Suggesting that a Jewish or Israeli connection can be found not only in nearly
every corner of the Earth, but even far below its surface, a new documentary
film claims to have discovered the fabled lost city of Atlantis – and that it
may have a link to the Old Testament.
Hartford University
Prof. Richard Freund’s work in uncovering Atlantis is the subject of the
documentary Finding Atlantis, which the National Geographic Channel began airing
this month. The film was largely an Israeli creation, produced in part by
Israeli producer Simcha Jacobovici.
According to Jacobovici, “it is
generally acknowledged that the Biblical Tarshish is what the historians call
Tartessos, which was in southern Spain. In the Tanach, Tarshish is a great city
with a huge navy, with silver and gold. Jonah sails towards Tarshish. Solomon
has naval expeditions with Tarshish. Tarshish disappears from the
Biblical record. Tartessos disappears from the historical record.”
Says
Jacobovici, “Tarshish is Atlantis itself.”
Freund’s film shows how a
US-led team used satellite photos of an area in southern Spain, near the coastal
city of Cadiz, that showed three concentric circles of land and sea and a single
entrance to what the film claims is an island, or port to the
ocean.
According to the film, the find is in keeping with Plato’s mention
that Atlantis was located just beyond the “Pillars of Hercules,” in what is
today called the Strait of Gibraltar, right near the excavation
site.
Freund said this week that the team’s evidence was based “upon a
cumulative series of data. Scientific work done by the groups included
archeological surveys, test excavations, ground-penetrating radar studies,
geological coring and drilling, sediment, pollen, and micro-faunal analysis, the
use of side-scan underwater sonar, aerial photography from differing altitudes,
multiple radiocarbon dating, magnetometry, electrical resistivity tomography and
digital and GPS mapping. Pottery shards from the surface archeological survey
and test excavations which yielded Neolithic and Bronze Age ware.”
Some
of the principal evidence found in the film is, according to Freund, “a series
of mysterious ancient ‘memorial’ cities located north of the coast which closely
resemble ‘miniature- Atlantis-es’ (that make them look like artificial islands)
with steles (standing stones in front of the cities) that have the same image
etched into them that also resembles the description of Plato. Together it
presents a very compelling image of a group of refugees who left the south and
set up their cities just out of reach of the coast. Just as the Jews had their
synagogues as a
mikdash-me’at – a miniature version of the Temple of Jerusalem –
so, too, the Atlantis refugees created these memorial cities to remember who
they were and where they came from.”
Atlantis is a legendary island
civilization that was first mentioned in Plato’s dialogues
Timaeus and Critias.
According to Plato, Atlantis was located in the Pillars of Hercules and was a
naval power that conquered a number of areas of Western Europe and Africa before
sinking into the sea following an earthquake or tsunami one night around 400 or
500 BCE.
When asked if people were skeptical of his find, Freund said, “I
find that people are both fascinated and skeptical. It is perhaps because of the
fact that up until quite recently we did not have the technology to see the
earth in the way that we can see it today.”
Freund said he feels the find
has a greater relevance in the world as Japan deals with the aftermath of last
week’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
“I found that my students did
not understand the power of earthquakes and tsunamis from lectures that I have
given about the past,” he said. “Throughout history, tsunamis have changed the course of
world history in ways we are just beginning to understand. At the same time as
this week’s tsunami has had catastrophic effects in Japan, we are discovering
that a similar event may well have buried Atlantis.”
He continued: “If we
can learn anything from all of this, it is that we need to pay close attention
to geology and historical accounts, and when we create buildings that are
architecturally sound and aesthetically pleasing, they may yet have to contend
with forces beyond human control.”
No stranger to controversy, Freund
also doesn’t seem to shy away from headline-grabbing promotions for his finds
and fundraising endeavors. In his film appearances, he comes across as an
Indiana Jones-like figure, with an academic’s jacket and bow tie thrown in for
good measure.
Jacobovici, known for hosting the show
The Naked
Archaeologist, is also something of a lightning rod in the archeology community.
He has been the subject of widespread controversy among archeologists for his
films, which include
The Lost Tomb of Jesus and
The Exodus
Decoded.According to Jacobovici, other evidence found by Freund includes
the unearthed emblem of Atlantis, and the biblical angle that has been largely
overlooked.
“Atlantis was hiding in the Tanach,” said
Jacobovici.
The Atlantis endeavor is not without its detractors, however,
including Aren Maeir, a professor of archeology at Bar-Ilan University and
director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archeological Project.
An expert on
Bronze and Iron Age archeology, Maeir said Thursday that “a lot of people have
made many crazy claims about Atlantis – it’s one of those classic places where
you have a lunatic fringe looking for all types of things. And Richard Freund is
known as someone who makes ‘sensational’ finds. I would say that I am
exceptionally skeptical about the thing, but I wouldn’t discount it 100% until I
see the details, which haven’t been published as far as I know.”
Maeir
added that the likelihood of a historical basis for Atlantis depended on the
scope of the legend.
“In other words, if it was supposedly a small
seaside village that was buried by a tsunami, there is some possibility that it
may have happened.
On the other hand, if it was supposedly a major
civilization, then the lack of archeological evidence is very telling,” he
said.
“Almost all written sources that relate to stories from way back,
when they weren’t written as history as we know it, were embellished over the
ages, so you get a different picture when you look and trace the historical link
behind biblical stories,” he went on.
Maeir said that for Freund, “it’s
all part of the same thing. He’s been involved in various projects where
he made very big PR declarations in the press that were somewhat skeptically
received by professionals. Also, he’s not really an archeologist, more a
historian who has been involved in many archeological projects. But he is great
at raising funds, largely because he makes these great
pronouncements.”
According to Maeir, “every few years we hear something
like this from him... And the fact that it’s on
National Geographic doesn’t mean
much. Unfortunately, over the past years they’ve had many questionable
programs. That the film appears there does not still mean it’s scientifically
based. They do support some extraordinary research, but some of their
recent films dealing with early biblical archaeology haven’t been so rigorously
done.”
Still, he said, “You know what? They should prove me wrong.”