Update: In a 2004 book, I predicted that if there ever was a real place upon which Plato modelled his concentric lakes of Atlantis, it would be a meteorite impact crater in unconsolidated sediments on the bottom of the North Sea. I further refined the prediction to say that it should be on the plain south of Dogger Bank, north of Silver Pit. At the Atlantis 2005 conference, other conference participants reported that according to theoretical modelling such a crater was possible, although very unlikely to form since the requirements were very precise. However, it was also reported that just such a meteorite impact crater had been found buried under the North Sea. When I later got hold of the original reference it turned out that the crater was at the location that I had predicted, it had the correct features, and the dimensions matched. Two questions remain, however: (1) Was the morphology manifest on the ground surface during the late ice age?, and (2) Is there a straight channel connecting a circular palaeolake to the palaeocoastline? The answer to both these questions lies buried in the geological archive.

Atlantis is a place Plato described in Timaios and Kritias as an example in a discourse on how society could be organized. This website accompanies the book on the right, but also contains much other material especially in Swedish (book-length treatises on European DNA and paleogeography).

This site deals with two issues relating to Plato's Atlantis:
1. The topos of Atlantis: what, if anything, did he base it on?
2. The lesson of Atlantis: what, if anything, can we learn from this?

While the second issue is surely the more interesting one, one can not approach it without first dealing with the first. The approach used by self-proclaimed "sceptics" is to instead pose the question if Atlantis is fact or fiction, and reply that it is fiction. However, that is a false dilemma: the reply is given beforehand by the nature of the question (their question is actually, "is everything true, or is there any detail that is false?," so it follows by necessity what the answer will be; scepticism is necessary, but so is fantasy in the thought process).

Others argue that Plato used Atlantis as an example to make a point, and therefore it must be fiction. Another case of in-your-face flawed logic, brazenly presented as if to say "I know my claim is logically outrageous, but I speak from an elevated academic position." Do not believe an educated person could be so ignorant as to actually believe that argument. Feigning stupidity seems to be the defense of our days.

So what is Plato's Atlantis topos?

In the dialogues Plato makes a point of explaining how a myth such as Phaëthon's ride can have a background in reality, reflecting meteorite impact events. He also gives an account of the paleogeography of Attika, and its geomorphologic evolution. The context of the tale of Atlantis is thus in talking about prehistory, and how memories are lost with time. A number of details in the tale regarding geography and prehistory have turned out to be true, although they were unknown at Plato's time. The probability is not high that Plato invented these by pure chance, why it is far fetched to suggest that it is pure fiction.

In the last century we have learned very much about the events of the past, thanks to the developments of geology. Plato gave a date of 9600 BC for Atlantis. At that time the last ice age ended, the global sea level rose in the order of 125 m altogether, and the temperature rose in the order of 10ºC. The details of this development are still being investigated by earth scientists, and some very sudden events may still not have been identified. It would thus reveal ignorance to state that the tale can not have a background in reality. Check the 3D rendition to the right for instance; it shows a recently discovered geologic formation that fits nicely into Plato's description of the city. Note, though, that most people have an erroneous image of what Atlantis was (or wasn't, as the case may be). You can study up under the heading Tradition.

Under the heading Paleogeography you will find information about the past development of our planet, in the time span of interest (from the last ice age to present). Under Tradition you will find information about the tale, written sources, and myth. Under På svenska there are links to two book-sized pages about European DNA and paleogeography, respectively, although in Swedish (well, the DNA book is partly translated to English in "Ditto in transl."). Finally, under Multimedia you can see a 14 min video which gives a good introduction to the hypothesis as it now stands. There are also virtual reality scenes from some megalithic monuments. Oh, don't forget to visit the forum (under Website) for commenting and discussing!

Short summary

The information in the book is not duplicated at this website, but briefly, the development of the argument starts from the observation that the distribution of megalithic tombs matches the distribution of the Atlantean Empire according to Plato. The conclusion is then drawn that Ireland should be the island Atlantis if the hypothesis is correct, and that is what is tested. Finally a discussion is carried out about the megalithic monuments. In that connection a strong connection to reproduction, or sex symbolism if you prefer, is noted in those monuments. After the book was published a translator of Plato, Joseph Wells, shared his interpretation that Kleito is a diminuitive of clitoris, and that Poseidon means phallic idol. It happens to coincide exactly with the symbolism interpreted in the Irish monuments: A standing stone (phallic symbol) outside a mound with a passage (apparently representing a belly, see photo above, and the female reproductive organs).

Was Ireland Atlantis?
The book argues that Plato based the geographic description of Atlantis on Ireland, but also that Ireland was not Atlantis sensu Plato. Perhaps Ireland was as much or as little Atlantis, as the so-called "Third Rome" (i.e., in Moscow) is the Roman Empire. That is, they both inherit culture and mythology from their namesakes, but they have nothing in common geographically, and they exist at different periods of time. This is not to say that the name Atlantis ever existed before Plato. What the data suggests is simply that the memory of the sunken areas in the North Sea reached Egypt via Ireland, and that some descriptions of Plato's match Ireland rather than the North Sea.