Ancient Atlantic Crossings
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ANCIENT ATLANTIC CROSSINGS THE REPEATED DISCOVERY OF AMERICA by Rod C. Mackay Copyright © by Rod C. Mackay Illustrations and Design by Rod C. Mackay ________________________________________________________ All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced except as a single reading copy and back-up for the personal use of the registered disc purchaser. This electronic book is licensed to be stored on one hard-drive but is not otherwise offered to be lent, stored in additional retrieval systems, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or the like, without the express permission of the author at Box 793, Sussex, N.B. Canada, E0E 1P0. Registered purchasers will be made aware of correct- ions, deletions, and the availability of new illustrations and textual additions. ________________________________________________________ Published in Canada by The Caledonian First Edition Before Publication ISBN 0-920546-06-4 ATLANTIS In this older map the usual north/south orientation is reversed. The Greek writer named Plato (427-347 B.C.) remarked that the race of gods "divided the whole earth amongst themselves." He had no first- hand knowledge of their activities, but he did have an indirect witness of past events in a collection of rough notes inherited from a distant relative called Solon (639-559 B.C.). He said that this philosopher had spent ten years living in Egypt, studying documents in the great library at the mouth of the Nile and consulting Psonchis, the most learned historian among the Egyptian priests. From him, through Solon, Plato reconstructed the myth of Atlantis, but died before he could complete the story. The tale says that Atlantis was the land granted the god named Poseidon. According to the Egyptians, this island had stood in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) approximately nine thousand years before the rise of the Greek city states. Plato said that Atlantis was larger than Libya and Asia (i.e The Middle East) and a stepping stone "to other islands from which could be 1 reached the opposite continent (unquestionably America)." In those days the Mediterranean was seen as the central or inland sea, and the Atlantic as a circular outer-sea enclosing the world of men. It was theorized that there might be a more distant outer circle of land enclosing the “all- encompassing ocean.” We will find this ringed version of reality reflected in the construction of the city of Atlantis and in Celtic structures, real and imagined. The lot which Poseidon drew consisted of a number of Atlantic islands including a very large land mass eventually called Atlantis. Arriving to survey his lot, the god found it already occupied by an "earth- born" man whose name was Euenor. A true primitive, he and his wife Leukippe, and their single daughter Cleito (sometimes Kleito), had settled themselves near the centre of the island. The man and the woman died of disease soon after Poseidon's arrival so that he became the guardian of a girl well on the way to womanhood. He afterwards had intercourse with her and raised a very large mortal family. Atlantis was an oblong island, sloping slightly from north to south. At the latter edge a plain dipped into the sea and this continued inland for "a distance of about fifty stadia (roughly six miles)" Here there was an unassuming mountain "not very steep on any side". Within it, in a cave, Poseidon found Cleito and her family. Seeing that this place had possibilities as a hill-fort, the god began to break ground and enclosed the homestead within several broad concentric mounds of earth. He flooded the land between the rises producing moats. It was said that the engineering was so precise it looked as if the entire island had been turned on a lathe, "the circles being equidistant in every direction." With these barriers in place Poseidon felt relatively secure. In fact, the precaution may not have been necessary since ocean-going ships had not yet been invented. It is noted that "as Poseidon was a god (and in charge of advanced technology) he found no great difficulty in bringing two streams of water up through the earth, one of warm water and another cold. He was also able to make food plants spring abundantly from the earth." He sired five pairs of male children and gave each a land grant on the 2 main island; the first-born eventually inheriting his mother's old dwelling place and all of the improvements made within the inner moat. Atlas thus became king over his brothers, who were installed as princes of the land. To his twin-brother Gaderius, who was born only minutes after him, Atlas gave the portion of the island to the east, closest the Mediterranean Sea. "All of these men and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; also, they soon held sway over other countries within the Pillars of Hercules as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia." Atlas had "a numerous and honourable family, and his eldest branch always retained the kingdom for many generations, and they had such wealth as is unlikely to be again, and the Atlanteans were well furnished with everything which could be purchased, whether country- or city- dwellers. Because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries although the island itself provided most of what was needed for life and prosperity. Among the Atlanteans there were miners who dug from the earth what minerals there were as well as metal. In those days they recovered orichalcum (mountain-bronze) from many parts of the island, and although it is now nothing more than a name, it was formerly regarded as the most valuable ore of the earth with the exception of gold. There was never a lack of wood for carpenters and no lack of animals. There were a great many elephants already upon the island and wild spaces for animals of every kind. Whatever fragrant things grow, these were found, whether roots, herbs, flowers or fruit; all grew and thrived in this place. The cultivated foods were likewise hardy and men harvested legumes, fruits having hard rinds, chestnuts and the like, all available in wondrous and infinite abundance." "In this easy land, the Atlanteans built their temples, palaces and harbours and docks, arranging the entire island as follows: First they bridged the moats which surrounded the oldest inhabited parts making entrances into and out of the royal palace at the centre of the island. Within the palace they built a habitation for the god and their dead ancestors. They continued to ornament this place with successive kingships, each new monarch surpassing the last in his efforts at craftsmanship. In the last days they made the building a marvel of the ancient world in terms of size and beauty. Beginning from the sea, the 3 workmen next dug canals, like spokes of a wheel radiating inward toward the centre of the island. These were very precise being 300 (Greek) feet wide and fifty stadia (30,000 feet) in length. These they constructed as far as the innermost moat, making a passage to the sea from each circle of water. This was enlarged into a protected harbour and the openings were kept large enough to enable ingress by the largest vessels. They also spanned all of the various circles of water constructing bridges adequate to the passage of a single trireme. They roofed these over to keep them from the weather and left way underneath for the passage of ships. The outer water zone was now made three stadia in width; the next two stadia and the inner circle but a single stadia. The inner palace island was now five stadia across. The outer circumference of the innermost moat was surrounded by a stone wall with towers and gates at every place where the sea passed in. The stone they used was quarried from the mountain which had stood at the centre of the island as well as from the various zones of the island. The stones were variously coloured, white, black and red and were quarried from places where docks were needed. As they were excavated these were roofed over with native rock. Some of the buildings were unassuming but in some the coloured stones were intermingled for the sake of ornamentation. They eventually built a wall around the outermost moat and this they faced with brass, but the next circular wall was coated with tin. The oldest wall, encircling the inner citadel was flashed with the red orichalcum." "The palaces of the citadel were constructed as follows: At the very centre was the temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which in the later days was inaccessible and surrounded by an enclosure of gold. As this was the spot of the birth of the five twins who sired the race, this was where men brought offerings of fruit in season and performed the sacrifices to the gods. Near this centre was Poseidon's own temple, a stadium in length and a half stadium wide and high. All of the outside of this building was barbaric in design, and with the exception of the pinnacles, sheathed in silver, the pinnacles themselves being gold. Inside this place, the roof was ivory, the walls and floors being adorned with gold and silver and orichalcum. In the temple were statues of gold including a figure of the god himself standing in a chariot behind six winged (sea) horses. Such was the size of this representation (nearly 300 feet) that the god's head nearly touched the ceiling.