Τρίτη 26 Μαρτίου 2019

Did Odysseus reach America, or did the Atlanteans?

This is an extract from a small book of mine titled: “A brief and realistic approach to the wanderings of Odysseus”, which was published in 2023 in Greek:   https://www.politeianet.gr/books/9786185693046-metaxas-georgios-risos-mia-suntomi-kai-realistiki-proseggisi-stis-periplaniseis-tou-odussea-337605

A fundamental knowledge of Odyssey is necessary.
(Book numbers are always referring to Odyssey rhapsodies, except when Iliad is specifically mentioned).
Homeric texts taken from: http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/homer/odyssey5html.html

In spite of the efforts of various amateur archaeologists to trace Odysseus wanderings in the Americas (E. Mertz in the North America, E. Mattievich in South America), this is a highly improbable (practically impossible) scenario, mainly due to time limitations. According to Homer, his hero spent one year in the island of Circe and 7.5 years in the island of Calypso. That leaves 2.5 years of sea travel, but we should also consider that except in a real urgency, in that era they didn’t sail during winter time. Thus, most probably, the sea time of Odysseus (and his crew in the first part of the voyage, as in the second part he was alone) was divided into three summer periods, corresponding to the routes from Ilion (Troy) to Circe, from Circe to Calypso and from Calypso to Ithaca. 

That's how the ship of Odysseus would have looked like. A modern reconstruction of a 50 oar ship of about that era (Argos, the ship of Argonauts).

There are of course authors like Tim Severin, who on the other hand maintain that Odysseus never sailed to the west further than the Ionian sea, and most of his adventures took place into the Aegean sea. Anyway, we must keep in mind that Homer implies that Odysseus was transported by a Phaeacian ship to Ithaca during one night, a claim that gave rise to the assumption that the land of Phaeacians was the present day Corfu island (see also the title: “Where was the land of Phaeacians”, in this blog).
There are indeed some indications of Greek (or more appropriately “Mediterranean”) presence in the American continent a couple of millennia BCE, probably with the goal to extract copper near the Canadian – US border, and specifically in the south coast of lake Superior. In support of this theory, a study of haplogroup X (maternal, or mtDNA) distribution has found genetic correlation between the American Indians of that area with populations of the east Mediterranean, especially those around the Aegean sea and particularly of the Druze people! (fig. 1). Another haplogroup (T, an mtDNA as well) is encountered mostly (25%) among the native North American Cherokees, but also in Egypt (see study: «Anomalous Mitochondrial DNA Lineages in the Cherokee» of Dr Donald Yates).


Figure 1. The distribution of haplogroup X. A haplogroup is a part of the DNA where mutations of genes (tiny segments of the DNA) that occurred during very long periods of time can be traced back (in location and time) and give an indication of the track, a particular group of our ancestors had followed up to its final destination. Maternal or mtDNA is most useful in this research as it is not affected by the mixing of genes that happens in each generation. It is obvious that people with haplogroup X genes have moved from East Mediterranean to North America not through Asia and the Bering passage, as the main groups that populated the American continent did, but through Scotland, Faroe islands and Iceland. This migration took place in two waves, the first around 30.000 YBP (years before present) and the second 12.000 YBP.  (Credits: Quora.com)

Of course such a voyage would have been extremely difficult and hazardous in that era, but there are certain indications in “Moralia” of Plutarch (“About the face on the moon” passages 941-942) that was not impossible. Anyway, the war ships in the Aegean during bronze age were not much different (and indeed more robust) from the long ships of Vikings who have reached North America in the year 1000 AD.
Tools found in the southern part of the Greek island of Crete in 2010, have been dated more than 100.000 years old and are pushing further back the age where open sea navigation is considered possible, even by taking into account the somewhat smaller distance of Crete to mainland Greece in that era, because of the lower sea level by about 140m.
On the other hand, the 1st ce. AD geographer Strabo, although aware of the fact that the Earth is a globe, didn’t seem to know about the existence of a continent between Europe and Asia (Geographica A’ 4.6).
A bold hypothesis, is that there were not the bronze age Minoan or Phoenician sailors who first reached America, but Atlanteans, who escaped their sinking land (at least some of them) by sailing to the west and to the east, spreading a common culture. That is, if Plato is right about Atlantis as described in “Timaeus” and in the incomplete “Critias”, and this is a big “if”, as the whole story could very well have been a moral allegory about arrogance and the subsequent nemesis (rightful punishment), as not a single archeological evidence is found from this supposedly advanced and powerful civilization living in a huge land.
That said, the best (and our only) guide is Plato himself, who clearly puts the land of Atlantis (a very big island) outside the “Pillars of Hercules” (present day Gibraltar), a well known landmark in the ancient world, that was even more impressive that it is today because of the much lower sea level (60-80m lower in 10.000 BCE, than today). The best candidate for Atlantis is the area around the Azores, these islands been probably what is left after the sinking of mainland Atlantis. A second candidate is the Doniana region in southwest Spain, just north of Cadiz (fig. 2). It is also possible that mainland Atlantis lay in front of our eyes all the time, been the Iberian peninsula (an “island” for the ancient Greeks, the term peninsula” only been used after the 5th ce. BCE), while the destroyed (submerged or deluged) city of Atlantis was replaced by the rich ancient city of Tartessos, known also by the Biblical name of Tarshish. So perhaps the land of Atlantis was not sunk after all, but the city by the same name was swept by a giant tsunami. Recent findings (early 2019) indicate that the Iberian peninsula enjoyed milder climatological conditions that the rest of Europe during the last Ice Age that ended 12.000 YBP, so it may have been privileged with a civilization that was well advanced in comparison to its neighbors. 

Figure 2. The location of the ancient city of Tartessos, that may have been built in the place of the destroyed city of Atlantis. To the south is present day Cadiz, the ancient Gadeira. Plato writes that the mainland of Atlantis is a plane with southern orientation and is well protected from the north (Critias 118b), a landscape strongly evoking the Iberian peninsula. North of Tartessos flows the small river Rio Tinto (red river) who gets its color from the high concentration (especially in the antiquity) of dissolved minerals of metals as iron, gold, silver and copper. Plato compares the size of the island of Atlantis with Libya (Africa) and Asia put together (Timaeus 24e), a claim that sounds exaggerated even taking into account  the then limited knowledge about the size of these continents. But understandably, the figures given by Plato, as well as the claim that the city sunk overnight (Timaeus 25d), should be not taken at face value. (Credit: pinterest.com)
According to Plato, Atlantis sunk 9.000 years before Solon’s time (Timaeus 23e), so it was around 9.500 BCE and it happened during a 24 hours period following of a very strong earthquake. It is more plausible though, that it took much longer to sink and it was eventually due to a gradual but quick rise of the level of the sea towards the end of the Ice Age. Alternatively, the cause might be a tsunami created by the collapse of an enormous glacial barrier holding a huge lake behind, or as a result of the eruption of a submarine volcano in mid Atlantic, as in the Azores ocean floor meet three major tectonic plates. Perhaps, the sequence of the events took place in the reverse order, that is when Atlantis sunk in mid ocean because of an earthquake, the obstacle in the circulation of the Gulfstream was lifted, so northern Europe stared to heat up, the continental ice to melt and the sea level to rise. Historically, there is the evidence of the destructive earthquake and tsunami that in 1755 hit and practically destroyed Lisbon, caused by a fault line extending from Azores to Gibraltar.  
Anyway, some Atlanteans eventually manage to escape to the west and to the east with the means of their time, as nowhere in Plato’s story there is evidence of any particular or advanced technology, despite Edgar Cayce's "vision" in the ‘30s. So it seems more plausible that areas in Europe and in the Americas, far away from each other were influenced by the same civilization, than there was a direct communication between them. There are indeed some interesting similarities between these extreme locations, such as the designation of 12 zodiacs (although with different names), some carvings, names and artifacts (rather controversial) and of course the existence of numerous pyramids (even with differences in the construction style and intended use). There are nonetheless and some striking differences, as the ignorance of the use of the wheel and the absence of horses and cattle in the Americas (having been extinct long ago). By contrast, Plato writes about chariots and bulls in Atlantis, but all the same he writes about triremes and bronze artifacts, that historically have been conceived and produced many millennia later that the supposedly time of Atlantis. So probably Plato took the liberty to add details in his story (if not entirely fabricated!) to make it more vivid. Anyway, it is most probable that the wheel didn’t exist around Mediterranean 10 millennia BCE, and it was most impractical to transport cattle in open boats in the ocean, for a long voyage. Even if, at the end, we are willing to accept Plato’s story as true, we should consider that it has been narrated by an Egyptian priest to Solon many millennia after the events took place and the story had to be initially transmitted orally through generations of Egyptians, so any quantitative information should be considered with a significant margin for error.
According to some privately ventured archaeologists, as Atlantis remnants are considered some ruins in west Spain (Cancho Roano) about 200 km north of Seville, but also some rock engravings in the Canary islands depicting concentric cycles with a perpendicular entrance, as the city of Altantis is typically depicted. The general circular shape of ancient Carthage’s naval station, visible even today from Google Earth, also evokes Plato’s description. 

There is also a speculation that the story of Atlantis could actually be the story of the eruption of Thera volcano (a rather small island in the middle of the Aegean sea) around 1600 BCE, provided that all numbers given by Plato be divided by 10, supposing a “convenient” error in the transcription of the Egyptian priest’s narration to Solon (a hypothesis by profs Marinatos and Galanopoulos). We should further accept that Plato modified the story to make Atlanteans look arrogant and aggressive to emphasize the moral message of his story, because all findings about life in ancient Thera show a rather leisure and peaceful sea oriented life.

Another view is offered by professor of Geophysics S. Papamarinipoylos, who suggests that the "years" mentioned by the Egyptian priest were in fact lunar months, a type of calendar used exclusively by Egyptian priesthood. Then the years mentioned by Plato should be divides by 12.37, giving a date just after the Trojan war and amid the raids of the "Peoples of the Sea". 
On the other hand, it is strange that Plato didn’t mention any comment of the Egyptians about the eruption of the Thera volcano, whose part of the volcanic ash and the tsunami that followed is proven to have reached Egypt. As a matter of fact, the consequences should have been severe enough to make some researchers propose this very eruption as the origin of the plagues of Egyptians during Exodus (see article: «Biblical plagues really happened say scientists», of the electronic edition of «The Telegraph», Mar. 27. 2010).

Finally, although the story about Atlantis it is more reasonable to be taken as a myth, at least until some real evidence emerges, some people may have eventually transferred civilization similar to that of the East Mediterranean to the North America many millennia BP, but they could not possibly have been Odysseus and his men.

PS. It is worth considering that as about Odysseus and his adventures there is only one primordial source, Homer, similarily for Atlantis there is only one primordial source, Plato.
                                                                                                                                    G. Metaxas

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