Egypt and the Atlantis Myth

The Egyptians were, during the eighteenth Dynasty, at the height of their power. The New Kingdom rulers had conquered further and more complete than at any previous period during the history of Egypt. Her empire now extended from Nubia to the Empire of the Hittites on the north of Syria. The Kings and the vassels of these conquered nations brought a steady flow of tribute into the coffers of Egypt, filling her treasury and enabling Amenhophis III to live a life of luxury and peace. Riches were such as even the Egyptians had never known before. Every object that could possibly be encrusted with gold, precious stones - or the imitations that the jewelers of the period were so cleaver in manufacturing - was so covered. her trade, like that of Crete, had grown and she was in constant economic contact with her neighbours. The unprecedented supply of riches had caused a great, although at times unwholesome change in Egyptian life. From the palaces down to the most humble dwellings the people sort for an escape from the simplicity of previous ages. The art, the furnishings and the dress, became elaborate and ostentatious. The simple kilt worn by servant and Pharaoh alike now gave way before the fashion of the age, to long pleated skirts, embroidered capes, and long flowing sleeves. Curled wigs took the place of sample headcoverings.

Amid all this change Amenhophis III lived and was able to pursue his life of peace, beautifying his cities and palaces, sitting back greeting his foreign vassels and neighboring envoys as they came to pay homage to him.

To the far north across the sea and through the islands lay the new and developing nation of Myceanea, held in check for many years by her overlords on the island of Crete and now straining for her freedom. Here was a nation that had been presented with the best that Crete had to offer in art and civilization. This had been grafted onto the people that had none of the softness and swollen headedness of the parent nation.

It was to be the downfall of Crete, now in her weakest and most decadent age. The Myceans were gathering and army and tired of Crete and the domination of their trade, were getting ready to rid themselves of their overlord.

The Egyptians were ideal people for the Cretians to do trade with. Both nations had a similar way of life, they both had reached stages in their art and civilization that was over elaborate. They were also both at a stage where they felt safe and secure in their dominance. The Cretan way of life was superior to the Egyptians. The luxury that filled the palaces of the Minoan Empire was neither as blatant in its show or garish in its decoration as that of Egypt. It had a certain refinement and sophistication that Egypt learnt, only too late, during the Amarna period. The Minoan's splendour was not sprung upon them suddenly but had developed slowly over a period that extended back over a thousand years to the Neolithic age when man came across the sea to inhabit the island.

The Minoans empire was a well defined power formed of the cities on the island, the neighboring islands and the mainland centers, the with their center at Knosssos. It was united by the sea and to the less traveled peoples of the Mediterranean may easily have been interpreted as a vast single continent rather than disconnected areas. Minoan Crete's power lay in her shipping and towards the end of the third late, minoan period this shipping seems to have grown even greater.

Facts point to the identification of Atlantis with Crete. Let us now look at the description that Plato gave us of the Island. "The island (Atlantis) was on the way to the other islands, and from these islands you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean". This is true of Crete that lies in the Mediterranean in such a position that it was indeed on the way to the other islands and from these islands it is possible to get to the mainland easily as the distance from island to island and to the mainland is short. "In this island there was a great and wonderful empire which had ruled over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of the continent". Knossos was such an empire and her rule over the city states of Crete and her mainland colonies was strong. There could be no better description of Minoan Crete's political position. Geographically the mythical nation and Crete were very alike. Atlantis was said to 'lay spread out in the ocean like a disk, with the mountains rising from it'. In the Critias there is in fact a remarkably accurate description of Atlantis which describes Crete. The site of the capitol is described in terms that could be used to describe Knossos. The coast, was said to up to lofty and precipitous heights, but the country immediately around the city was a flat plain sheltered from the north. Further, we are told that the 'earth man' lived on a mountain - not very high on any side - and this site became the site for the city of Atlantis. Knossos lies on a slight hill that rises out of the plain that completely surrounds it and on this site neolithic remains have been found. So, as in Atlantis, so at Knossos, we have a capital founded on the site of the residence of the first men on an island, a tradition to this fact had probably been passed down through stories in Minoan Crete on the Knossos site there had been settlements as far back as 10,000 b.c.

The description of the Palace with its modern lines and drainage systems is very like those features found in the ruins of Knossos. It is true that Plato does mention certain structures of which we find no archaeological evidence at Knossos; such as the canals that were supposed to be covered over and yet still large enough to have a ship sail up them,

Map of Knossos

Animals that there are no remains of on Crete such as the elephant, but one must remember if Solon was told the legend by the Egyptians, they had probably, over the hundreds of years that had passed, exaggerated the real facts. The elephants may originally referred to the supply of ivory that the Cretains gained in trade, this, together with the fact, still mentioned by the priest that the island was so fertile that it could supply even the largest animals in great numbers with sufficient food. As for the canals, the Minoan drainage system consisted of wide and well made covered drains. They may have originally have been described by those surviving the disaster as being ' like canals large enough for the ships to sail up" and this description became, through generations of telling merely, 'canals large enough for ships to sail up'.

We are told that 'in the first place they dug out of the earth whatever was found there, solid as well as fusile. That which is now only a name - orchalcum -(red) - was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island. This was more precious in those days than anything except gold and it could have been copper. Copper is a redish-pink metal and we know that it was mined in Crete in ancient times. There was an abundance of wood for carpenter's work and sufficient grazing for animals.

The priest talked about the founding of the capitol. "And at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassed the one who went before him. To the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and beauty.' What could be a better rendering of the story of the building of Knossos. It had been built upon the site of a prehistoric settlement and the successive generations of rulers had added to and embellished the original construction to fit with their needs, taste and the style of the period.

The palace is then described as having fountains of hot and cold water. We know that the palace at Knossos had a running water system and an elaborate system of heating. There is also mention in the Atlantis legend of water being conveyed from the Palace via aqueducts.

There have been found at Knossos remains of drains that are in actual fact aqueduct.

The main points in the priest's tale seem to have contained a true account of the destruction of the only civilization that disappeared during the period in which he sets the story of Atlantis and this could have been the account of the fall of the Minoan empire from the point of view of the Egyptians. The fall of this empire cam only a few years before Egypt experienced the fall of the eighteenth dynasty. This again was brought down by indulgence in luxury and ignoring the threats from outside that finally pulled down the nation.

The description that Plato gives of the Atlantian worship is very like that which we have discovered during the palace period in Crete.

Plato writes" There were bulls that had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten that were left alone in the temple after they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices that were acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they took up to the pillar (a column of orchalcum inscribed with the laws of Poseidon); the victim was then struck on the head by them and slain over the sacred inscription. Now on the column, beside the law, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, therefore after offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire, after having made a purification of the column all around. They then drew from the cup in golden vessels and, pouring a libation on the fire, they swore they would judge according to the laws of the column.

This description of the capture of the bulls in the temple brings immediately a vision of the bulls in the labyrinth of Knossos and the bull sacrifice, with the thighs being the most important part and the burning of the carcass and the drinking of the blood is very like what we know about the Cretan custom of bull sacrifice.

On the Hagia Triada sarcophagus we have a record of Minoan bull sacrifice on the death of a prince. On one of the long sides there is depicted a bull tied to the alter with scarlet ribbons. The blood from the sacrifice is collected in a bucket. A priestess stands in front of the bull and altar as if in the act of offering the sacrifice to the god or goddess. Near the sacrifice stands a pillar crowned with a double axe, on which is perched the bird so often found in connection with the religious practices of the Minoans.

On the other long side of the sarcophagus there is a long procession going towards an urn placed between two columns each capped by double axe symbols, again crowned in their turn by the doves. Into the urn the first figure is pouring, from a cup, blood from the sacrificial bull. The second figure bears the legs of the bull in a basket hung over her shoulders. The third figure moves in the procession to music of a seven-stringed instrument with a plectrum.

Although the columns bore, as far as we can tell, no inscriptions, the free standing pillars found in the cretains Places, did have inscriptions upon them - the symbol of the double axe. The double axe may have been the symbol of the force behind the the God or Goddess of the Minoans. It could also have stood for the religious laws of the people.

If one does except these facts one still has to admit that there is a definite flaw in the identification of the two civilization as one and this lies in the statement of the Sais priest that Atlantis lay outside the pillars of Hercules. In fact, the whole of Plato's myth seems to have been placed further to the west than the identification of Atlantis as Crete would allow, indeed, everything connected with the Atlas seems to have suffered from the same fate. But can we apply this objection with honesty to the original version told by the Egyptians to Solon and then related by him to the Greeks? We must remember that Crete lies 400 miles to the northwest of Egypt. Egypt, despite the extent of her empire was never a great sea power. We know that most of her empire building was carried out as land campaigns, the sea being the dominion of the Minoans. The Phoenicians were a later arrival on the scene and only took over what was left of the Minoan Trade and sea power after the fall of Knossos. Not only does Crete lye distant from the shores of Egypt but in order for the Egyptians to reach Crete they would have had to sail beyond the point where land was lost to view, well into the open sea. This section of the Mediterranean can be rough even for modern, small ships and in the totally inadequate vessels of the Egyptians it could not have been a pleasant journey. It is unlikely that many, if any, Egyptian ships reached the shores of Crete manned by only Egyptian sailors. The trade was carried on mainly by ships of the Cretan fleet. If the Egyptians had, indeed reached as far as Crete they would quickly have discovered that the Empire of the Minoans stretched even further to the west. As it is unlikely that they would have had the chance to see for themselves the limits of the island, they believed that it stretched further than in actuality it did.

The Egyptian religion and geographicaly gave the world very definite bounds. It insisted that the earth was supported at the four cardinal points by pillars, the sky goddess Nut, being stretched between them and, in some versions, actually supporting the sky, her body, on her hands and feet. This belief left no room for lands outside their bounds. Anything far to the west would have fallen beyond the Egyptian's equivalent of the 'Pillars of Hercules".

The minoans can be identified with the Keftiu of the ancient Egyptian records and this name has been translated as meaning 'the men from the back of beyond': Keftiu meaning - behind,'way back'. But what were they beyond? The Minoans lived beyond any limit that the Egyptians could set and beyond their whole idea of the Universe. It seems more than probable that the Minoans, jealous of their monopoly of the sea trade routes, should not wish to disillusion their neighbours. So, the keftiu lived beyond the Egyptians ' four pillars of the world'. As, later, knowledge of the outside world came to the Egyptians, these four pillars spread further apart and, as no one rewrote the story of Atlantis, this kingdom became lsot and mythically floated, further and further to the west until, when Solon reached Egypt, the old priest translated the four pillars as the Greeks 'Pillars of Hercules". This also enabled his visitor to understand the story more clearly by identifying the boundaries with something that was familiar to him.

Why was this mythical land names Atlantis? When Plato came to translate the story all identification between Atlantis and Crete had been lost. He required a name that conveyed the feeling of a boundless ocean beyond which there was nothing and a land of endless plains, hills and rivers - a land beyond everything, even the bounds of Atlas. In its own way it was the Greek word that conveyed the same feeling as Keftiu did to the Egyptians.

One of the first statements that is given about Atlantis in the Timius tells us of the position of the island in the sea, "This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Herculeas; the island was larger than Lybia and Asia put together, and was the only way to the other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Herkuleas is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent." If you sail from Egypt to Crete the island lies within the Pillars of Herakules and as they speak of the island being in a position of relative nearness to the Straits we can only believe that like other points this has been placed further to the West than it originally was owing to the extent of the Egyptian's world at that time.

We are told that that area marking the boundary of the lost civilization is marked by mud banks and shallow waters. In the search for the lost island it would have been simple for the Egyptians to locate and area that would have answered such a description and to them would have seemed in the correct position. To the west of Egypt lie the Syres, an area of quicksands lying in shallow waters. If the inexperienced Egyptian navigators had traveled close to the shore for too long before turning into the open sea they would have found these banks. After the reported disappearance of the 'peoples of the sea' seafarers would have been anxious to report back to the court anything that might be evidence of the lost civilizations disappearance, destruction and in their wish to have some answer they may have jumped to the conclusion that these mud and sand banks were all that was left of the island empire, fort hey appeared to be in the right position to have been the lost island of Crete.

One can imagine the situation in Egypt at the time that the fleeing remains of the Cretan civilization arrived at the court of Pharaoh. They were few in numbers and in their haste to get away from the doomed island they had managed to carry few possessions with them. Not long before - in living memory, the island had suffered an earlier disaster that had caused the people to flee. The refugees were able to give only a garbled account of what they had seen and experienced. They told of their fears for the island and all upon it having been swept away and of the vast wave that had previously also destroyed all in its path. They feared for the fate of their land and their people.

Pharaoh, not really interested, sends out a ship to find out if there are traces of the island left. The captain takes with him a Cretan sailor to help him with the navigation. In all probability the Cretan is not an experienced sailor and navigator as whoever manned the vessels to take these refugees from the island would have been anyone that new anything about the sea who happened to be in the Port of Komo when those that had escaped from Knossos arrived there. The Egyptian, uncertain of his way, insists on hugging the shore for as long as possible and the Cretan, perhaps as inexperienced as the Egyptian lets him do so. When finally they have to head into the open sea they hit the mud banks. The Egyptian cap[tain is eager to return home and despite the Cretan's insistence that there must be more left of the island they turn back with the sad tidings, to Egypt. So this was considered proof to the Egyptians that the island and its inhabitants has perished, leaving only sand and mud banks as markers for what had been the great civilization and empire of the Mediterranean.

As the myth was pushed further to the west by the extension of Egypt's world so, together with the four pillars of Egypt's universe, the mud banks also became transported to a more westerly region. Such transportations are not unique in ancient legends. In norse myths we come across accounts that point to the transportation of the Azores.

Both Greece and Egypt knew of the Minoan Empire during the time of her disappearance and yet we have only the Egyptian account surviving down to the age of Solon (559 BC is the latest date for his death). Neither country seems to have identified Atlantis with Crete and yet Greece even set her own flood legend here, perhaps to explain the disappearance of Minos.

How much history was passed down in Egyptian records and how much of that history managed to survive ? It seems impossible that the destruction of such a great civilization as the Minoan should occur and not be noted, recorded and passed down through the temple and palace archives. The event of an earthquake and tidal wave and the aftermath would have effected the trade and the outlying empire far more quickly and with much more devistation than it would the actual culture itself. In Egypt all connection with Crete would suddenly have stopped. And the name of Kefti is no longer used - instead the various tribal names of the people are recorded on the tomb scenes showing the bringing of tribute And trade to court. There must indeed have been a break up of the empire.

Egypt took no part in the destruction of the final thread of Minoan Power. No remains of Egyptian origin have been found in what remained of the Minoan Empire after the date of Amenhophis 111. Here we may have the explanation as to why there were no factual records about the destruction of Crete kept in Egypt. The fall of Knossos occurred at the beginning of the co-regency between Amenhophis 111 And Amenhophis IV (Akhenaton). After the beginning of this rule the only Minoan influence to be seen is in the capitol of Akhenaton at Akhetaton. Much of what once existed here was probably destroyed And lost but we still have shards of Minoan pottery And remains of at least one Minoan type house within the city. In the Palace waste heaps at Akhetaton were found quantities of broken glass And nearly 1500 pieces of painted table ware which were dated to the late palace period (LM111). No where else in Egypt have any Minoan shards been found in such quantity. This could mean that the style And design were brought from Crete at the time of its fall And that the potters in Akhetaton were instructed to follow these designs in order to please the inhabitants of the Royal palace. Why else would the only remains be found in the place waste dumps? The heaps were reinvestigated at one point in hopes of clearing up the mystery And it is interesting that the only inscription found in connection with these remains was an object bearing the name of Queen Nefertiti!

On this same rubbish heap were found 110 fragments of Egyptian terra-cotta ware, some bearing inscriptions referring to the Egyptian Royal family, poor quality compared to the imported ware. Fragments of glass, foreign in style with definite Cretan design And numbering 750 pieces were also found in the vicinity of this dump. It seems strange that all Mycenaean ware, except for a few isolated examples, And all the glass of a foreign type, should be carted to the one Place dump whereas all local pottery should be left where it was unless it bore the royal inscription! It is probable that this dump was exclusive to the Royal palace And the inhabitants must have used imported wares except for some local terra-cotta that, it cannot be ruled out, may have been used for ceremonial use. The other remaining isolated examples of Minoan ware were all found in the official,s residential area or among the office blocks where these people worked. It seems that those who were in close contact with the Royal household followed the royal families lead in style And fashion.

Why should the royal family have so favoured the style of the fallen court of Crete?

All the remains of Minoan-Myceanean ware that were discovered dated from the same era. The LM111b style of Minoan ware is often termed as Mycenaean but is in fact a development that started at the time of the fall of the Minoan Empire. It would have been transported to Egypt at the time of the fall of the Minoan Empire And at the same time appeared on the mainland of Greece. Its popularity ended with the desertion of Akhetaton after the death of Nefertiti, but it did continue on the Greek mainland. The remains seem to have come from a style of pot that would have been in daily use in the palace. Not one example would have been of the type of ware that would have been a presentation to Pharaoh.

It is interesting that the Minoan LM11 shards found in Akhetaton were all connected to the northern palace - in the southern city, the main city, And the grave digger's village no evidence of any Minoan influence was discovered.

After the death of Akhenaton And the short rule in the city of Akhetaton by Smenkhara And then Tutankhamon, the court returned to Thebes. As soon as the priests of Amon regained their power they set about destroying all evidence of the rule of Akhenaton. This was not completed until a date towards the end of the dynasty but when finally complete the records of the rule had almost entirely perished. Temples were torn down, inscriptions defaced (in very much the same way that Akhenaton had defaced the names of Amon And the old Gods) Ana almost all evidence of the rule was washed from the annals of Egypt's history. The name Akhenaton was never mentioned to the ancient world, all events that occurred in his reign were placed at another date, And it was as if he had never set foot upon the earth. It would have been unlikely that even a record of minoan history, that bore Akhenaton's name, should have survived. This would have been even more unusual if the royal family had connections with Crete. All records of events that were deemed important enough to be kept And had no direct connection with the name of Akhenaton still suffered some form of displacement in history - appearing to have taken place in another reign. The reign of Akhenaton was passed over as if it had never occurred And was lost to the world until the few findings that had escaped the eyes of the priests came under the interested eyes of archaeologists And were re discovered.

It is unlikely that any written record of a small And isolated immigration would have survived in factual records although the story of the arrival of the sea people may have been passed down by story tellers of ancient Egypt. Nefertiti seems to have suffered the same fate as that of the cretians And her husband at the hands of the Amon priests. If she was in anyway connected with the Minoan empire we would have no record. We are uncertain as to her origins And it could have been that she came from the Minoan empire. Any person in the Amarna tragedy for whom we cannot place could perhaps have come from this limbo area, And so perhaps from Crete..

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