vor mehr als 3500 Jahren, eine Zeit großer Umwälzungen und dem Ersten Weltkrieg der Antike...

[Natajia · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOOTWOOT for people who write about Atlantis.