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Atlantis and the Younger Dryas

10/27/2018

11 Comments

 
You may have noticed that I haven't been regularly blogging about the course this year. That's by design. After wearing myself out the first time around in 2016, I decided I would put less effort into intensive public/fringe interaction. I think it has worked out well. I'm enjoying teaching the course much more. There will be still be student writing online to read eventually, and we'll be making videos this year. I'm just not killing myself to invite everyone else into the classroom.

​On Friday we finished our section on Atlantis in this year's edition of Forbidden Archaeology. We spent most of the class watching and discussing a talk by Graham Hancock titled "Is the House of History Built on Foundations of Sand?"  I wanted the students to watch carefully as Hancock made his case, asking them to think about his logic, the structure of the talk, and the evidence he presented to support his claims (many pieces of which they have already been exposed to).

I have not paid a whole lot of attention to Hancock in the past. I haven't completely read any of his books, and I think that this was the first time I have ever listened to an entire talk. He spent the first portion of the talk discussing the recent evidence for the hypothesis that an impact by a comet or meteor triggered the Younger Dryas. (The Younger Dryas is an anomalous cold period that occurred about 12,900-11,700 years ago during the transition from glacial to inter-glacial conditions.) He spent the last part of the talk highlighting some purported evidence (e.g., Gobekli Tepe, the Sphinx) supporting the claim that refugees from Atlantis occupied the Near East after fleeing their island's destruction.

The linkage that Hancock makes between the hypothesized extra-terrestrial impact that triggered the Younger Dryas and the destruction of Atlantis is, when you listen closely, peculiar. Following a quotation of Plato's description of Atlantis disappearing into the sea "in a single day and night of misfortune," Hancock describes the cataclysmic effects of extra-terrestrial impacts on the earth. He first discusses the idea that a comet wiped out the dinosaurs. He then moves on to the Younger Dryas impact research, repeatedly referring to "the cataclysm" of the impact. 

So a comet or meteor wiped out at Atlantis?

No, the dates are all wrong for that. The Younger Dryas starts at about 12,900 BP (10,950 BC). Believers set the date of the destruction of Atlantis at 11,550 BP (9,600 BC). So, apparently, all the extra-terrestrial fireworks did nothing to the Atlanteans. They prospered for another 1300 years, conquering the world and mining orichalcum while the planet suffered a return to full glacial conditions.

After all the attention paid to violent cataclysm, Hancock actually attributes the destruction of Atlantis to sea level rise at the end of the Younger Dryas. Sea levels are lower during glacial periods because more of the Earth's water is tied up in ice sheets. Sea levels rise in inter-glacial periods because more of the Earth's water is in liquid form. As far as the culprit in Atlantis demise at 9,600 BC, Hancock points specifically to "a dramatic pulse of sea level rise" known as Meltwater Pulse 1b.

It will probably not surprise you to learn that, although there is debate about the magnitude, timing, and cause of Meltwater Pulse 1b, no scientist thinks it was so sudden or so rapid that it could have swallowed up a continent "in a single day and night of misfortune." Estimates of sea level rise range from about 6 to 28 meters, occurring over a period of several hundred to over a thousand calendar years. At least one study suggests the pulse didn't even start until hundreds of years after the purported submergence of Atlantis.
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Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
In other words, the events/processes of neither the beginning nor the end of the Younger Dryas appear to be a good fit for the Atlantis story. The hypothesized cataclysmic impact is too early, and the sea level rise is too slow. You can throw all the science in a blender and talk about cataclysms and sea level rise, but there's no science on the Pleistocene/Holocene transition that I know of that is concordant with any aspect of the Atlantis tale.
11 Comments
Greg Little
10/29/2018 03:18:21 pm

Just a quick note here. Graham revises his views regularly. The 2016 talk referenced here has his ideas back then and since then he has updated them quite a bit. He now uses evidence from geology of rapid change in specific, fairly localized areas. At a 2018 talk, just a month ago, he presented a greatly revised idea--and it focuses on the Americas. All of us have turned our attention to the Americas. Hancock's book on it is due out in April. Collins' and mine is due out in September.

Reply
Andy White
11/1/2018 04:41:41 am

Hi Greg,

I'm all for changing your views when confronted with new evidence. I'm not optimistic that I'll be impressed with whatever it is that Hancock is going to say about the Americas. I know parts of this world quite well. I can't comment on what I haven't heard, of course. So I guess we shall see!

Reply
Martin Sweatman link
11/4/2018 01:49:55 am

There are scientists working on this. Not Atlantis, but the comet impact that caused the Younger Dryas period. Please see my papers, including one just published http://www.athensjournals.gr/ajhis/forthcoming, as well as my new book 'Prehistory Decoded'. Regards, Martin.

mark a clark
9/4/2021 02:27:17 pm

something i find particularly disgusting among so called "scientists" is when they DON'T change their views on occasion or when needed. if no one ever changed their views we would still be living in caves. when i was in middle school the steady state theory was the prevailing model of the universe. fred hoyle went to his death bed still supporting the theory. j. harlen bretz had his career ruined by "scientists" that refused to accept the evidence of the scablands being formed by massive floods. the alverezs were ridiculed and berated by "scientists" until a crater was found in the yucatan. the clovis first mob still refuse to believe in the huge quantities of evidence that prove humans came to the americas tens of thousands of years prior to 13,000 bc. people that believed the spinx was far older than 4500 years were called pseudo and fringe scientists have now been pretty much vindicated except by people like the clovis first bunch. no one in their right mind can look at the erosion on the containment walls and say it was done by wind. prior to Gobekli Tepe being discovered hancock had said on many occasions that civilization was far older than the sumarians or egyptians. again, no one in their right mind could say that hunter gathers built gobekli tepe or any of the other nearby sites. i could go on and on with this but i'm hopeful that you get the idea. go to this link youtube.com/watch?v=JUYoZmd_Br4 and listen at 1:02 to hancock state in his own words that a comet struck earth 12,800 years ago and not when white in his strawman argument claims hancock said the comet struck. also hancock has never said that atlantis was destroyed at the end of the younger dryas or that sea level rise was the cause of it. these are just more strawman arguments. hancock attributes the atlantis destruction to the comet impact and the resulting tsunamis from impacts in the ocean. don't forget, this was not a single comet. most that believe in this event, and there are many reputable scientists that do, say that there were many impacts of various sizes when a large comet broke up. hancock does say that sea level rise at end of younger dryas was the cause of the demise of many civilizations that had survived the comet impact and were situated along coastal areas. the 400 foot sea level rise wiped out many of them, but atlantis was not one of them. it was long gone but it's survivors were circulating around the world, restarting civilization. anyways, i'm done.

Reply
Bob Weaver
10/31/2018 02:12:59 pm

The premise that Atlantis was a thing is however the fallacy. Since it wasn't real, then who really cares what Hancock or anyone else says or writes or wastes time doing books on? Not anyone that knows better, meaning that there is no scientific evidence of Atlantis, rather just shovel loads of wishful fantasy nonsense.

Reply
Andy White
11/1/2018 04:39:11 am

You may not be aware that over half of the population of the U.S. actually DOES believe that Atlantis (and/or other "advanced lost civilizations" existed).

https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2017/10/11/paranormal-america-2017/

You may also not be aware that belief in Atlantis is associated with a fairly dark history (i.e., polygenism, colonialism, the Nazis, etc.).

If you think, like I do, that getting the past correct matters, then understanding and addressing belief in Atlantis is not a waste of time.

Reply
Bob Weaver
11/1/2018 09:10:43 am

Agreed, and yes I'm aware of the toxic belief system fog. The challenge is how much vigilance does one use to debunk something versus how much do you just ignore it as pure crazy. Giving it attention gives it continued life support to the woo crowd. Reaction eggs them on to spin the next scrap of confirmation bull, or to just keep recycling the tread worn, hence Atlantis. It's an endless fantasy trip for them hoping that sooner or later some scrap will stick, or worse, that they've pulled off pure fraud. As long as it isn't ignored it can sell books.

Andy White
11/4/2018 05:49:28 am

Most professional archaeologists choose to not engage with these sorts of claims, presumably for just the reason you cited. Judging by the popularity and proliferation of the books, TV programs, and YouTube videos, however, it's pretty clear that a non-engagement strategy has not mitigated the "woo." I think pretending this stuff doesn't exist has the opposite of the intended effect.

Timothy
1/20/2023 07:14:32 am

It's funny how you didn't address the comment replying to you and just threw further strawmans in the argument; "Did you know it's also associated-".

Can you get a quote of Graham Hancock for me supporting those ideas in any fashion?

Jared L Lemieux
1/9/2020 04:29:52 pm

If Atlantis were where the Azores Islands now stand, that is where tectonic plates converge. Have you discussed the theory that maybe their was a large earthquake (due to the earth warming and the increased weight of the water from sea levels slowly rising possibly) and the separation of the plates could have caused the top plate, which Atlantis theoretically sat upon to sink, thus giving a scenario where this "day and a night sinking" merit? This seems the most logical explanation no?

Reply
Paul Emigholz
9/3/2020 07:56:57 am

Would love to discuss possibility Dr. John Dee (inspiration for '007' and QE1's long time Welsh advisor) was correct that North America (more specifically, the SE United States) was "Atlantis", per 1665 Dutch map. I have some comparisons that suggest might be connected to settlements on Yucatan Peninsula when the shelf to the North was above sea level. Mississippi River heading directly toward (then bends) and Great Lakes defined by the edge.

Reply



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