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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/27/atlantis-lo
st-civilisation-fake-news-netflix-ancient-apocalypse
How Atlantis has been portrayed in popular culture. Photograph: Fernando Gregory/Alamy
Robin McKie Science Editor
Sun 27 Nov 2022 10.00 GMT
For a story that was first told 2,300 years ago, the myth of Atlantis has
demonstrated a remarkable
persistence over the millennia. Originally outlined by Plato, the tale of the rise of
a great, ancient civilisation followed by its cataclysmic destruction has since
generated myriad interpretations.
Many versions have been intriguing and entertaining – but none have been as
controversial as its most recent outing in the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse.
Presented by the author Graham Hancock, the programme argues that a once
sophisticated culture was destroyed by floods triggered by a giant comet which
crashed on Earth, a disaster that inspired the legend of Atlantis, it is claimed.
According to Hancock, survivors of the calamity spread round the world – which
was then populated by simple hunter-gatherers – bringing them science,
technology, agriculture and monumental architecture. We owe everything to
these near godlike individuals, it is claimed.
For good measure, Hancock – who has been promoting these ideas in his books
for decades – argues that archaeologists have deliberately covered up this
catastrophic vision of civilisation’s spread and accuses mainstream academia of
its “extremely defensive, arrogant and patronising” attitudes.
These stark claims have helped the series reach the top of viewing lists on both
sides of the Atlantic, to the chagrin of archaeologists who, for their part, have
denounced Ancient Apocalypse on the grounds that it provides little evidence to
support its grandiose claims and for promoting conspiracy theories dressed up as
science.
The confrontation is intriguing and raises many issues of which the most basic is
the simple question: why has the story of Atlantis – compared with other ancient
myths – maintained its popularity for so long? What is the essential attraction of
the tale?
For answers we only have to look at the works of Tolkien, CS Lewis, HP
Lovecraft, Conan Doyle, Brecht and a host of science fiction writers who have all
found the myth an irresistible inspiration.
As to the suggested location of this lost civilisation, these have ranged from the
Sahara to the Antarctic and countless places in between.
Nor is Hancock the first to suggest the destruction of a once great civilisation led
to the flowering of culture elsewhere. In 1882, the maverick US congressman and
popular writer Ignatius Donnelly published Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
which argued that a highly complex, sophisticated culture had been wiped out by
a flood 10,000 years ago and claimed that its survivors had spread round the
world teaching the rest of humanity the secrets of farming and architecture.
Sounds familiar.
Then there were the Nazis. Many swore by the idea that a white Nordic superior
race – people of “the purest blood” – had come from Atlantis. As a result,
Himmler set up an SS unit, the Ahnenerbe – or Bureau of Ancestral Heritage – in
1935 to find out where people from Atlantis had ended up after the deluge had
destroyed their homeland.
And that, in part, explains why the myth of an ancient, lost civilisation is so
useful. It is a basic tale of a rise and fall that can be corralled and exploited for all
sorts of causes. Plato meant his tale to be an allegory. Atlantis was destroyed by
the gods who had grown angry with the hubris displayed by its inhabitants and so
destroyed it. Don’t get too big for your boots, in other words.
As to the likely site of the original Atlantis, the serious money goes on the
destruction of the Greek island of Santorini and its impact on Crete and puts the
blame on volcanic eruptions – not errant comets, as Hancock argues.
It was this cataclysm that was remembered more than 1,000 years later in Plato’s
time. He attributed it to a civilisation that he called Atlantis, little knowing how
his brief description of a lost culture would resonate so strongly – and often
controversially – through the ages.