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I never believed much in Atlantis --- not like I did in Nessie. But I just watched a fascinating show on PBS that, whether Atlantis is ever found or not, shows that disappeared civilizations on a massive scale is hardly unusual.
I had never heard, for instance, of South America posed as a possible site for Atlantis before, and the evidence is hardly strong, but did you know that the ancient Egyptians put tobacco and coca leaves in their mummies now and then? Ends up the oceans were much more porous in ancient times than we realized.
And an awful lot of South America's been destroyed from time to time. And massive civilizations existed in more places than we knew even ten years ago.
In many ways, I felt like I was watching a documentary on Book of Mormon archaeology. (Put that in your Egyptian pipe and smoke it.)
But mostly, it made me realize that we really know so little about anything and as soon as people start talking confidentally about us knowing anything (but especially the future or the past), it's time to nod our heads and walk away.
We'll know more tomorrow than we know now.
And we better not be too secure in our wrong opinions.
(Change.)
This kind of stuff is my bread and butter. I love finding all the weird stuff that might or might not tie together.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to civilzations that have dissapeared I also really like the tales of strange new peoples showing up, usually from across the sea, like the Tuatha DeDannan in Ireland just for one example. Native American lore has volumes on this kind of occurence. And no I'm not of the mind set that it was ancient astronauts, more likely refugees.
And my understanding fromother sources say that it wasn't just coca leaves left in the tombs but full blown cocaine.
Maybe they didn't need a pipe.
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ReplyDeleteI have to say you've gotten me interested in your book --- I'm sure it's chock full of weird whatsits.
Atlantis—A Lost Sonnet
ReplyDeleteEavan Boland
How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder
that a whole city—arches, pillars, colonnades,
not to mention vehicles and animals—had all
one fine day gone under?
I mean, I said to myself, the world was small then.
Surely a great city must have been missed?
I miss our old city —
white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting
under fanlights and low skies to go home in it. Maybe
what really happened is
this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it. And so, in the best traditions of
where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name
and drowned it.
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ReplyDeleteThat's my guess, too.