FAQ
Frequently asked questions- shown as an interview- about the atlantologist and writer, Georgeos Díaz-Montexano, Accepted Member of The Epigraphic Society, President Emeritus of the Scientific Atlantology International Society (SAIS), Historical-Scientific Atlantology Advicer for National Geographic, Director of the journal ARQUEOHISTORIA from 1997, and his research about Atlantis for more than twenty years.
-¿How long have you been doing your research about Atlantis?
- What was the reason why you became interested in Atlantis near Iberia?
- What do you think is the most likely origin of the story about Atlantis?
-What was Atlantis?
- Where could its remains be found?
-Have you found archeological remains of Atlantis?
-The most prevalent theory states that Atlantis disappeared under the sea, what do you think was the cause of its destruction?
-what is the discovery that makes you feel more proud?
- Do you expect this myth or legend will be discovered some day?
- Brief author biography
-¿ How long have you been doing your research about Atlantis?
My interest really started when I was 14, but I worked on it intermittently, I published some articles and I gave some lectures in Cuba, until the spring of 1994, already living in Spain, when I started my research Project. From then on my work has been continuous and intensive, with hardly any break, publishing hundreds of articles for free, conducting lectures in several associations, institutions and universities (Complutense University of Madrid and University of Barcelona), wherever I have been invited and I have been able to go, and giving radio interviews, sometimes for television, too. All this time I have also published more than thirty books, some of them quite dense and voluminous, aimed at a more specialized or academic audience and other ones being shorter, as a summary of the previous ones, aimed at a more general and less specialized audience. You just need to write my name in Amazon and you will be able to see a list with most of the books I have published to date. More learned readers can visit www.AtlantidaHistorica.com and use the internal search, or simply the file directory. There is a lot of published material.
- What was the reason why you became interested in Atlantis being near Iberia?
The discovery of a symbol in several places of the Iberian Peninsula – in petroglyphs, rupestrian paintings and ceramic vessels- that matches almost exactly with the same urban pattern or plan of the metropolis of Atlantis, a concentric circular design, with a channel connecting the center with the outer edge of the concentric circles or rings, protruding from them with a stretch of the same length, at least, as the existing length between the outer ring and the center.
- What do you think is the most likely origin of the story about Atlantis?
The most likely origin of the story about Atlantis seems to be an ancient tradition that was kept by Egyptians and other Mediterranean peoples about an old thriving culture developed at an island which was close to the coasts of Iberia and Morocco, and which had colonies or important settlements in neighboring places, specially the Iberian Peninsula during the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age.
-What was Atlantis?
As I have already proved during my more than twenty years of research about historical-scientific atlantology, Atlantis was always described as a culture with a level of development similar to the existing in cultures in full Chalcolithic or Bronze Age. It was never described as a super-civilization with technological super-powers at all, as many people, regrettably, keep thinking, due to the fiction historical literature that have been swamped by the media from the end of the XIX century. Neither is true that it sunk almost 12.000 thousand years ago, as it is not what primary sources say when you read them directly from Greek manuscripts and codices. The dating of 9.000 years is not the date of the end of Atlantis, that is, when it was destroyed, but when the story starts, such as it is indicated, when the gods divided the world among themselves (after the Titanomachy) the city of Athens was given to the goddess Athenea and his brother, Hephaestus, and Atlantis island is given to the god Poseidon. But later on it is explained how Atlanteans were evolving and growing their empire, after a long time, generation after generation, over the centuries, until final times, when they decided to invade other countries. During their wars of conquest, while they were fighting around the East Mediterranean against the primeval inhabitants of Attica, is when the great seismic -tsunami cataclysm happens, which causes the sinking of the island and destroys their civilization. This happens long after, many generations after the origin of the Atlantic culture and civilization in 9.000 Before Solon times, therefore, Atlantis disappeared in more recent times, in full Bronze Age or during the Chalcolithic Age, at some point between 2.700 and 1.500 BC.
- Where could its remains be found?
According to all written primary sources that have been preserved, Atlantis was an island located right in front of Gibraltar, but on the Atlantic side, approximately in the area which extends from Iberia, Morocco, Madeira and the Canary Islands. It might have its start (that is, its Eastern border) somewhere near the coasts of Cadiz, Huelva and the Northwest of Morocco. But its size would be –at least- similar to half Iberia, according to the dimensions specified by Plato in his narration about the Atlantic, following his penta-great uncle Solon, and according to the most ancient maps I have effectively discovered, where the island would be already depicted right in front of the strait. These maps are more than four thousand years old, they were created in Egypt (most of them) and in Carthage, but during the period of Late Antiquity, (one of them from the Bronze Age), engraved on stone and found in the Extremaduran Tartessus, North Andalusia. Therefore, if it really existed – such as hundreds of circumstantial evidence show and also some specific evidence that I have been gathering for the last two decades – its remains should be under the sea, somewhere around that Atlantic area surrounding the coasts of Huelva, Cadiz, Madeira, Morocco and the Canary Islands. But the metropolis, that is, its concentric ring capital, with its main buildings and temples, could be somewhere closer the coasts of Huelva, Cadiz and Morocco. However, what is common sense (and besides it has been stated in Plato’s Timaeus and Critias) is: If Atlantis existed (as an advanced civilization or culture), it must have left important cities around, in nearby regions, that is, somewhere around Andalusia and Portugal, especially near the closer places to the Atlantic ocean, like Cadiz or Huelva, and most probably some places in the neighboring Morocco.
These cities would probably copy the main pattern of the metropolis, which is described as a metropolis with several circular moats which were flooded with water, alternating them with rings of land or inter-moat spaces, surrounding in turn a small island where the acropolis or main area with the housing, temples or buildings with significant social relevance would be.
This urban pattern was discovered in Jaen, at Marroquies Bajos, and, in fact, I was the first one to notice it, at the beginning of this century, finding it later in other ancient cities of Andalusia and Algarve among other places within the Iberian Peninsula belonging to the Chalcolithic and Bronze period.
I was also the first one to notice the existence of Turdetan and Iberian ceramic vessels where the same pattern or design was depicted – as a symbol “sui generis” of several circular rings surrounding a central spot from which a channel comes out, that extends to the outer side of the same rings, being –exactly- the same pattern as that in the urban plan of the metropolis of Atlantis, like the one which can be seen in any encyclopedia or book about Atlantis. And the same pattern or symbol was found by me by the thousands within petroglyphs in the Iberian peninsula and some other places of the European and African Atlantic.
- Have you found archeological remains of Atlantis?
I think so, but, as always, it is a matter of interpretation; what for me could be the remains of Atlantis, or of Atlantean times, for others might simply be the remains of Chalcolithic or Bronze Age cultures, as, in fact, they also are, of course. But I have found circumstantial evidence – and not a few- that allow to connect some important evidence found in the Iberian Peninsula from Chalcolithic and Bronze Age times with what we know about the Atlantic people who lived in Atlantis island, and who might have colonies near, as in the Southwest of Iberia and Morocco, for example, if we give a minimum of credibility to what was told in different ancient written sources. These circumstantial evidence is found both in Iberia and Morocco, and under the sea, in places close to the Gulf of Cadiz, that is to say, right where it was located, at first, the start of Atlantis island, in front of the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), with its Northeast end near Gadeira (Cadiz).
-The most prevalent theory states that Atlantis disappeared under the sea, what do you think was the cause of its destruction?
According to what is clearly explained in the Critias by Plato (also said by other ancient authors) the destruction of the island was caused by several earthquakes of high magnitude (that is, intensely destructive earthquakes), followed by a great flood, that is to say, the typical process of seismic-tsunami geological disaster, where no volcanic eruption was involved, as destruction by fire or a volcanic eruption was never mentioned. The destruction was described as a disaster caused by several high intensity earthquakes followed by a great flood.
-what is the discovery that makes you feel more proud?
This is a very difficult question to answer. I feel proud of many of them, but if I had to choose only one, I would say that I feel proud of having noticed that a bone found in the Iberian Peninsula, which was dated more than 6. 000 thousand years old, (and is currently being displayed in Oslo, Norway), had an inscription with letters very similar to Tartessian writing, where it can be read ATAL or ATEL, and next to this word, another one which can be read as TARTE. Both could be the oldest forms for the original name of Atlas, which led to the Greek form Atlantis. But the form Tartessus (which coincides with the reconstructed form by philologists) was believed to be TARTE, because the ending –ssos is a Greco-Aegean suffix meaning “Country, nation or region of….” Thus, the primitive and original names of Atlantis and Tartessus would be quoted in a same text. My interpretation was accepted by renowned scientists, experts in ancient languages and by The Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology (PHI), Oslo, and so it is recognized in the museum label accompanying the piece, on the permanent exhibition of inscriptions about “History of Writing” at the National Library of Oslo.
However, I would like to add that due to the international recognition for this discovery and other ones I have contributed with, (like, for example, the identification of Chalcolithic cities found and excavated in Iberia, especially in the Southwest, West and Centre of the peninsula, with the same urban pattern as the metropolis of Atlantis, that is to say, a central area surrounded by circular moats which were flooded with water, alternating them with inter-moats spaces or rings of land, or my discovery of that same design or pattern of the capital of Atlantis shown in thousands of Turdetan, Iberian and Celtiberian petroglyphs, rupestrian paintings and ceramics, as something exclusive from Iberia, and the identification of the same symbol within some shields in the renowned steles of Southwestern pre-Tartessian warriors), some important researchers and scientists from prestigious universities of several parts of the world became interested in my research, and they got in touch with National Geographic to recommend it, so currently I am a consultant on historical-scientific Atlantology for National Geographic Channel, a condition which will be firm and public soon, although we have already signed the collaboration contract for big research projects based on my hypothesis and theory.
- Do you expect this myth or legend will be discovered some day?
Firstly I would like to clarify that it is not a myth or a legend. In fact, it is not mentioned in any mythology or mitography work. It always appears in scientific works, that is, in geographers’, mathematicians’, historians’ and philosophers’ works, and it is described, in the vast majority of such works, as a true story (alethinon logon) based in ancient traditions (ek palaias akoês), and as a possible legend only in a few of them, but equally based on some real culture, period or place. And yes, I have the hope, or at least I’d fancy it, that someday (maybe in the not too distant future)that important archeological remains will be found, both on land but also beneath the sea, and they will allow to confirm the existence of an ancient culture (which I am sure it will be Chalcolithic and Bronze Age) which gave rise to such a tradition and to that legend ,an important Atlantic civilization that was known by Solon and Plato through the Egyptian priests, and which was known by other authors through different sources, through a different tradition, authors such as the Greek lolographer Dionisius of Mitilene, the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus (basing essentially on the previous one), the Greek historian Theopompus, the Ethiopian historian Marcellus, the Greek geographer and ambassador Artemidorus of Ephesus, the renowned Roman scientist Plinius the elder, and the Greek philosopher Crantor of Soli (through Egyptian epigraphic sources that he saw in Egypt) and the no less renowned Greek historian Plutarch of Chaeronea, who, after consulting Egyptian archives, confirmed us that the story or legend about Atlantis was certainly told to Solon by two Egyptian priests, and he even gives us their names: Sonchis of Sais and Psenophis of Heliopolis.1
- Brief author biography
Georgeos Díaz-Montexano studied Archeology and Anthropology between the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s through some courses of specialized training in the SEC, Scientific Society of speleology, archeology and anthropology, attached to the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.
In September 1992, such as it is recorded in the certificate, The Epigraphic Society, a scientific society based in USA and founded by several doctors and professors from Harvard University and other renowned institutions, decided to grant a honorary award as «Accepted Member» for his discoveries and research on prehistoric inscriptions, being the chairman Dr. Norman Totten and Chairman Emeritus Dr. Barry Fell. In 1994 he moved to Spain. A year later he founded the journal “Arqueología y Enigmas de la Historia” (Archeology and enigmas of History), which was followed by “Arqueología Sin Fronteras” (Archeology without borders), “ArqueoHistoria” (Archeo-History), “Canaán: revista de Arqueología Bíblica” (Canaan: journal of Biblical Archeology), and the two first journals of Egyptology in Spanish, being distributed in kiosks and bookshops of Spain and America, “La Esfinge. Revista de Egiptología” (The Sphinx: Egyptology journal) and “Osiris. Revista de Egiptología” (Osiris. Egyptology journal).Between 1995 and 1998 he also was author and editor of the first serious course, in installments, to learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs in Spanish. Currently, he continues his work as director of the journal “Revista ArqueoHistoria”, founded in 1997, and he has published to date more than thirty books about Historical-scientific Atlantology, Tartessus and Ancient Egypt, among other themes related to Ancient History.
From 2009 he is a consultant in Historical-Scientific Atlantology for a series of documentaries about Atlantis produced by James Francis Cameron, Simcha Jacobovici and Yaron Niski, among others, for National Geographic. He took part as a researcher in the filming of the second documentary of the series (2016), showing some of his most important discoveries, arguments and hypothesis, exploring sites on land and underwater. But if there is a nuance in Georgeos Díaz-Montexano that should be highlighted is that he has dedicated more than twenty years to investigate the myth or legend of Atlantis through historical sources, especially ancient codices, papyri and manuscripts written in Greek, Latin, Arab and Egyptian, without forgetting the Timaeus and Critias texts by Plato, but through its tradition of handwriting, that is, studying directly all the existing codices and manuscripts written in Greek related to these famous dialogues by Plato. As a result of his investigations throughout many years, he is currently acknowledged as one of the few true world experts about historical-scientific Atlantology, and he is currently being consulted as specialized adviser for National Geographic (Historical-Scientific Atlantology Adviser for National Geographic).
1 More information about Georgeos Díaz-Montexano’s research: http://www.AtlantidaHistorica.com and about his books: http://goo.gl/SPuqzL
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See the Book "ATLANTIS / NG. National Geographic and the Scientific Search for Atlantis. Localization and antiquity of the legendary Atlantis civilization from classical, egyptian, tartessian and chalcolitical sources" in http://author.to/GeorgeosDiazMontexano (Release book in December 2016 with the premiere of National Geographic documentary about Atlantis).
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