Grading Cult and Fringe Archaeology

"Lost continents"

While it is true that some Atlantis researchers erroneously referred to Plato's lost island as a "continent," the original work by the Greek philosopher never referred to Atlantis as a "continent." It is regrettable that the author chose to label the entire discussion of Atlantis with this sensationalistic banner.

"Both Athens and Atlantis were destroyed in “earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence... in a single dreadful day and night” nine thousand years ago."

The wording appears to be a bit off here. "Nine thousand years ago," should perhaps be "nine thousand years prior to Solon's talk with the elder priest," or "eleven thousand six hundred years ago."

"The third book of what was intended to be a trilogy was never written."

Unsupported Claim: While it is possible that the third book was never written, we don't know this for certain.

"In the ancient world, Plato’s Atlantis was treated as a literary device, not as an historical city of the remote past."

Unsupported Claim: This rather broad assertion does not fit the facts. There were several individuals in the ancient world who viewed Plato's Atlantis as more than a literary device. Crantor may have been one of them, though there is some debate on including him in the group of supporters.

"...a few paragraphs earlier in the work, he had mentioned Plato and it is likely that the two were connected in his thoughts."

Unclear: The point being made in this sentence is unclear and especially the meaning of "the two."

"Ammianus Marcellinus (c 330-after 392) has been used to justify statements that the Gauls believed that they had come originally from Atlantis (e.g. Berlitz 1974, 105). In fact, Ammianus says no such thing. In Res Gestae XV.9, quoting the authority of an Augustan historian, Timagenes (c 55 BCE-?), whose work is lost, he says that 'the Drasidae (Druids) recall that a part of the population is indigenous but others also migrated in from islands and lands beyond the Rhine'; this would mean that they believed they had come from the north (Britain, the Netherlands and Germany), not from a lost land in the Atlantic Ocean, to the south-west."

Very well done. Good argument.

"Moreover, there is no reason to believe that similar institutions, technologies and beliefs can be invented only once, in one place."

Another excellent point.

"Donnelly’s breadth of knowledge may have been huge, but he lacked the depth of knowledge that would have allowed him to exercise his lawyer’s critical faculties more effectively."

Well stated.

"Most damaging for the hypothesis of a large mid-Atlantic island, there is no room for a landmass in what we know of the geological history of the Atlantic Ocean."

Unsupported Assertion: The form of this assertion is good, but it needs to be backed up with facts. As Mr. Fitzpatrick-Matthews may find by reading the material on this website, we now know a great deal more about the geology of the North Atlantic that may allow for the putative landmass known as Atlantis. The geological scars in the region indicated by Plato for Atlantis are consistent with former incidents of Africa plate subduction, impediments from friction, crustal folding and subsequent tectonic collapse. The geological hypothesis in support has yet to be proven, but it leaves open the question of geological support for Plato's lost island.

We also have evidence that, if corroborated as a proxy for a real event, could prove that an Atlantis-sized landmass suffered a tectonic collapse about the time Plato gives for the submergence of Atlantis. Though an abrupt 2-meter drop in worldwide sea levels cannot be tied to any one specific location, the coincidence by dates and the amount of drop (consistent with the Atlantis story) tend to suggest that the Atlantis story may have been based on fact.

The truly excellent arguments in Mr. Fitzpatrick-Matthews's article had to do with Atlantis researchers and their works, not with Atlantis, directly. If the same acumen used on that peripheral subject could be applied directly to the subject of Atlantis, the argument against Plato's lost island could be made much stronger.

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