Why Atlantis can’t be real

Along with all the other mythical ancient lost cities

One of the things that people interested in bushcraft and survival like to learn about is the historical side. How did people survive in the Iron Age or how did our ancestors in the Stone Age manage to stay alive in such a hostile climate? The answer to these questions leads someone to go further and further back, right to the beginning of humanity and how it spread out of its cradle.

The reason why Atlantis can’t be real is our understanding of evolution and the human race. People have only had the chance to develop in certain ways, and highly advanced ancient civilizations would be as out of place in our history as a Victorian sailing ship in the Stone Age. Before I savagely tear apart the myth of Atlantis, let’s have a look at what Atlantis is supposed to be like and the story behind it.

What was Atlantis

The first mention of Atlantis was in one of Plato’s works, a famous ancient Greek philosopher who wrote about the tale of Atlantis in a piece called Timaeus written in 360 BCE. He claims that 9,000 years before his time, a highly advanced civilization ruled most of the western hemisphere, covering most of the western coasts of modern-day North and South America.

(A fragment that many believe to be a relic from Atlantis by a Greek historian called Hellanicus of Lesbos who lived 490 – 405 BCE)

These people were more advanced than any other race on earth and would frequently conquer those they fought against. It wasn’t until they tried to attack the Greeks that they fell out of favor with the gods and the island of Atlantis sank beneath the waves.

Humanity 11,000 years ago

Plato lived over 2,000 years ago and claimed that Atlantis was in power 9,000 years before his time, which puts the world at the end of the last Ice Age. The last glacial period began to end around 12,000 BCE and it took just over 2000 years for the ice caps to retreat back to where they are today. During this time, humanity was very firmly in the stone age and people hadn’t even discovered how to melt copper yet.

(A much more realistic scene of what people were up to 11,000 years ago, and doing it with nothing more than chipped stone weapons)

Humans were in the Neolithic period during 9,000 BCE, which is when Atlantis was supposed to be at the peak of its civilization. There are a few problems with this as Atlantis was said to be the greatest naval power on earth at the time, but the world’s oldest boat has been dated between 8200 and 7600 BCE. It’s called the Pesse canoe and was made by hollowing out a single tree trunk.

The great fleets of Atlantis were said to have been ruling the waves for over 1,000 years before the first confirmed boat, but they would also have to be the first for pretty much everything. If Atlantis was real, they would be the first on Earth to do the following things:

Enter the Bronze, Iron, and Steel ages before anyone else

The first to invent fabrics, pottery, shoes, clothing, boats, mass farming techniques, the plow, pottery, the wheel, and a whole range of other things needed to create an advanced sea-faring nation.

Every single one of the above inventions has evidence-based and credible research conducted into their ages and how they came to be, and not a single one was introduced by an advanced island civilization.

The common argument for Atlantis’s existing

The land mass that the civilization of Atlantis was supposed to be built on is said to have sunk into the sea. This would remove any evidence from a surface view but would leave countless ruins at the bottom of the ocean, and people who believe in the myth claim we simply haven’t found it yet. The land that Atlantis was built on was supposed to be between Africa and North America, which would make it about the same size as Europe.

And why that argument is nonsense

If a land of this size suddenly sunk beneath the waves it would raise the sea levels around the world slightly. This rise would be so sudden that it would leave a noticeable gap in sediment deposits around the world, but for some reason, there is no evidence of any kind that supports a sudden rise in sea levels that the landmass of Atlantis would have displaced.

The Human Migration Argument

It’s widely believed that the birthplace of humanity was on the continent of Africa. During this time the sea levels were much lower as huge amounts of water were sitting above land in the form of massive glaciers in the northern hemisphere. It’s believed that humans came out of Africa around 50,000 years ago and spread out in the only direction they could, which was to the northeast.

From here they walked all across Europe and Asia and crossed the Bering land bridge to North America, which has long since sank beneath the waves. From all the descriptions of where Atlantis was, the sea levels would have to be twice as low as they were at the peak of the last ice age just to get within a few hundred miles of it. Even if the land mass existed, it was too far from any of the continents to be reached by walking when the sea levels were lower.

The evidence argument

There are many problems with the original account of the story and people have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more than a third-hand misinterpretation of a story. If there was some kind of civilization on an island that sank, there would be countless pieces of evidence. Even if all the metal works rusted into nothing, there would presumably be many pieces of carved stone works that would last for thousands of years, but as of yet, not a single piece of evidence has been found.