Customer Reviews

Atlantis in America: Navigators of the Ancient World

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

- "Antiquity is full of the praises of another Antiquity still more remote", says Voltaire (quote on p.7). Authors Zapp and Erikson go to great lengths in order to show us that the Antiquity of the Golden Age, as extolled by magniloquent poets and ancient philosophers and as described in our global treasury of myths, was not the mere fruit of the imagination of "pre-scientific humans" or even the outpourings of some hypothetical "collective unconscious", but existed de facto. On little under 400 pages readers are presented with a most impressive array of cultural and archaeological evidence for the existence of prehistoric seafaring civilizations spanning the entire earth - though each would have had its own center - and living in relative harmony for millennia on end.

However, since the evidence presented falls within a range of quite ambitious proportions and the material is very heterogeneous, Zapp and Erikson have not been able to analyze and discuss it thoroughly; references are few for the breathtaking number of claims the authors make, and one misses a more consistently concomitant exposition of the old-paradigmatic views and interpretations of mainstream archaeologists, though this would of course bore some readers terribly and also have doubled or tripled the size and price of the book. The way it is, readers will have to take the evidence at face value and suspend a definitive judgment until after the authors' suggestions - exceedingly fertile - have been meditated on and possibly backed up by independent research/reading.

Archaeology is in itself not enough to make prehistory come alive before our eyes. Though considered irrelevant by those educated in a strictly materialistic and rationalistic worldview, tools such as spiritual insight or religious experience, intuition, synderesis, Platonic anamnesis and a solid cultural background are indispensable for correctly appreciating who our ancestors were and what they were capable of. This has nothing to do whatsoever with romanticizing the past or with imposing extravagant and feeble-minded vagaries upon the unknown. Our ancestors were fully human (in fact, we don't seem to compare favorably to them ourselves) and therefore possessed the characteristics by which the human being is safely distinguished from all other creatures, namely transcendental intellect, free will and theomorphic constitution. It is time we give up the childish, chronocentric outlook by which we keep judging older periods as inferior to our own, and rid our minds of the silly association of technology with human excellence, as if even the lowliest elements of true culture stood a chance of surviving under the oafish influence of an all-encompassing, technology-obsessed society (see comments on p.181).

Though Zapp and Erikson warn us not to fall into the traps of evolutionary-inspired preconceptions about the primitiveness of prehistoric people and remind us of the mechanisms by which weak or even opportunistic theories are formulated and then kept intact by political, academic and religious forces (e.g. see p.56 about how Beringia came into being in 1590), they cannot avoid contamination entirely themselves and seem to go on placing Java Man and the australopithecines somewhere in our family album and thinking the Middle Ages (800-1300 A.D) a time of darkness and savagery. Their caustic criticism of the Catholic Church (e.g. p.284) may at first seem justified, but is actually very simplistic and completely ignores the many centuries of sanctity and intellectual achievements evidenced within the spiritual framework of Christian Europe (both Orthodox and Catholic). The authors seem to have missed a great deal of the complexity of a culture that was capable of accomodating such disparate characters as Cortez and Saint Catherine of Siena.

However, in view of the central theme of the book, certain heedless statements (and some cases of rash compromise with modern and highly unstable scientific theories and claims - Chaos science, unreliable dating techniques, etc) are made up for by a multitude of excellent notes on knotted chords (p.25-7), astronomical observatories vs. agricultural clocks (p.53), scientific claims inherited from theology (p.57), the eminence-of-initial-excavation principle (p.61), Clovis man vs. Pleistocene fauna extinction (p.81), NDT-based preconceptions (p.98), mythmaking and precision measurement (p.183), cyclical time and qualitative numbers (p.225-6), astrology vs. astronomy (p.233), erosion of the sphinx (p.266), ocean travel experiments (p.295-8), resistance to imported concepts (p.336), apart from a vast amount of general archaeological data.

But why exactly did I say this otherwise poorly organized book was "one in a precious few"? Because it approaches the issue of prehistoric Atlantis without attributing ancient achievements everywhere to extraterrestrial interventions, without trying to portray the Atlanteans as lovers of a technology which has left no trace, without trying to squeeze every sign of civilization in the Americas into a post-Sumerian-pre-Columbian time gap, and without supposing peoples of the past would have accepted every glass bead they were shown as a blessing. Cultures are shown to tend to start out not "jumbo-sized" but intellectually full-fledged and then, as they grow older, decline; myth is shown to be an adequate way of expressing and preserving cosmology and other sciences, the Atlantean life style is shown to be highly recommendable even for the humans of today, and people everywhere and everywhen (again modern man may be an exception) are shown to be brave, inventive and for the most part perfectly aware of what is good for them and what is not. And, whatever the book's minor flaws, that's good enough for five stars and a great read!

ATLANTIS IN AMERICA is a must read for anyone wanting to understand more about the significance of the "Prehistoric Spheres" of Costa Rica and other authentic anomalies indicating the presence of ancient maritime navigators who evidently used tools that in some ways exceed present-day knowledge. The book also touches on chaos and catastrophe theory, and considers what the ending of the ancient Mayan calendar in December 23, 2012 may mean. If this sort of revisionist history is your cup of tea, you might also want to consider reading THE ALPHABET VERSUS THE GODDESS, by Leonard Shlain, which is equally provocative. Both books are highly recommended as ways to greatly illumine your vision of both past and future.

Of all the books on Atlantis to appear in recent years, I value Erikson and Zapp's book as one of the best. It is a cornucopia of new ideas regarding the origins of Mesoamerican civilisation and the Atlantean tradition. Its clues on ancient navigation could provide vital keys in understanding trans-oceanic contact prior to the age of Columbus. Well worth the read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have had others read it and solicited them for reviews and all are positive. All have enjoyed it. It is an eye-opener to many of the things we already know but have not heard from authorities, such as "If your theory or evidence conflicts with mainstream acceptance, you will be summarily dismissed from discussions and even muzzled if you are being successfully heard." and "There are references and evidence all over the place alluding to sophisticated civilizations in our distant past that have more than once been decimated and forgotten, even though descendants survive and repopulate the world." The opinions of the authors is always backed up with detailed research, and if the reader chooses to skip some of the more intensive scientific arguments, even the basic layman's arguments make for a very successful presentation. I have had high school drop outs who've read it debating with college grads who've read and it has livened our local discussions on many varied subjects. It has much more than Atlantis within it.

ATLANTIS IN AMERICA was the first book to state that the nearly-perfect spheres of Costa Rica and the great astronomical structures at Tikahuanaco (Alto Peru), Teotihuacan (Pyramids of the Sun and Moon in the Valley of Mexico), and Chichen Itza ( Kukulcan Temple, Observatory in the Yucatan), were all just pieces of a puzzle that ran through all of the tropical and sub-tropical Americas. Since these sites (and many more) shared many similarities, and since they all left navigational clues, Erikson and Zapp predicted that the Americas would one day be known as Atlantis and that the heart of this ancient navigational culture would be found by underwater archaeology at depths of several hundred feet in the waters off tropical America. In a subsequent book, GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS, Andrew Collins predicted that the capital of Atlantis would be found on a plain in southwest Cuba.

Both of these insightful books may very soon rise above controversy. In the past several months The Associated Press, Reuters, Discovery News and a host of other "hard news" publications have reported that Paulina Zelitsky and Paul Weinzweig have found definitive evidence of megalithic ruins in the waters off Cuba's western tip. These two geologists used high resolution sonar images to reveal "a huge land plateau with clear images of what appears to be manmade large-size architectural designs... From above the shapes resemble pyramids, roads and buildings." In December of 2001 Zelitsky and Weinzweig sent a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to a depth of over 2,200 feet where it photographed precisely carved large blocks of what appears to be granite. The blocks were arranged in a manner that could only be explained by articificial construction, not natural phenomena. In fact, many of the blocks appeared to be decorated with intersecting ovals -- a design found in underwater caves on Cuba.

Work continues off western Cuba aboard a 360 foot trawler laden with scientific intruments. But enough is already known to warrant a "hats off" to Zapp, Erikson and Collins for their use of science to predict and to Velitsky and Weinzweig to implement the discovery of what many feel will prove to be a momentous find.

This is wonderful material on the mysterious spheres of Costa Rica. Atlantis in America presents a wealth of information on navigators and civilizations, thousands of years ago. Highly recommended!

I'm a sucker for "Pre-Ice Age Civilizations" books, and have been ever since discovering Graham Hancock. I think the idea is just incredibly cool, especially since there's more and more evidence surfacing that the idea isn't just a glean in a madman's eye. And, so, when I found this book in a used bookstore, I figured I'd make up the difference in my trade-ins with it.

Well, this is okay. Not great (like, say, Graham Hancock's Underworld), but okay. Why?

The authors kind of turned me off with their railing at the Inquisition and how the Roman Catholic Church purposefully molded the views of Western Civilization. They write in such a way that I continually expect the next sentence to say "...and I believe the Church knew and surpressed this information!", but they don't, possibly because they'd have no way of proving that.

Also, the authors are guilty of a crime of which they accuse mainstream archaeologists: Drawing conclusions on too little evidence. They state that the pre-Deluge Atlantis was a place of peace and contentment, and that the fact that the Mayan and Aztec cities weren't walled proved this. Actually, that just proves they didn't have walls; the Maya and (especially) the Aztec are known to have practiced limited and ritualistic warfare, and it'd be folly to assume that was just an invention of the Aztec. However, the authors state as much. Also, we know that violence is intrinsic to human nature, so unless Atlantis and its colonies *and* those cultures it came in contact with were all fabulously wealthy, someone would've been fighting someone.

Finally, they get entirely too worked up about the supposed ancient Bronze Age trade routes across the Atlantic, and shipping tin and copper to the Mediterranean. Contrary to what they say, copper and tin are not THAT rare in the Mediterranean hinterlands. Were the Native Americans exporting copper and tin to the Phoenicians, SURELY they would have made tools out of it, as it's demonstrably superior to using stone tools in most cases. That they didn't suggests their trade theory is a bit overblown. Even if the Phoenicians were only trading for the raw materials, surely the Natives would've been suspicious of what these could be used for!

Don't get me wrong; it's a nice fun book, and they do bring a lot of reasonably hard data (mostly in the form of stone navigational aids and archaeological dating), but they rely entirely too much on supposition to get more than 3 stars.

I picked this book up not expecting much. I have been reading all kinds of books on the subject of ancient civilizations. While I tend to agree that the authors tend to stick it to the establishment it bit too much, they fact is they probably deserve it and then some. After reading this book I'm convinced and I now almost find it hard to believe people consider any other location for the "mythical" Atlantis other than Central America. Of course, the authors explain why the other proposed locations of Atlantis are more popular. I, for one, thing that people don't want to find Atlantis. If you look in the wrong places, you won't find it and you can keep having fun looking for it. In any case, this book was uncommonly reasonable and well thought out. Forget the spelling errors and repeated stabs at that status quo--this book is an important read.

Zapp and Erikson have done a fine job of putting together a convincing argument that our understanding of ancient civilizations is going to have to be completely revised. Although orthodox resistance to the theory put forward in this book and others by Hancock, Bauval, etc. looks formidable, history shows that certain dogmatic "truths" of one age will eventually be questioned, debated, and revised over time. I think we're getting to that point now regarding catastrophism and the existance of advanced, Pre-Diluvian civilizations, and this book is an important addition to the ever-widening body of knowledge that is ruffling a lot of feathers in academia. One complaint though; I really wish the publisher (Adventures Unlimited Press) would do a better job editing and proof-reading; this book, like others in their series, is riddled with spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes that really detract from the credibility of the authors' work. Clean up your act, David Hatcher Childress! Other than this, the book is a great read.

This book was great. The cover was interesting but it was the author's personal experience that talked me into reading it. The author appears very credible and knowledgeable about ancient cultures. He doesn't hesitate to download to you, his theories and philosophies, which I thought were very good and worth reading. The author covers many controversial areas explaining star alignments and supports the theory that many of the ancient structures were navigational training tools for ancient mariners. (A theory that many archeologists are not particularly fond of.)

Why have the spheres been ignored? Why are some of them sitting in the yards of personal collectors? The author says that these are deliberately ignored artifacts because they do not support either the Creationists or Evolutionary theories. While people were supposedly hunting and gathering, someone was cutting nearly perfect spheres out of solid rock and aligning them to the various islands deep in the Atlantic and Pacific. Is it possible that these alignments could have been coincidental? You be the judge.