Despite the Minoans having suffered terribly, their work, their invention and even their sense of fairness had lived on…
This chapter explores the comparisons between Plato’s Atlantis and the real world today. Our search has not been for a ‘lost island’, but a lost Empire which spanned the oceans. The Minoan lead in art, science and astronomy was inherited by a Greek civilisation that went on to produce ageless works of art and literature; the Greeks invented theatre, devised calendars, became skilled engineers. Cherished ideals such as citizenship and democracy and disciplines such as philosophy and science followed. Most astonishing of all is that the Minoans achieved all of this 2,000 years before the birth of Christ, 1,500 years before Buddha or Confucius and 2,500 years before Muhammad. Beauty had been this people’s watchword. They had shown the world that a peaceful existence was a profitable one. The Minoans hadn’t just been the bringers of bronze: they breathed the Bronze Age into life.
New research in archaeology, genetics, linguistics and more leads us to the inescapable conclusion that Plato was indeed describing an ancient, yet hugely sophisticated civilisation which was destroyed as abruptly as it was born, now lost in the seas of time.
Further reading:
Robert Drews, The End of the Bronze Age:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691025916/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=gavinnet06-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0691025916
Plato, Timaeus and Critias -Oxford World Classics, trans. Robin Waterfield:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192807358/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=gavinnet06-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0192807358
Plato, Timaeus – trans. Rodney Castleden, in The Minoans:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/041508833X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=gavinnet06-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=041508833X
