ANCIENT ATLANTIS OR ANOTHER?

Report #189

July 12, 2010

Joseph P. Skipper

 

 

J.P. Skipper can be contacted at: jskipper@marsanomalyresearch.com

The report is about an Earth based scenario, a combination of the possibilities inherent in a background Earth story, some possible hypotheses by me, and then some visual evidence to add into the mix. It will be up to you to decide if there is any merit. First we'll start with the background story.

In more modern times, the story of ancient Atlantis has fascinated generations and some to obsession as a real place. As many of you may know, it is acknowledged that the story of Atlantis was first introduced into public awareness via dialogues by the Greek philosopher Plato around 355–360 BC. As the story goes, Plato's references regarding Atlantis was allegedly in turn sourced from a 500 hundred years earlier 6th century BC trip by the Athenian lawgiver Solon to Egypt where an Egyptian priest there translated a part of an unknown history of ancient Athens and Atlantis from papyri scrolls of Egyptian hieroglyphs to Greek of a time some 9,000 year earlier to that 6th century period.

According to the translation, it seems that the god/man Poseidon (you know, Zeus, Hera, Apollo etc.) fell in love with a human female named Cleito on the island Atlantis who bore him many sons, the oldest of which was named Atlas. Now it should be noted at this point that the term "Atlantis" in Greek means "island of Atlas" and the term "Atlantic" Ocean was named after Atlas. It seems that in the even more distant past, the "gods" divided up Earth lands among themselves and Poseidon to his liking was assigned the then Atlantis lands west off of the Pillars of Hercules which the latter we know today as the Strait of Gibraltar separating the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

So, despite the many other location prospects presented by others as more likely sites, the ancient story clearly places the location of the Atlantean culture in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere west of the Strait of Gibraltar. Many have a problem with this because it is the scientific consensus opinion that this location is geologically impossible. Further, since science now days considers itself rational and enlightened, the story starting off with the "god" Poseidon likely causes many not to take it serious and regard it as little more than fabricated myth.

However, this ignores the ancient Sumarian and Indian culture record as also referring to such "gods" in human form including conducting great wars with each other. The consensus also makes the assumption that such records are not history but merely fabricated myths and legends to explain events they didn't understand by ancient people less sophisticated and knowledgeable than ourselves. In my opinion, such views reveal more about our flaws and arrogance than ancient ones.

In any case, the story goes on to describe Atlantis as an island or a great number of islands occupying a very large area of specific measurement so that it might also be considered as large as a continent. Therefore do note that it isn't described so much as a "continent" as we think of single land mass but a collection of land masses with the island Atlantis as its center of power.

The Atlantean's are described as a naval power that also possessed flying machines. It seems that landmass Atlantis itself was occupied by Atlas and was an island with mountains. One of these mountains where Cleito apparently resided was carved by Poseidon into a great palace with concentric rings of land, walls, and canals extending out from its center and complete with other canal systems. It seems that the eastern most and other reaches of the Atlantean world were separate kingdoms divided up almost certainly among Atlas's brothers and so the Atlantean world was a confederation of kingdoms with Atlantis as its power center.

In the time some 9,000 years before the time of Solon and the translation, the Atlantean confederation or some portion of it was apparently aggressively attacking and conquering in western Europe, parts of Africa, and attacking into the Mediterranean where they encountered ancient Athens. Athens standing alone stopped them militarily and thus no doubt the reason for Solon's Greek interest in the Egyptian translated story. At some point in time not too long after this Atlantean military defeat there is suppose to have been some kind of earthquake upheaval that in one day and night caused the whole of the Atlantean world to sink beneath the Atlantic Ocean causing mud to poor in on top of it creating an impassable and unsearchable muddy shoal and a hazard to navigation.

Remember such records in these ancient times were likely one-off laboriously hand inscribed accounts and not a record that is repeated as we do today via books and electronic devices. So if the one record is destroyed, the account is lost forever. So this is a no doubt condensed Egyptian account/record further condensed by Solon, further condensed by Plato, and further condensed and interpreted by people like me in more recent times so that much information and, more important, a true sense of elapsed time is lost and/or distorted. So there may be a tendency to think about this account happening in shorter lengths of condensed time than may have actually been the case.

For example, we now know something about plate tectonics as well as continental drift and we now know, if we thought about it very much, that this identified location out in the Atlantic west of the Pillars of Hercules would be near an ever expanding seam between tectonic plates and a geologically unstable area due to that fact. This suggests the multiple fracture zones of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Logically, over the centuries earthquakes and rising sea levels may have alerted many intelligent advanced Atlantean people to their island life peril and especially among the island kingdoms with lower elevations.

This would have likely caused some Atlanteans, especially in the Atlantean eastern reaches, to be concerned about future sudden flooding caused by earthquakes building in intensity over the years and/or centuries and flooding shorelines. That may have caused them to attempt to shift populations further eastward to the mainland of western Europe and Africa getting into conflict with those already there occupying those places.

Also, before I forget to include this, it should be noted at this point that the Egyptian account clearly identifies a continent further west of Atlantis bounding the Atlantic Ocean that sounds an awful lot like the American continents. This in turn clearly suggests at least an Egyptian familiarity in ancient 6th century BC times and/or before with the western boundaries of the Atlantic Ocean and its navigation. That would make sense with a broad area of islands in the mid Atlantic making island hopping or circumventing navigation westward to the Americas much easier.

There is even the information in the account of the sunken shoals of Atlantis impeding navigation in the Atlantic. Even if the Egyptian account is false and a creation by Plato or his predecessors, it still suggests a navigation knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean to its western boundaries by some Mediterranean people in 355-360 BC and/or before Plato's time and that too is significant.

Also, here's another consideration. The underwater terrain area immediately east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge area has not only many fracture zones demonstrating geological instability but many mountain ranges as well no doubt created over time by that geological instability. Some of the highest mountains stick out of the water and their tops are islands out in the mid Atlantic. It is also likely that the highest mountains would be those created deeper within the Mid-Atlantic Ridge fracture zone areas.

Now consider that the events described here allegedly happened roughly about 12,000 years back into the past from the present time. Today our science tells us that the last glacial maximum (coldest period) peaked about 20,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago as we entered the current interglacial cycle warming period. That means that 12,000 year ago from our time the Atlantean culture would be facing a warming trend that would have been ongoing and well along for some 8,000 years with melting ice sheets and sea levels rising nearing to the completion of this warming cycle just 2,000 years in their future.

Think about it. Depending on its possible age of existence, the Atlantean culture may have been initially established at some period during the last ice age glacial maximum around 20,000 years ago. During that earlier time, the ice sheets would likely have been at their peaks of mass and the sea level would have been at its lowest. That means that a great deal of the top of those mountain ranges east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge plate tectonic seam would have likely been sticking considerably out of the water forming a massive area of islands with many of them land interconnected and suitable for habitation.

This has all kinds of negative implications for any civilization based on the mountain range islands in the mid Atlantic during an 8,000 year long to that date interglacial warming/melt trend and its geological changes. As their island centers were threatened by rising water levels and increasingly made more and more vulnerable to the occasional earthquake driven tsunamis and other rogue waves from deeper water over the centuries, there would have logically been a migration from this home area by many while others stayed behind unwilling to leave so typical of human behavior.

This would explain the view of Atlanteans moving east by Egyptian and Greeks as invaders. Did you know that Egyptian earliest history includes accounts of battles fought with unidentified peoples from the west? The Atlanteans on the move, but being a finite number of people without the replenishment reserves of an long term established people and even with more advanced technology, they would gradually have been worn down in conquering ability pushing east into western Europe and Africa until finally exhausted they met their match and perhaps were stopped by the Athenians and a growing culture that later produced the fiercely committed Spartan defenders at Thermopylae. If so, now all that is left of their legacy is perhaps some of their DNA in many of us and some long lasting megalithic structure evidence in Europe and Africa as their smaller numbers were eventually absorbed into the greater human whole of that part of the world.

This is the Earth Atlantis story in basic and some of my thoughts on it. You will notice that I do not label this information as so many others do as myth. From my point of view, it is neither myth nor truth but simply a story like that of Troy that may have some basis for fact in it and not to be summarily dismissed. In other words, I suspect there is core truth to be had somewhere in this story.

You can perhaps understand that, when I got Google Earth, one of the first things I did was go looking for any sign of civilization underwater in the Atlantic west off of the Pillars of Hercules where the Atlantean culture at its height is alleged to be located. I expected nothing and especially not in light of the fact that so much of the satellite imaging has been obfuscated. However, I did find what clearly appears to be some evidence of artificial construction underwater west southwest well out from the Strait of Gibraltar.

I was going to report on it before now but got distracted into planetary evidence and kept putting it off until now. I also delayed because I wanted to further inspect what appears to be some underwater canal systems joining certain islands still sticking out of the water in the general area. However, recently I received an email bringing this site back to my attention from a Clinical Psychologist Dr. Christof Lehmann wanting to know what I thought of the same underwater formations? I'm glad he did. Now let's look at some Google imaging showing the location of the site and the site itself.

The above 1st image is a context view showing the Atlantic Ocean, the position of the unstable Mid-Atlantic Ridge tectonic plate fracture zone and the rough mountainous underwater terrain produced by it. Likewise, the red arrow demonstrates the underwater evidence site to the left relative to the Strait of Gibraltar or Pillars of Hercules to the right at the mouth of the Mediterranean. As you can see, the placement of the site is in general consistent with the ancient story of the placement of the Atlantean empire.

The above 2nd image from Google Earth provides a closer but still context view showing a little more detail of the evidence that surrounds the site. Note that the site in question appears to be underwater on the east edge of the rough mountainous Mid Atlantic Ridge terrain and on the west edge of a more level plain. However, one needs to be cautious. This may or may not be accurate as a portion of the smoother plain appearance may also be the result of smudge treatments applied to the local area. In fact, if one takes into consideration image tampering treatments, what we can see of the underwater ruins may merely be only part of a greater whole hidden by smudge treatments.

The above 3rd and 4th images provide different types of views of the underwater ruins site. As you can see these many geometric right angle and linear lines are almost certainly represent artificially created ruins of some kind. However, note that there are apparently no concentric round rings as the story describes that are suppose to be on the main island of Atlantis. Further, while there are other long linear lines east of this site that could be old ancient canals connecting islands, there is no more evidence of ruins this definitive in the immediate surroundings.

Does this tell us that this isn't Atlantis? Not hardly. The ruin outlines you see above are also how this site would look if smudge image tampering were a factor. Same with the extensive smooth plain to the east of this site. You can take nothing for granted in this regard as to what role image tampering may play by hiding evidence.

So does this tell us that this is Atlantis? Again the answer is no. However, what it does tell us is that what we have here is artificial ruin outlines underwater on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean where none should exist and that alone is very significant. Scientists tell us that this is impossible but here you have the visual evidence. Unless some advanced aliens built something here underwater that has been covered over by smudge treatments and still printing through them, we're almost certainly looking at ancient human civilization construction evidence that had to have been created by ancients over time and unquestionably out of water. That means that this site existed at one time in the past out of water and on dry land.

That in turn logically means that this civilization evidence may have existed active at some time during the last glacial cold period as much as 20,000 years ago when the ice sheets were at their maximum and the water level here was much lower than now exposing these lands to air and sunlight. That in turn makes the story of some ancient civilization like the Atlantean culture in the Atlantic Ocean off of the Pillars of Hercules more feasible.

For example, the destruction of Atlantis, if the overnight time frame is legitimate and not a result of condensing the time line in the Egyptian reporting the event, may have been the result of a combination of things building up over centuries. Rising water during the interglacial warming trend would be the chief suspect but would not alone sufficiently explain the overnight disaster scenario. On the other hand, warming trend rising water levels would have made islands more vulnerable to inundation at the same time that increasing downward weight pressure of the rising water on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge geologically unstable area could have created a subterranean collapse of the plate dropping down a bit and/or a significant earthquake displacing and pushing water in a great wave over the already vulnerable island culture depositing swirling stirred up bottom sediment (mud) over the area.

The above evidence site may or may not be part of an Atlantean empire. However, it was a part of something out here in this now underwater terrain and there is no telling what extensive civilization evidence may be hidden in this area under smudge treatments. If there is anyone out there around the world with access to commercial satellite imaging of this underwater general area that may not have been subjected to tampering treatments, please get it to me for examination and we'll see if there is anything more to be seen here!

Now that the above evidence leans so much in favor of artificial civilization evidence being possible underwater in this general area of the Atlantic Ocean, is there is further evidence of the civilization kind on this side of the Atlantic? As it turns out, there actually is north of this area and off the west coast of Ireland and the visual evidence is as follows.

The above 5th image is the wide angle context view of that evidence both out on the coastal shallower water shelf represented by the lighter blue color and down in a deeper canyon system represented by the darker blue color. Note that this evidence is not really like the ruins of buildings because the imprint of it is finer and closer textured but still with the sharp 90º right angle boundary geometry and long straight linear lines so typical of man's constructions.

In the above 6th image, note the lower section pointed out between the two arrows. This looks suspiciously like writing of some unknown kind, at least to me. IF this is writing, perhaps some better forensic imaging experts in conjunction with some linguist experts probably in ancient text could get better details and interpret this?

To that end, the above 7th image provides a closer view of this possible writing. It also provides a good view of how precise the southern straight line boundary of this grid like site makes a perfect sharp 90º turn upward north forming the west boundary edge of the entire site. As you can see, the corner is just too right angle perfect to be the result of some natural occurrence and has been almost certainly implemented by artificial means. As with the previous evidence, the presence of smudge and/or a mud covering on the site tells us that these are not imaging artifacts but something actually present on the bottom.

The above 8th image view is of the top or north and west boundary of the site off of Ireland. As you can see, this area of the site is more compromised by blur. That is caused I suspect mostly by obscuring smudge treatments but acknowledge that it could be mud as well. However, even so, note there are many objects (containers ?) of the same size and in a side-by-side east/west orientation repeating in a long uniformly even line here mostly but not completely obscured and as pointed out by the red arrows.

It obviously suggests artificiality rather than something of natural origin. What any explorer worth his salt wouldn't give to go down and inspect that long line of same size objects seen in the above 8th image!

What this site is exactly I cannot say. Could it be a giant horizontal read message board with all the main smaller text obscured and only the grossly large bottom line of text printing through the obscuring mud and/or smudge? What ever it is, the main thing is that it appears to be of artificial origin and it is underwater in the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland. It is entirely possible that this site also dates back into glacial maximum times when the water levels here were at their lowest level exposing this area to the air and sunlight enabling this construction.

The problem with that consideration is that 20,000 years ago during the peak glacial cold cycle, the ice sheets extending down from the Artic north of this point would likely have covered this site making it very difficult for human habitation. Also, the lowered sea levels would have exposed what is now the British Isles including Ireland and the English Channel making this area a landmass extension of the European continent.

If this now underwater site would not be conducive to human habitation back then during the glacial cold cycle, could this site be some kind of giant heated grid type sign system then on exposed land melting ice away from around it and framing a giant message meant only to be seen from above? Perhaps a giant boundary marker defining territory?

In other words, discoveries raising questions like this point to a time in this planet's history when things were happening that we in our ignorance in this time have little to no knowledge of today except for a few privy to truthful satellite imaging. With that in mind and consistent with human behavior, there may be a tendency to speculate that these things were happening before our recorded history? If so, let me say a word about that.

More than likely, there was such a recorded history. For example, the ancient libraries that we know were intentionally sacked and burned a number of times in the lands around the Mediterranean may have contained a great deal of this information. So much of the information in them was destroyed just because of the information they contained that someone of the time didn't want known. So, with the destruction, the information lost to human civilization is incalculable. I might add that sadly much of that library destruction was undertaken in the name of religion and its intolerance for difference.

I am reminded of the ancient peoples in the opposite direction of South and Central America. They recorded a great deal of history on gold likely thinking that the knowledge would never perish on this wonderfully stable metal. They did not of course anticipate that European white men driven by greed and accompanied by zealot guardians of religion would wish to destroy even history, covet the gold, melt it down wholesale (again knowledge destroyed) too fill great ship convoys headed back to Europe to feed even greater greed and the power addicts of that time.

If very much of any of this ancient information had survived intact, it is possible that humanity would have surged centuries ahead increasingly on an individual basis not nearly as dependent on leaders to manipulate us via spin telling us what to think, how to feel, and what to do that always seems to benefit the few but rarely the many that take the action and run the risks. However, that's just my personal thoughts.

Addendum added 7/19/2010

It has been brought to my attention by a number of people that this possible site in the Atlantic off of the Pillars of Hercules has been discovered and apparently reported on previously by someone else also making a possible Atlantis connection. I don't know who. At the same time it seems that Google has put forth an official explanation found HERE that the evidence is a artifact of bathymetric data collection sonar process from boats with the lines reflecting the path of the boats. I was not aware either of the prior discovery or the official explanation at the time of my reporting above.

Because of the location of this particular evidence, it is natural to associate this site with Atlantis. The subject of a technologically advanced human civilization prior to our current recorded history is not welcome in science or political consensus circles just as it was not in ancient times with the destruction of the great libraries. In this time it is preferred to promote surprisingly advanced but still suitably and safely primitive cultures like the Minoans in the Mediterranean as the bases for the story of Atlantis.

As for the official Google explanation, if the Google Earth underwater search function revealed a pattern of sites like this as a result of fuzzy sonar readings around the Earth, such an official explanation might hold a little interest for more investigation. However, no matter what they say, the evidence just isn't there. That means that the official explanation amounts to no more than a claim and it is clear that this site west off the Pillars of Hercules has been specifically targeted for this special explanation.

The bottom line is that, if they can get the deep rough and very intricate Mid-Atlantic Ridge massive area bottom information west adjacent to this site correct without such visual defects, that says it all and the official explanation is not something to take seriously. You must decide what has merit and what does not for yourself. As for me, I stand by my reporting.

Joseph P. Skipper, Investigator

 

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