Before reading this article, please read the articles, “More Than One Eden!” and “Studying Chronology – Reconstructing When Things Happened.”
Over the last couple of decades, a debate has been raging between amateur scholars and “academics” over exactly what caused what’s called the “Younger Dryas” period – a cooler period dating to 12,800 to 11,600 years ago – and the associated animal extinctions. Gradually, the theory of a great cometary impact has been gaining traction, and there are a LOT of ramifications for the destruction of Atlantis, and the great cataclysm that caused it.
Prior to this debate, scientists generally agreed that a massive influx of fresh water from melting glaciers in North America into the Atlantic had caused the ocean currents warming Northern Europe to stop for a long period of time. This caused the global temperature of the world to drop by more than ten degrees. That, together with the over-hunting of large, prehistoric land animals led to a massive number of extinctions.
Or so they thought.
Several things threw a monkey wrench into that plausible-sounding scientific theory. Among them were the following (not a complete list):
- Many animals across North America and elsewhere, were found frozen with undigested food still in their stomachs. Whatever had caused this must have happened very suddenly.
- A “black mat” of burned organic material was found, dating to the period between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago, across much of North America and a few other areas as well.
- “nanodiamonds” in this same layer – tiny diamonds formed by the massive force of an extraterrestrial impact
- Particles of Iridium in this same layer – an element which is extremely rare in nature, but common in asteroids and comets
- Evidence of truly massive flooding over northwestern America, across the “scablands” where gigantic ancient “ripple marks” exist in the ground – resembling the ripples left behind by flowing water.
The prevailing theory now is that a massive comet from the Taurid meteor stream, entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, sending multiple fragments all over a large swath of the Earth – but mainly impacting on or near North America. The two impact holes near Bermuda would have been from large fragments of this massive comet.
Such impacts would have not only sunk the large island of Atlantis itself (which had a limestone base, much like Florida does), but would have also caused a gigantic tsunami, inundating the east coast of North and South America as well as part of the west coast of Western Europe. Only people retreating to the high mountains – such as those in South America – would have escaped the destruction.
This was a global catastrophe, which would have happened DURING THE TIME WHEN HUMANS WERE KNOWN TO EXIST. That has tremendous implications for the study of the growth of human civilization – because such a global catastrophe would have erased nearly all of the evidence of any civilization which might have existed beforehand.
Let’s pause our investigation for the moment, and flip over to Revelation 8:6-13:
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Let’s notice a few very interesting things, considering the evidence we’ve been reviewing. The “hail and fire” could very easily be burning meteorite fragments. The “great mountain burning with fire” could very easily be the comet impact near Bermuda. The “great star” could be other parts of that same comet, falling all across North America. And finally, the reduction in light could very easily be the result of the clouds of dust thrown up by the impact, and the ashes from massive fires. In other words…this description of destruction reads just like the destruction of Atlantis! Why would that be?
Secondly, this sequence seems to be reversing the days of creation, in Genesis 1. The first trumpet blast destroys the creation of the sixth day, the second and third trumpet blasts destroy the creation of the fifth day, and the fourth trumpet blast destroys the creation of the fourth day.
This all seems to be indicating “the end from the beginning” and that we can expect a repeat of the downfall of Atlantis in the end time! We’ll get into the details of that in a future article.
Getting back to our investigation of the great catastrophe that befell Atlantis, let’s review the biblical Flood, and look for any elements that might be part of a repeating pattern:
- Sons of God marrying daughters of men, leading to a divine judgment by God
- A great Flood destroys both mankind and animals
- Noah sends forth first a raven, and then a dove after the Flood abates
- After the Flood, Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk with the wine he made from it
Now, according to the legend of Atlantis, Poseidon was a god who married a mortal woman named Cleito. The inhabitants of Atlantis were mostly divine, and while the divine nature was strong in them, they continued to obey the laws of Poseidon. But after many generations, they had intermarried more and more with mortal women and became corrupted and greedy. They were finally destroyed after their greed caused them to go to war with the peoples of the rest of the world.
Interestingly enough, the constellation of Hydra – the seven-headed water serpent – has an accompanying constellation on its back called Corvus – the crow. This constellation was known to the ancient Babylonians (expert astrologers) who viewed it as a symbol of death, and marking the entrance to the “underworld.”
What does this mean in the biblical account, then? The crow is intended as a symbol of destruction. After the Flood abated, the crow would symbolically devour all of the dead (specifically those of the nation represented by Hydra – that is, Atlantis), leaving nothing remaining. (Compare Rev. 19:17-21)
What about the dove? Interestingly enough, the constellation of Argo was MA-GUR in Sumerian. MA could be interpreted as “ship” while “GUR” could mean “dove.” The constellation of Argo connects the two together. In other words, this represents the Ark, and the promise of surviving the Flood.
Finally, what are we to make of the vineyard that Noah planted, and getting drunk from its wine? In the bible, wine is often a symbol of spiritual drunkenness and idolatry. In other words, immediately after the Flood, man didn’t repent. The same, pagan system that had brought about their destruction before, continued afterwards.
What exactly was that pagan system, though? Look for the next article on another Tower of Babel, and find out!
In the meantime, we can see a pattern developing with the Flood that destroyed Atlantis. What about the biblical Flood? Was it also a global catastrophe?
Apparently not, according to Egyptologist and scholar David Rohl. Following the chronological adjustment that he discovered, when he demonstrated that the 21st and 22nd dynasties of ancient Egypt overlapped rather than occurring one after the other, he looked for evidence of a flood which could be dated to approximately 2350 BC in his “New Chronology.” What he found was that the 15-foot silt later that Sir Leonard Woolley discovered at the city of Ur and believed to be evidence of the biblical Flood, was in fact dated to this very time…but it wasn’t a global flood.
What are we to make of that? Why would the bible claim it to be a global flood, if it wasn’t?
Interestingly enough, the earlier Babylonian legend, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” also claims that a global flood happened around that time. Why would THEY claim a global flood, if it didn’t happen that way?
It seems that both the bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh took the legends associated with the Flood that destroyed Atlantis, updated the characters, and re-set the story in a more modern setting. Sort of like taking the characters of Romeo and Juliet and setting them in the west side of New York, making the story about rival gangs rather than rival families.
Does that mean that Noah wasn’t actually a real person? Not at all! We have a genealogy associated with Noah, so he MUST be a real person.
Instead, what we’re meant to understand by the biblical Flood account is that there is a repeating pattern of history. The essential elements of that pattern are:
- The Godly descendants of Shem began intermarrying with pagan wives, resulting in a “great falling away” and a loss of faith in God.
- A growing tide of violence resulted, sweeping across the whole land and leaving nothing untouched – much like the “overflowing scourge” of Assyria when it destroyed not only northern Israel, but all of the surrounding smaller nation-states.
- The few remaining faithful are miraculously preserved.
- Immediately afterwards, paganism creeps in once more.
We don’t have the historical details to know exactly what happened. We’re dealing with a legendary time in the Middle East at this point, and we only have the archaeological record and some vague legends to help reconstruct a few, scant details of what occurred. Even so, we can use existing biblical symbolism to interpret what the biblical Flood actually represented.
References:
Collins, Andrew. Gateway to Atlantis
Firestone, Richard, et. al. The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes
Rohl, David. Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest
Epic of Gilgamesh