Tonight sees the release by the BBC of a new documentary entitled 'Atlantis - The Evidence'. In it historian Bettany Hughes traces the origins of the Atlantis myth and presents evidence that the Thera eruption inspired Plato's account of Atlantis.
Around 1620BC, a gigantic volcano in the Aegean Sea stirred from its 19,000-year slumber. The eruption tore the island of Thera apart and produced massive tsunamis that flooded the nearby island of Crete, at that time the centre of the Minoan civilisation. Many scholars and historians now believe this apocalyptic event provided the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis.
Now my first reaction has to be oh no here we go again. Atlantis and the eruption of Thera being linked. It is not a new idea but I am sure the BBC will present it as if this is ground breaking research. I have great respect for Bettany Hughes and regard her as one of the better presenters of historical programmes on TV. She comes across as informative, interesting and knowledgeable but also enthusiastic. Her background appears to be in History rather than archaeology and I would suspect her to be stronger on the Plato element and his Timaeus and Critias rather than on the Minoan archaeological data. I was pleasantly surprised to find out her brother is Simon Hughes the cricketer, who happens to be one of my favourite cricket commentators.
In chapter 2 of my thesis I summed up my opinion of the relevance of Plato and other Classical authors with regard to an in-depth study of the Thera eruption.
"The work of the Classical authors is in my opinion largely irrelevant to this discussion. Whilst some elements, such as technological details, may be of worth, to use the stories as the basis for recorded history is taking them too far. Many Classical authors were working over a thousand years after the event and it would be similar to a writer now giving an opinion on Anglo Saxon Britain largely based upon the works of wandering Medieval jongleurs."
This problem is becoming more and more exaggerated over time as the word "Atlantis" becomes more and more charged with modern preconceptions and preoccupations totally lacking in the initial works by Plato. These largely evolve around the Stargate Atlantis, Erich von Däniken side of popular culture. What I have always tried to emphasise is the archaeological data itself. We do not need Hollywood type hokum to enjoy and be fascinated by the Thera eruption it already exists. The material culture of the Minoan and Cycladic cultures is breathtaking in their beauty and sophistication. Enjoy them for what they are, one of the highlights of man's existence on this planet. There is no mystery in them except the mystery of the human mind and heart.
The great thing about the Thera eruption is that these cultures are then linked to one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring feats of our planet - a volcanic eruption. In the last few years this event has achieved a greater relevance with the impact of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 and now the recent eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull volcano on Iceland and the clouds of volcanic ash which halted modern Europe for a number of days.
I saw Sandy MacGillivray giving a lecture recently at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and he made a comment about a recent TV programme that he had assisted on. You submit the work, there is no mention of Atlantis and then the publicity department get hold of it and suddenly you are claiming to have solved the "Mystery of Atlantis".
Earthquake, Volcano and, Tsunami: Natural Disasters and Political Change. J Alexander MacGillivray. Feb 11 2010. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New scientific and archaeological evidence suggests that the eastern Mediterranean world was rocked by a series of natural disasters. Archaeologist Alexander Macgillivray links the eruption of Thera (Santorini) to the destruction of Minoan Crete, the rise of Mycenae, and Hatshepsut's bold ascension to the throne of Egypt.
'Atlantis - The Evidence' does not seem be following that post-production view it is instead treading the familiar and well worn path of previous programmes and making their same basic error. Atlantis is an allegory for a lost world, a Utopia, it is a philosophical treatise by one of the great philosophers but little more than that.
The Thera eruption is fact and a big, complicated and fascinating one at that. Multi-faceted it is taking all the expertise of modern archaeological scientific research to tease out its story.
Give me a film crew and these resources and I can give you "Thera - Destruction in the Aegean" and an enthralling and exciting story it would make.
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The problem with Bettany Hughes' programme is that her approach is unscientific. She begins with a theory that she wants to prove, and then looks for evidence to back it up, rather than starting with the evidence and trying to deduce a theory. At one point she even says the words "what we want to prove" or something like that. True science should never work like that!
ReplyDeleteDear egarobar,
ReplyDeleteThis is the fundamental problem with all of the attempts to link the Thera eruption to records/history. The Plato/Atlantis example is one of the worst since it is written down so long after the event. As I have tried to show the important thing is the eruption itself and the damage that it caused, and the longer term impacts. The same goes for trying to use a possible tsunami as evidence for the flight of the Israelites from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
Of more use is Sandy Macgillivray's work which tries to link Thera to the rise of Hatshepsut in Egypt, in that is uses documentary evidence from the time. The exact chronological link between Egypt and Thera is of course a huge can of worms involving high and low chronology debates.
I have the programme on I-player and will give a more detailed critique shortly.
David