Atlanteans in America?

Is it possible people from Atlantis visited prehistoric America?  That probably depends on what your view of who the Atlantean people were.  If you take the more traditional view of the Atlantean legend, which places Atlantis as a now lost continent in the Atlantic ocean over 10,000 years ago, then it is hard to say, because if that is true, we don't have any of their records or a conclusive archaeological record either.

However, if you consider the possibility that the Atlantean civilization that Plato wrote about was actually a civilization that existed more recently than that, then there is evidence that it may be possible -- perhaps even likely -- that Atlanteans did visit prehistoric America.

So who am I actually talking about?  The Minoans.  The Minoans were a prehistoric bronze age culture that lived on Crete.  They were remarkably advanced for an early bronze age culture.  They had sophisticated architecture that included hot and cold running water as well as sophisticated art and culture.  The legend of Atlantis says it was destroyed by being submerged by water.  And like the legend of Atlantis, the Minoans were likely wiped out by a tsunami after the volcano Thera erupted around 1600 BC.  Not only does the Minoan civilization match Plato's description of Atlantis well, I think it is important to note that we don't actually know what the Minoans called themselves.  The term "Minoan" was coined by archaeologist Arthur Evans after the mythic King Minos.  So in ancient times, they would have probably been called something else.  I think the evidence suggests they were called Atlanteans.  This isn't just a theory I came up with own my own either.  Some archaeologists now believe that the people we call the Minoans were actually the Atlanteans.

So what's this about Atlanteans in America?  If they lived in Crete, how would they have gotten to America?  Well, they were a seafaring culture known to travel the Mediterranean Sea as far as Spain.  But what if there was evidence that they actually traveled much further than that?  There may be evidence that they mined copper on Isle Royale in Lake Superior.

Isle Royale was once home to some of the world's largest copper deposits.  But sometime prior to Columbus coming to America, much of the Great Lakes copper disappeared.  Native Americans were known to use copper, but it is said that there was once billions of pounds of copper in the area, yet no one has found anything approaching that much copper in Native American artifacts.  So where did it go?  According to Scott Wolter of the H2 show America Unearthed, the Minoans must have mined it.

In the first episode of the series, he presents the evidence he has found that Minoans may have visited prehistoric America and mined copper in Lake Superior, which he thinks may have been the copper that actually fueled the bronze age (bronze is made by combining copper and tin).  Although copper can be found in Europe, it has been questioned if there was ever enough in Europe to accommodate the massive amounts used during the bronze age.

The Newberry tablet is a tablet that appears to be ancient in origin and was found in Newberry, Michigan in 1896.  The script on the tablet appears to be written in Minoan script.  It is unlikely the the tablet is faked because it was actually found before the Minoan civilization was discovered in 1900.  To take the investigation a step further, Wolter had the purity of Michigan copper tested to see if it matched the purity of the copper found in a Minoan shipwreck.  It matched.

This revelation doesn't just rewrite the history of America.  His findings not only show that ancient Europeans may have visited America, but it also lends more credence to the theory that the Minoans were actually Atlanteans.  If the Minoans were capable of crossing the Atlantic in the prehistoric bronze age, then they must have been a very advanced civilization -- perhaps advanced enough to match Plato's description of Atlantis.

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View the Great Lakes Copper heist episode of America Unearthed below.



H2 Episode Link