in the following way. The L3 people come "out of Africa" 130,000 years ago. They fork into two limbs, named M and N.

The M people are shoreline people who prefer hot climates, and migrate east to Australia by 70,000 BC.

Within the N people:
The I, J, K people are also shoreline people, but they migrate west around the Mediterranean by 40,000 BC.

The remainder of the N people begin traveling "inland", and toward colder climates. Northern Europeans fall into the gene pools labeled H,T,U,V,W,X by roughly 25,000 BC.

The X gene pool can be compared to "proto-Vikings", or hyperboreans. This X gene pool migrates from northern Europe to Ontario Canada (i.e. in the new world) at a labeled date 15,000 years ago, although its pathway is nebulous enough to be drawn as a dashed line on the mitomap. Obviously, the most direct route from northern Europe to northern Canada would be across the Atlantic Ocean, then proceeding through Hudson Bay to reach the region currently known as Ontario. (But the mitomap also offers an alternate dashed route which might have led "the long way" across the Arctic coast of Russia, then along the arctic Coast of Alaska, followed by an inland trek to Ontario.)

The ideal place of the Hesperides or Gorgones is the island of Atlantis at the Equator. In my opinion Athena is the goddess of the Ecliptic and hence her birthplace is properly placed at the Tropic, where Apollonios places it
http://www.metrum.org/mapping/voyage.htm

As per the author of the website.

I think anyone studying Atlantis should read this website I stumbled on; http://www.metrum.org/mapping/index.htm

Another important route was the Salt route which came from the Salt mines of Terhazza!!

For example, the text of Hanno's report has only survived via a Greek translation (i.e. not in its original language). And that Greek manuscript does not seem to use the word Atlantis. Obviously, the metrum.org website wants us to believe that Hanno found Atlantis at Equatorial Africa. But use caution.

Modern historians and archeologists use the phrase "500 BC iron age Nok culture" to describe the most advanced ancient people which existed near Nigeria/Cameroon (i.e. the end of Hanno's 480 BC voyage).

My research shows that Hanno was on a mission to find the iron-age Nok culture. Presumably Carthage wanted to begin trading with the Nok people, who lived about 1500 to 2000 miles south of Carthage. But the Nok people lived near Iron deposits, not at the Ocean shoreline. So Hanno found gorillas, rather than iron-age factories.

Archaeologists and historians do not discuss the background of these Nok people before 500 BC. (i.e. The Nok probably did not evolve out of a local bronze age, because no one has found evidence of it.)

Can you be happy with an Atlantis that did not exist before 500 BC?

Nearby is the region called Tassili N'Ajjer where hundreds of thousands of petroglyphs and rock art exist: depicting hunting, farming, making war, etc. Berbers live there today, and presumably also lived there before 4500 BC when the early rock art was drawn.

This link gives a history of the Tassili N'Ajjer region: www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tass/hd_tass.htm

But it is important to remember that the Atlas mountain range is not the same as the Ahaggar mountain range. The two mountain ranges are about 500 miles apart.

That is ALMOST EXACTLY the location of Mount Tahat.

So you have tied Athena to the people who left 100,000 rock paintings at Tassili N'Ajjer.

And some of those rock paintings at Tassili N'Ajjer are depicting chariot warfare.

By an interesting coincidence, Herodotus reported that the local natives had an army composed of women chariot-drivers.

The Atlantis story fits best into Egyptian proto-history (rather than European proto-history).

When I compress the data Solon heard from the Egyptian priest, here is the result:

"At an early date, Egypt was being invaded from the west. At that time, the Egyptian Goddess Neith (equivalent internationally to Greek Athena) saved the day by defeating the barbarians. "

The people who told this story to Solon were living in the home city of the Egyptian Goddess Neith (i.e. the city Sais). So logically, they were mostly interested in Neith.

Furthermore, Plato mentions that the Atlanteans "controlled" northern Africa up to the border of Egypt, but merely "invaded" the southwest corner of Europe (including Iberia, France, and northwest Italy).

Thus the geography of that Atlantean invasion is intentionally saying that the invasion NEVER REACHED the homeland of Greece, or the land which would later be called Athens.

So in conclusion, it seems that Neith was the principal player in the story which Solon heard. And the Atlaneans were originally in Africa, rather than in Iberia.

If you look at the history of Egypt, Neith was important at the time when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified (i.e. around 3000 BC). The queens of the 1st dynasty in Egypt were priestesses of Neith. The Red Crown of lower Egypt was the symbol of Neith. All later kings of United Egypt (i.e. after 3000 BC) wore the "double crown", which usurped Neith's Red Crown.

The connections between Neith, Egypt, and Atlantis seem to be pointing toward a date of roughly 6000 BC to 3000 BC for the early phase of Atlantis.

Then a latter phase of the Atlantis story seems to involve chariots and bronze age Sea Peoples. Eric says the name Atlas means "he who endures". Presumably the Egyptians treated the Sea Peoples as remnants the people Neith had subdued in proto-history.

I think a good theory would be that the Canary Islands form the bottom circle of Atlantis.

This was later changed to be Cape Verde as the bottom of Atlantis.

[This message has been edited by Riven (edited 07-09-2003).]

Some language-scholars claim that Berber language is the oldest member of the Afro-Asiatic language family. And that berber descends from a Nostratic superfamily (i.e. a language supergroup; and that Nostratic was used about 12,000 years ago.

There is disagreement about where Nostratic would have originated. Some say it began in East Africa. Others say that Nostratic began near Armenia.

As the Afro-Asiatic people migrated, they left behind a Neolithic culture which is called "Capsian".

The Fayum region of middle Egypt has yielded some Capsian items. An eastern branch of Capsian has been found, and is called "Kenya Capsian". But it is the western Capsian people who are most relevant to a discussion of Atlantis.

Here is a link to a map of the west Capsian culture. The map demonstrates that western Capsian culture is the material reality which stands behind the "Lake Tritonis" legends in Greek Mythology. www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/fayum/neolitafric.html

Note that Capsian culture was mapped in Brown, and happens to match the location of mythical Lake Tritonis and River Tritoness.

In regard to the Canary Islands, here is a link about obsidian, which demonstrates that the first human occupation of the Canary Islands was around 500 BC. The first settlers of the Canaries were "paleo-Berbers" from North Africa. And they exploited one particular body of obsidian on Grand Canary Island. There are several research papers on this link; but the only relevant paper is #028 "Canarian Obsidians from Gran Canary Island". www.geo.vu.nl/archaeometry/abstracts/stonegeneral.pdf

It seems clear to me that the Phoenicians (or Carthagenians) did the sailing to that Canary obsidian outpost, and eventually stranded the (boatless) residents on the island, when the Phoenicians quit sailing in to do some trading.

MAGHRIB -
...Northwest Africa...Traditionally includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripolitania. Literally, "the time or place of sunset -- the west". For its Arab conquorers, the region was the "island of the west" (jazirat al maghrib), the land between the "sea of sand" (Sahara) and the Mediterranean Sea.

Here is a link to that handbook. You can can scroll down alphabetically to reach the entry for MAGHRIB: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/libya/ly_glos.html

This tends to explain why Plato said that Atlantis was BOTH an island and a continent.

There is also the fact that the entire thing is mostlly speculation, with some evidence looked at from such an obscure angle as to make everything fit into a newe age mythology which has no historicle basis in fact

You seem to be saying that NOTHING at all happened during 10,000- 5500 BC. And then from 5500 BC to 3000 BC, the only activity was a nebulous "pre-dynastic" Egypt.

Here is a much more informative viewpoint of this era:

Southern Egypt can be discussed by archaeologists from 100,000 BC to 7000 BC. www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/paleo/mappal1.html

The western Capsian people are known to have arrived in greater Tunisia by 6500 BC. www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/02/afw/ht02afw.htm

And the Qarunian-Fayum B culture (a Capsian culture) was active in the Fayum region of Egypt during 6000-5000 BC. www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/chronology/index.html

Obsidian was discovered (between Tunisia and Sicily) on the island of Pantelleria around 5700 BC. Subsequently, Obsidian was discovered on the island of Sardinia around 5400 BC. And shortly after that, obsidian was discovered on the Italian islands of Lipari and Palmarola.

These four Italian islands were the only sources of obsidian in the western Mediterranean.

Obsidian was used to create tools. And a "neolithic" revolution spread all around the western Mediterranean Sea during 5700-5300 BC: http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~rtykot/PR30%20-%20ACS%202002%20obsidian.pdf

AFTER the "neolithic package" had been spread throughout the Western Mediterranean region, Lower Egypt entered the "neolithic" era during 5200-4000 BC, when this technology was adopted in the Fayum region: www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/fayum/neolithic.html

• ca. 6500 B.C. The peoples of the Capsian culture live in caves or rock shelters, moving from place to place in search of food. They make stone tools to aid them in the work of hunting animals and gathering plants for subsistence. They also make bone tools and engrave the shells of ostrich eggs to serve as decorated water containers.

• ca. 5500 B.C. Impressive images of animals and human hunters are engraved and later painted on rock surfaces. Scholars have not developed a method for determining when this rock art was made, but they have outlined categories for classifying it. The Large Wild Fauna style features hunting scenes with big game, including the giant buffalo. The Bovidian Pastoral style refers to images of domestic herds thought to have been drawn by early farmers.

• ca. 5000 B.C. The people of western North Africa are part of trade networks and the cultural community of the western Mediterranean. Locally made pottery displays the same type of ornamentation found in the regions of modern-day Spain and southern France. Examples are cardial ware, a ceramic decorated with impressed seashells, and impressed ware, decorated with designs made by pressing string into the wet clay. Among the materials that come to western North Africa from abroad are obsidian blades from the Lipari Islands near Sicily.

• ca. 8000 B.C. Cave art is particularly well represented in the southeast coastal region of Spain. These paintings give clear indications of dress and weapons, notably bows and arrows, and of dancing and hunting activities.

• ca. 7250–6000 B.C. Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, Greece, attests to the earliest deliberate burials in Greece.

• ca. 7000 B.C. Evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and pigs suggests that a food-producing economy is adopted in Greece and the Aegean. Pits, postholes, and foundations at Sesklo indicate simple huts. The presence of Melian obsidian implies seafaring.

• ca. 6000–4500 B.C. Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian Peninsula suggests the domestication of plants and animals. The extreme rarity of permanent settlements suggests a relatively mobile population.

• ca. 5700–5300 B.C. The first "Megaron house," a rectangular, freestanding structure with a central hearth, is built at Sesklo in central Greece. The lack of fortifications and the manufacture of elegant painted pottery during this period suggest a peaceful and flourishing agricultural society.

• ca. 5300–3200 B.C. Metallurgical remains from various sites on mainland Greece suggest some relationship between these communities and the rest of southeastern Europe.

• ca. 4500 B.C. The earliest farming takes place on the Iberian Peninsula as established by grains of cultivated barley found in a cave site near Alicante, Spain. Sedentary agriculture fosters cooperation among communities and the formation of villages consisting of animal pens and huts made from branches.

• ca. 4500–3700 B.C. Circular village compounds are built in the area of the Tavoliere plain in northern Apulia. The presence of obsidian from Lipari implies some trade and seafaring. There is a general diffusion of farming communities throughout the Italian peninsula.

• ca. 4500–3250 B.C. The rarity of open-air settlements suggests the continuation of a relatively mobile society. Collective burials in Iberia are found in natural caves (particularly in Catalonia) and in a variety of artificial chambers. In Portugal, the construction of megalithic tombs is well under way. The earliest known on the Iberian Peninsula are built at Poco de Gatiera and Gorgines, both in present-day Portugal, around 4200–4000 B.C.

• ca. 4100–3500 B.C. Single burials in open-air pits occur at Toll in Catalonia. Grave lots show affinities to the Chassey of southern France.

• ca. 3700–3000 B.C. Remains of settlements at Ripoli on the terrace of the Vibrata valley show foundations for substantial grain-storage silos, implying an abundance of food production.

• ca. 3400 B.C. The earliest evidence of fortifications in Greece occur at Dimini. Spacious buildings on the rocky summit suggest a rise of some sort of centralized authority at this time.

• ca. 3250–2250 B.C. The most characteristic physical features of the Chalcolithic period in Spain are megalithic stone burial mounds such as those at Antequera in the south.

• ca. 3250–2250 B.C. Central Portugal and southeast Spain have an abundance of deeply stratified, often fortified, settlements. The long-term occupation of these villages is based on intensive systems of agriculture. There is evidence for distinctions within and between communities in terms of social status and rank.

• ca. 3200–2000 B.C. The exploitation of the olive and the vine together with the traditional cereals, as well as the rapid expansion of metallurgy, play a major role in the earliest urbanization in the Aegean. The existence of many settlements and burial grounds on the Cycladic Islands and Crete suggest flourishing economies.

• ca. 3000–2000 B.C. A marble industry flourishes in the Cyclades, with notable quarries in Naxos and Paros. Cycladic sculptors produce uncompromisingly abstract sculptures that have been found mostly in burial contexts.

• ca. 3000–2000 B.C. Evidence for the so-called "Almerían culture" is found throughout the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The preference is for open-air villages and simple chambered tombs.

• ca. 3000–1100 B.C. Minoan civilization flourishes on Crete. It reaches its apogee between 1700 and 1100 B.C. with the establishment of centers, known as palaces, that concentrate political and economic power, as well as artistic activity, and may serve as centers for the redistribution of agricultural commodities. The Minoans employ two scripts: a hieroglyphic script whose source of inspiration is probably Egypt, and a linear script, Linear A, perhaps inspired by the cuneiform of the eastern Mediterranean.

• ca. 5500 B.C. Groups of farmers begin to settle in Europe. The cultivation of wheat and barley—crops from the Near East—becomes established in eastern Europe and moves gradually westward.

• ca. 5000–900 B.C. Rock faces in the Alps, such as Val Carmonica in northern Italy, Monte Bego in France, and Totes Gebirge in Austria, are carved with animals, buildings, and warriors, perhaps engaged in martial rituals.

• ca. 4500–3500 B.C. Early farmers make and use unpainted pottery incised with linear ornament. Early on, close similarities link pieces made at great distances from each other; later, there is more variation from region to region.

• ca. 4200–2000 B.C. Organized groups erect monumental stone burials in northwestern Europe, as in the Morbihan region in southern Brittany. The one at Île Longue, for example, built ca. 4100 B.C., incorporates a chamber with a corbeled dome and a passage faced with huge slabs.

• ca. 3000 B.C. The ox-drawn plow, made of wood and known some thousand years before, begins to change the face of agriculture in Europe. Farmers clear forests to make way for larger fields and honor cattle with ritual burial.

• ca. 3000–2500 B.C. The mound-topped graves of certain men contain stone axes and characteristic corded-ware "beakers." The burials seem to belong to an emerging elite characterized by drinking rituals and warrior values.

• ca. 2800–1800 B.C. Potters of Atlantic Europe and the British Isles make vessels of a distinctive shape, nicknamed "beakers" by early archaeologists. The beakers are buried in tombs that seem to belong to warriors with greater mobility and a stronger acquisitive impulse than their ancestors.

See also Anatolia and the Caucasus, Arabian Peninsula, Central and North Asia, Iran, and Mesopotamia.

After the end of the last Ice Age, people settle in areas where they can exploit the local species of wheat and barley, and animals such as gazelle. Most of these settlements occur in an arc, the so-called Fertile Crescent, stretching from the southern tip of the Dead Sea north toward the Anatolian plateau, moving east to the northern Mesopotamian plains, and ending in southwestern Iran. In the eastern Mediterranean, this culture is known as Natufian and lasts more than a thousand years, from around 11,000 B.C. to about 9300 B.C., when the sites appear to be abandoned. By 8500 B.C., permanent settlements appear in large numbers where an increasingly wider range of domesticated plants and animals offer an ever more reliable form of subsistence. As these new communities grow, more elaborate forms of architecture and artistic representation reflect an increasingly differentiated social hierarchy. In the third millennium B.C., during the Early Bronze Age, local city-states develop. These are variously linked by trade with Egypt, north Syria, and Anatolia.

Learn more about the geography of The Eastern Mediterranean.

• ca. 8000–7000 B.C. Situated in the Jordan Valley, Jericho has a large stone tower, preserved to a height of almost thirty feet. Its attached wall may have enclosed the entire site, which measures three to four hectares. Textiles (the oldest preserved) are produced at Nahal Hemar in the Judaean desert. Made mainly of linen, the material includes a blue-dyed fabric decorated with beads and shells.

• ca. 7000–6000 B.C. A thousand years before the use of pottery, clay and plaster are molded to form statues at Jericho and cAin Ghazal. Fashioned on reed frames, they portray men, women, and children. Plastered human skulls with cowrie shells set into the eye sockets are also a feature of this period.

• ca. 6000–4500 B.C. By the end of the seventh millennium B.C., pottery is widely used. Forms of pottery and its decoration become the basis by which archaeologists today define local cultures. The earliest pottery from the eastern Mediterranean is produced in the Yarmuk River valley of Israel at sites such as Sha'ar Hagolan. This is mainly decorated with incised geometric patterns. Clay figurines from this site include seated women with coffee bean–shaped eyes.

• ca. 4500–3500 B.C. Farmers in Israel and Jordan begin to cultivate olives and dates, and herders begin to use milk products from domesticated animals. Specialized artisans produce exquisite wall paintings, terracotta figurines and ossuaries, finely carved ivories, and basalt bowls and sculpture. At the site of Nahal Mishmar, a hoard of 442 copper objects, made by the lost-wax method, includes maceheads, crowns, and standards. At nearby En Gedi, an impressive temple with plastered and painted interior walls is built on a stone terrace.

• ca. 3500–2300 B.C. Large fortified cities emerge across the region and engage in a flourishing trade with the increasingly unified Egyptian kingdom. Timber from the mountains of Lebanon, as well as silver and aromatic oils from further north and east, are transported to Egypt by sea from Byblos. Throughout the period, the southern Levant maintains contact with Egypt, while the northern Levant has strong links with Mesopotamia. At the major city-state of Ebla in north Syria, a distinctive local style develops, especially in seal carving, whereas the use of inlays, sculptural forms, and cuneiform writing reflects strong Sumerian influences. Other evidence for international contacts at Ebla include more than forty pounds of raw lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and an equally impressive number of alabaster and diorite vessels from Egypt. Ebla is burned, perhaps during the military campaigns of the kings of the Akkadian empire from southern Mesopotamia.

22500 - 8500 B.C. Atlantean Civilization:
After the destruction of Lemuria, Atlantis grew to be a great nation, which subsequently proved to be the world's second-ranking civilization. It flourished for some 14,000 years until its submersion about 10,500 years ago. The name of this nation was Poseid, and it was the offspring of the colony which the Pfrees (overly practical) had originally established.
http://www.adelphi.com/past_and_future_history/ancient_empires.html

And the Ethiopians litterally had "black faces", so it seems strange for anyone to call the Ethiopians a white race.

Perhaps the Adelphi people are more interested in propaganda, rather than facts.

A beautiful collection of Art from the 1842 expedition of the ASTROLABE and ZELEE french ships.