Knossos-Atlantis

Crete-Atlantis?

Sir Authur Evans made the discovery of the palace of Knossos and named the culture Minoan in association with the Legendary king Minos.
The palace of Knossos was a grand structure in its time as it was three or four stories, great paintings decorated the walls:

link


There were also pictures of men leaping bulls and the bull featured heavily in minoan artwork 9This could be where the legend of the minotaur comes from) . Sanctuaries within the palace provided a place for the worship of a mother goddess, probably the one called Rhea by the Greeks.

Evans also found stone and metal artifacts. Some of his findings predated the earliest period of Minoan history, dating back to Neolithic times. Originally Evans believed the artifacts were ten thousand years old, but later experts dated these stone artifacts to be five thousand years old. Many bronze objects that were used daily in ancient Knossos were also found. Some bronze statues and figurines were discovered in conjunction with ceremonial rooms.

The kings of Knossos attained their greatest power about 1600 BC, when they controlled the entire Aegean area and traded extensively with Egypt. The destruction of Knossos coincided with the beginning of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece.

This would help to explain as to how Plato heard of Atlantis from the Egyptians.

One Key point about Knossos is that it had no deffensive outer walls which is very strange for a capital city. This hints that the Minoans had no enemys to defend against and that Knossos was a centre of culture and learning.

I now get on to my point about linear A and linear B.

These were two different types of scripture that were found at Knossos written on about 3000 clay tablets and some pottery.
In 1952 the British architect and cryptographer Michael Ventris and John Chadwick deciphered Linear B and identified the language it transcribes as an early Greek dialect.
Linear B tablets were found on Crete and also at Pylos and Mycenae on the Greek mainland; the majority of tablets are dated between 1400 BC and 1150 BC.

Linear A has still not been Deciphered.

On some examples of Linear B it spoke of ancient greek Legends, Zeus, Heracles and other ancient greek legends.

According to the Greeks, Mount Ida which is on Crete was the location where Rhea, the Earth Mother, gave birth to Zeus. He was fed by nature a diet of honey and goat’s milk, was tended by a group of nymphs, and was guarded by an army of youths against his father, Cronis, whose reign was threatened by Zeus’ existence. Zeus fathered a son, Minos, who became the King of Knossos, Crete, and the rest of Aegean.

This has led some to belive that Crete was in fact, classic Greece.

So what went wrong?

Evans belived that Knossos was destroyed by a massive siesmic event.

In the 15th century BC, the volcano of Santorin an island to the north of Crete, ex ploded with unprecedented violence, sending millions of tons of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, giving rise to intense atmospheric shock waves, and generating disastrous tsunamis that would have smashed into Knossos. Pumis stone has been found buried all over Crete and surrounding islands, possibly from this massive erruption.

Just thought I'd make this post as a contrast for the possibility of Crete being Atlantis. Any thoughts or does anyone have any other theories to add? All welcome.




[edit on 9-12-2005 by asala]

There have also been speculation as to if Santorini - or Thera, to give it its Greek name - is Atlantis. Some of the wall frescoes discovered in the wonderfully preserved town on one side of Thera show images of what the island might have looked like before the great eruption - including a city on the island in the middle of the bay, where the main eruption happened. This might explain the water surrounding Atlantis, as mentioned by Plato. What it does not explain is why Plato broke off his account halfway through writing it. And an awful lot else, like Athens being Atlantis's main enemy, without mentioning any other great power. Bit of a puzzler that.

As a supposed decendant of atlantis, let me baffle you even more with some info.

You may have heard of the Basques on the french/spanish border, most likely from the separatist group ETA. The Basques are not spannish or french, they have their own language, culture and genetics all of which are completely different from the rest of europe. for example, a majority of any european language share roots from latin. much of the vocab from france, spain, italy and germany will be noticably similar, with slight variations depending on the distance between the countries, and effects from external languages, such as english being different due to impact from viking settlers.

www.sacred-texts.com...

therefore it is very apparent that the basques, quite simply are not european, yet are situated sandwiched between two of europes most influential nations. The basques themselves do indeed claim to be decendants of atlantean refugees.

the arguement goes deeper:

The Basques, Aztecs, Iberians and Guanches had all named a mountain in their regeon "Atalya", the name coming from the original sacred peak, "mount atlas"

i must go... but remember, there's always google!!!

The main problem with Knossos being Atlantis is that there WERE multiple source legends for King Minos and the Minotaur. There were plays that refer to it, and so forth. It was common enough knowledge that it was the subject of many plays, including some famous ones that still exist today. Plutarch's "Lives" referrs to the story, as does the play, Phaedra, as do a number of other plays that were performed at ancient Greek festivals.

There is no thing that refers to "Atlantis" other than Plato's dialogues.

This is very significant. The story of Atlantis sinking under the waves, victim of hubris and other sins, is such a dramatic concept that the poets and playwrights of ancient Greece would have had volumes of award-winning dramas about them. "Historical" dramas were common, and plays about heroes and tragedies were wildly popular.

There's no way they would have been silent on such a great morality tale.

A check of a source also reminded me of something else: there are ancient wall murals of the main characters in Greek myths. These images, like cartoons, have the names of the characters above their heads (which is how we know who they are and what they're doing) and often a text that tells about the scene: www.historyforkids.org...

There are no such scenes about or referring to Atlantis.

[edit on 9-12-2005 by Byrd]

Maybe Plato was smart, thinking that everyone would love a "new" play about some fantastic country, when he just took known minoan stories and gave it a cooler name.

Hollywood does it all the time

Originally posted by merka
Maybe Plato was smart, thinking that everyone would love a "new" play about some fantastic country, when he just took known minoan stories and gave it a cooler name.

Hollywood does it all the time

Thing is, we'd know it if that was the case.

Greek myths and plays and so forth were well known, and everybody would have known it and commented on it. Nothing about Atlantis is similar to those other myths.

Sheesh. Don't they teach Greek and Roman mythology in literature any more???

Originally posted by Indellkoffer
Nothing about Atlantis is similar to those other myths.

Nothing about Atlantis is similar to the Minoan history?

Odd, I could have sworn that both where about a grand civilisation that perished in a cataclysm, technologically advanced, peacefull in nature and loved bull fighting.

Originally posted by merka

Originally posted by Indellkoffer
Nothing about Atlantis is similar to those other myths.

Nothing about Atlantis is similar to the Minoan history?

Odd, I could have sworn that both where about a grand civilisation that perished in a cataclysm, technologically advanced, peacefull in nature and loved bull fighting.

Well, other than they were both Greek in origin.

No, they're not similar. There's nothing about bull-fighting in the Plato tale. Nor does the description of the land match. If Plato had been using it as an allegory for Minos, we would have known about it, because it would have been obvious to the Greeks and the fact would have been passed forward.

As an example: Christian saints have symbols (metaphors, if you will) associated with them. Anyone studying hagiography (study of saints) knows about them and they've been written down in countless places. Famous allegories by notable people are always known... in fact, the purpose of allegory is to make people aware of situations.

So if the Atlanteans were an allegory for Minos, then the Atlanteans would have been named something that referred to bulls, would have been in a place ruled by Poseidon (the earth-shaker), and would have other markers including a king of gold.

I don't think that the Minoans were the basis of the Atlanteans but there is a lot of statements being made about what was and wasn't known about by the Hellenic Greeks based upon what we know about now. Rather then engage in a duplicate argument see this thread for a vigorous discussion of the topic:

A Problem With the Atlantis Myth

Interesting read Cicada

I find all of these theories on Atlantis very interesting. Bryd what's your personal opinion on where Atlantis is/was/ever existed?

North of Iraklion, Crete, there is a small island (about 3 miles long and 1/2 mile wide) called Dia. On the north side of it, is an entire sunken city that the Greek government (for the most part) has refused anyone to explore.

If you are found in those waters, they will arrest you on the spot- no questions asked.

I believe Jacque Cousteau's son attempted to get permission several years back, but was largely denied access.

Many locals on Crete believe in the Atlantis theory, but not in relation to Knossos, but in relation to the sunken ruins north of Dia.

[edit on 13-12-2005 by loam]

Hmmm Just googled "Dia Island" and couldn't find anything that about ruins or being a restricted diving zone.

In fact I found lots of companys that runs scuba-dives around the island

www.diversclub-crete.gr...

I can assure you there is no diving on the north side. Moreover, landing on the island is also strictly prohibited. (It happens to be the only place in the world that a particular species of mountain goat lives... I think they are called KriKri...)

The southern coves may be visited by boat (as long as you don't land) and diving is also permitted there.

As a side note, I knew of an arrest that took place because someone inadvertantly was unaware of the prohibition.

I have not been back in several years, but I feel quite certain that nothing has changed on the restrictions.

I still can't find anything about the restrictions there.

Do you know if the island belongs to the greek or who? I'm curous as me and a couple of freinds are doing a bit of a diving tour of the med and after hearing about this island from you, really wanna go there!

Anymore info you can give me would be great as I don't wanna get nicked and have another incident like the plane spotters!