Customer Reviews

Unearthing Atlantis:: An Archaeological Odyssey to the Fabled Lost Civilization

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Atlantis as both a concept and an historical reality appeal to the romantic and the practical in all of us.

Dr. Pellegrino's beautiful writing raises once again the idea that the volcano "Thera" on the island of Santorini wiped out the Minoan civilization and sent Minoans (our name - not theirs) as refugees to countries around the Mediterranean rim. Those who arrived in Caanan were called "Philistines" and may be ancestral to today's Palestinian people.

At the same time, according to this book, the Egyptian pharoah refused to release Moses (there's an Egyptian name, eg Tut-mose and so on) and his people from their "servitude" in Egypt. Darkness by day, rivers of blood and the famous escape scene (which may represent the Theran tsunami) result in a second group of fleeing refugees arriving in Caanan claiming they were promised or given the land.

Four thousand years later, whether one believes in Plato's Atlantis or not, the story of the Volcano of Thera is a fascinating one. Get yourself a copy of the King James' Bible as Dr. Pellegrino presents Biblical citations often in his work and it is very helpful to be able to read along and mark all the juicy bits for later.

Fire and brimstone, the voice of angels, the clap of the celestial trumpets, lighted pillars of flame, the gnashing of teeth and wailing of the wounded - all make sense when viewed through a volcanic perspective. Reading about Krakatoa, Vesuvius and Thera all in a group both in Dr. Pellegrino's work and that of Simon Winchester gives a very interesting view into the role of volcanos and other geological processes on human history.

Certainly in our own age, we have seen the awesome power of tsunami waves, as the December 26, 2004 wave took away a quarter of a million people. Waves produced by Thera were nearly 30 stories high and washed inland for miles and miles - producing a channeled scablands in Turkey almost as far as Mount Ararat.

Dr. Pellegrino never pointed this out, but if "Noah's flood" were a river flood - the ark would have been washed out to sea. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the ark ended up on a mountain, raising the interesting possiblity that this event, too is associated with volcanic darkness and accompanying tsunamis.

Get this book. Even if you believe Plato's Atlantis was anywhere or nowhere at all - you'll learn a lot and be dragged along by the beautiful and evocative writing every inch of the way. I'll never think of Vesuvius the same way again - and I'm a trained Geologist.

I only wish I'd read Dr. Pellegrino's books when I was teaching. I think my students would have been much more excited by volcanos - because I sure would have been!

First and foremost: Yes, it did exist.

The significance of an ancient Atlantis existing in our past and flourishing to a point that the Minoan civilization is a millennium ahead of it's time is unprecedented. With emphasis on the exaggerations and mythological components added to Plato's story, it becomes necessary to provide factual information to contradict the erroneous speculations. And essentially, that is how this book comes into play.

In all reality, Atlantis was a rather small volcanic isle within the Mediterranean Sea, Northwest of the larger Island Crete where the Minoan empire had also settled. Due to several fortunate details, including being surrounded by ocean, hot springs, a volcano and so forth they advanced beyond belief and beyond the very grasp of the most enthusiastic human imagination. All the characteristics that would aid the Minoans in mastering the ocean with its own Navy, utilizing aqueducts with warm and cool flowing water, showers and flush toilets, also lead to the most tragic demise known to both the ancient and modern worlds. And at this point, the author expresses the reader's wonder about such people, capable of such things, wonder about the possibilities of landing on the moon before even the birth of Christ, or colonies near Alpha Centauri which would seem possible if only nature had spared us that one disaster. Perhaps the Minoans could have accomplished these tasks that now only appear to exist at the nucleus of science fiction. That is, had they lived to truly influence the "modern" world in that sense.

Dr. Pellegrino introduces fact and differentiates it from the fiction surrounding Atlantis. His conclusions are also quite logical, for example Plato's embellishment of the story described to Solon in Egypt, by placing Atlantis in the far, vast and unknown Atlantic Ocean as an Africa-sized continent nearly 9000 years old. The errors that could contribute to ridiculous numbers such as 9000 years and possibilities as to several facts and myths regarding Atlantis are presented as well, including the likely mistake between Linear A and B zero, and the idea of Noah living to see the age of 950 as a thought of the time. The author provides reasoning that may have affected the nature of the story, such as why the island sank, its hanging gardens and technological achievements, while weaving in the archaeological finds that back his ideas. What is by far the greatest aspect of the book aside from the author's understanding of how dramatic such a story was, is his comments about the true beauty of the island and its people, the art frescoes within every home, the rich vegetation and the fleet of ships docked in a natural port. The contrast of what was to what exists now is just so...

This is not to mention Thera's (Atlantis') influence on not only the downfall of the Minoan civilization but its impact on biblical stories, surrounding areas like Egypt and Turkey, and the wonder behind such power the earth can release within a fraction of a second. Pellegrino's ability to tie science in with history to interpret a story as grand as that of the Minoans is extraordinary. The details of the excavation and research are also enthralling.

However, there are a few flaws in the book that do harm it's otherwise enthusiastic and informative content. For one, at least three sentences were repeated. At one point in the book, the author explains how humans experience difficulty in understanding events more than 2000 years old. This is a valid point. However in an attempt to place the history of our world into perspective, the author took it too far. One seems lost in chronological time, and Thera is then a distant subject mentioned only a few times while this is taking place. The chapter did contain very interesting information, including one of my favorite factoids about bacteria and Uranium - 235; however it didn't pertain as much to Thera and threw the reader off task. A slight alteration to the ending would also have made a difference.

Yet the author is eloquent and interesting. He'll engulf you in a world you'll never want to leave. The beauty that is the fresco of Madonna Lilies is to Thera what the Grand Staircase was to Titanic. The greatest civilization was devoured by the hand that fed them, yet it isn't as dismal as one tends to think. The one event that wiped out the Minoans is the one event that will ensure the Minoans will last forever.

You'll have much to ponder about!

"Unearthing Atlantis: An Archaelogical Odyssey to the Fabled Lost Civilization" by Charles Pellegrino is an enchanting, well researched, well rounded book about the Greek island of Santorini and the volcanic explosion which probably destroyed Minoan civilization. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time; it was very difficult for me to put down, as Pellegrino expertly combines history, archaelogy, art, literature and science to write a comprehensive story of the lost civilization of Santorini/ Atlantis. As a matter of fact, I found myself studying , not just reading, this book, and am currently rereading it a second time. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Greek history, Atlantis, or a good mystery.

This guy just never stops riding the shockwave - and with such elegant prose, too. He never tells you what is, as fact, but instead lays out all the evidence along with arguements for and against his own interpretations, then encourages you to think for yourself. The story here is an investigation of Frost and Marinatos' theory that the tale that came down to plato was the decline of Minoan civilization in the aftermath of the nuclear-winter-esque, 25,000 megaton explosion of the volcanic island of Thera (santorini) in 1628 B.C. The eruption and its devastating false winter-in-summer effects were documented and detailed as far away as China, and were credited with bringing down an entire dynasty. Plato did not write about the Chinese devastations. The Minoans were a lot closer; in fact, right at ground zero. Pellegrino's evidence suggests that Plato and the Egyptians were either writing about the Minoans (a modern name given to a civilization whose towns, with the impliments of daily life and even their food, were coccooned intact under mountains of volcanic dust), or Atlantis did not exist at all. Pellegrino's voyages into the Earth and back through time are so eye-opening, even mind bending, that you will never look at your world, or even your own back yard, the same way again. I know I won't. Like his other archaeology books, you simply cannot put this one down. They read better than any novel - and especially better than Pellegrino's own science fiction novels. The realities he finds down here on Earth are so amazing that I don't understand why he has to fly around making things up in, of all places, the star Trek universe. I guess everyone's entitled to do something a little kooky now and then, as long as they don't hurt anyone (Avoid "Dyson Sphere" and "Dust" like the plague). Someone with his talent for observation and communication shouldn't be wasting it in the literary ghetto of science fiction - or on chaos theory. With Pellegrino, everything eventually gets down to chaos, like that Malcolm character in "Jurassic Park"," who just happens to be based on him (even down to the point of sometimes getting a little too high on himself). The sister book, "Return to Sodom and Gomorrah" is just as great, if you skip the chaos theory chapter. His books on the archaeology of the Titanic are great too, but this one is his masterpiece.

YES: this book is about the real Atlantis. It really did exist, but not in the literal way that Plato described it, and certainly not in the way that New Age speculation "theorists" want it to.

I really wanted to give this book a perfect five-star rating, as the subject matter is immensely important, and the author's enthusiasm makes this book a truly exciting experience. The long story made short is that "Atlantis" was in reality a small island in the east Mediterranean way back around 1600 BC. Thera was a part of the Minoan Empire, and, being a group of islands between Egypt and Greece, had not only the world's first navy, but aquaducts (long before the famous Roman water systems) and a surprisingly highly-evolved culture. Then one day, the volcano at the center of Thera exploded with as least six times the power of Krakatoa (the 1883 eruption that was heard over 2000 miles away), and within seconds 2/3 of the island was in the stratosphere.

This was all before even the Greeks became the dominant force in the region, and so the sudden disappearance of the Minoans (who dominated trade between Europe and Africa) not surprisingly became various stories passed down through the generations, which is where Plato heard it. Plato's description of an entire continent all the way out in the Atlantic that sunk into the sea turned out to be an embellishment on what was, by then, just a myth. He was essentially trying to make a point about how quickly even the most powerful civilization can crumble, and what he said was passed down through the ages, in one form or another, to us. This is how and why these Art Bell "experts" have hijacked this subject and nailed it onto their "theories" of other subjects that have been blown completely out of proportion, such as the Bermuda Triangle, life on Mars, Bigfoot, etc. Case in point: just because Atlantis was advanced by ancient standards, NO: THEY DID NOT HAVE AIRPLANES OR LASERS. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but REAL history isn't "Spear of Destiny" garbage: it's how real people really lived, not whatever garbage you want it to be.

Of course, this book was an emotional one to read: an ancient culture creating such high technology (a millenium ahead of its time), only to be totally annihilated in just seconds. If the downfall of Rome and the unsuing loss of knowledge and the onset of the Dark Ages is considered to be historically tragic, this story is then the most epic catastrophe EVER. The author points out that if they were doing what took another 1000 years for the Romans to figure out (such as running water through pipes), who knows what these people might have managed to do? Maybe we would have been on the moon 2000 years ago. We'll never know.

The downfall of this book that I hinted at earlier is that 90% of everything important is said immediately: none of what I've said here is a "big mystery" that gets unravelled through the course of the book. It's like getting hit from all sides with amazing (and very enthusiastic) information about who the Therans might have been, how the world was at the time, and the excitement that Atlantis did exist after all. As great as all of that is, the book suddenly takes a left turn into endless archaeological stories and theories that simply don't have much of anything to do with the subject. At first, it's the author trying to put Theran history into perspective (he says that people have a hard time comprehending what happened over 2000 years ago, and he's right), but he just starts beating this idea to death. He'll occasionally get back to Thera and the ongoing excavations, and then he'll launch back into a whole list of other things that become more and more distracting. By the last 100 pages of the book, it becomes a chore to get through to the end, in the increasingly dismal hope that he'll say more than just one or two things about Thera itself.

This book isn't written as much badly as just way off target. The author's enthusiasm will make you picture him as a kid playing in a sandbox for the very first time (which is probably how he'd actually describe himself), but unfortunately, he runs out of steam when he runs out of things to really say. On the other hand, this subject is fascinating and important, and I would, of course, still highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to find a huge missing piece of history, or to anyone trying to scrape that layer of filth known as "New Age speculation" off of some really solid history: the real thing is far more interesting than the National Enquirer version.

I read this book while spending a week in Santorini. It was the perfect book to read while sitting on the beach, looking at all the tourists and imagining how different and more advanced Theran life must have been like 37 or so centuries ago, before the volcano took away two thirds of the island to create one of the most scenic, photographed places on earth. The thought that the Theran volcano explosion caused the pestilence and plagues mentioned in the Bible was startling. Could it be true? Could Thera be the lost Atlantis? Well, why not? Read it for yourself and see. And check out the Theran wall paintings excavated in Akrotiri on the web, especially the one with the unique antelopes that only exist in one part of Africa to this day and see if you don't start to wonder yourself about what really happened.

In UNEARTHING ATLANTIS (1991), Pellegrino, a professional paleontologist, offers his own theories about the legend of Atlantis in an approach designed to appeal to general readers as opposed to academic audiences. He concludes that the Atlantis of Plato and the ancient Egyptian texts that were his sources refers to the Minoan culture of the ancient Mediterranean, a civilization that was disrupted (though not destroyed) following a succession of volcanic events on the island of Thera that occurred about 1628 BC. Pellegrino shines in his attempts to prove this theory, as he places the destruction of Thera within the context of contemporary historical events (such as the Biblical Exodus and the rise and fall of the Minoan culture), modern knowledge of volcanology, modern science's ability to date events from the distant past, and modern underwater archaeology. In addition, he also details efforts by modern archaeologists to rediscover ancient Thera.

Pellegrino's study is interesting and genuinely informative, though there are some major issues that readers need to bear in mind. His narrative is presented out of chronological order (in fact, the text jumps around a lot), while his prose tends to ramble at times (often repeating himself, as other reviewers note) and includes long sections that tend to distract one from his argument (for example, a fifty-page odyssey into prehistoric times that ends at the Big Bang). Also, Pellegrino appears to have been deeply affected by his study of Thera and the Monoan civilization, and he tends to criticize most other periods of human history--the Middle Ages receives particularly harsh criticism.

I like the book and found it an informative narrative. This book is based on facts and while not exhaustive, is still miles away from all the Atlantis New Age pulp drivel of speculation and fantasy. I bought the book for my grandson to help guide him towards the truth through fact and critical thinking versus the subjective occult fantasy nonsense that comprises much of the Atlantis printed subject matter.

This book was a joke!

First, the theory that the Minoan civilization was Plato's Atlantis is hardly original. It was published by J.V. Luce more than 20 years before Pellegrino's book.

Dr. Pellegrino's book is filled with rumor, theory and conjecture with no substantive information.

But the worst of it is that Dr. Pellegrino entertains us with a number of theories with no backing. He has Moses 300 years earlier than everyone else has him and provides little explanation for that. He has Thutmose III 150 years earlier than everyone else has him. He gives us a whole chapter called (cleverly) 'Dating Hatshepsut' that proposes to explain these discrepancies, but gives us just a few paragraphs of the problems of pottery dating, then goes into a long discourse of fantastic speculation. Where is the hard data? This is a scientist writing?

Perhaps a scientist who is accustomed to dealing in tens of millions of years cannot be bothered with mere centuries.

Does he bother to cite a reference that Hatshepsut's sarcophagus went down in the Titanic? It seems at times he is reciting little more than urban legends. His flights of fancy into what would have been if Thera had not exploded are absurd. Certainly the Minoans were advanced, but to think that we would have colonies on distant solar systems today if the volcano had not exploded is ridiculous. They were not that far advanced.

That whole chapter taking us to the big bang was pointless and added nothing to his theme. It was obviously filler material to make up for lack of research.

I am intrigued by the idea that the explosion of Thera could explain the 10 plagues described in Exodus. But he gives us such little real hard evidence of this link, that I am not prepared to accept it.

Anyone that has an interest in a serious analysis of the excavation at Santorini should read J.V. Luce's 'Lost Atlantis'. The Pellegrino book is mass market trash.

Some editions of this book have a foreward by Arthur C. Clarke. It appeared to me that it was simply a regurgitation of the book's first chapter. Well, maybe it is appropriate. In my view, Pellegrino's book might just belong on the science fiction shelf...

An author so full of his own importance it is a wonder that he hasn't exploded by now.
This has to be the most useless and boring book I have ever read. If you want to bore yourself to sleep, still wondering what on earth he is babbling on about then go ahead and read it!!! Did you know the Minoans had indoor plumbing?? You will. Go on I dare you to waste your money and time!!