Converging Evidence

By Dhani Irwanto, 22 August 2015

The story of Atlantis comes to us from Timaeus and Critias, Socratic dialogues, written in about 360 BC by Plato. There are four people at this meeting who had met the previous day to hear Socrates (ca 469 to 399 BC) describes the ideal state. Socrates wants Timaeus of Locri, Hermocrates, and Critias to tell him stories about Athens interacting with other states. The first is Critias, who talks about his great grandfather’s meeting with Solon (ca 638 to 559 BC), one of the seven sages, an Athenian poet and famous lawgiver, during a visit to Saïs, Egypt in about 590 BC. Solon had been to Egypt where priests had compared Egypt and Athens and talked about the gods and legends of both lands. One such Egyptian story is about Atlantis. The priests claimed to have access to records about Atlantis written on pillars within the temple. Getting knowledge of the Atlantic story, Solon put it into a poem, and proposed to bring it to the knowledge of the Greeks.

Plato did not hear the original story of Atlantis, but that it was instead told to Solon about 300 years prior, and that he heard it from Egyptian priests who read it from existing records. Solon was not reading the story from the Egyptian records; it was the Egyptian priests – expert in hieroglyphics – who were relating to Solon what their own temple records said about the lost Atlantis. Plato heard it from Critias who is the great grandson of Solon, so that the story passed down 3 generations prior to reaching him.

Both accounts of the story of Atlantis in the Egyptian records and the Solon’s poem are not discovered. Therefore, Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias contain the earliest references to Atlantis – for unknown reasons, Plato never completed Critias. These dialogues, for that reason, contain the only sources of the most complete phenotype of the Atlantis.

The author applies a similitude of “particulate inheritance model”, which is commonly used in biological sciences, where as though the phenotype of Plato’s Atlantis is inherited from the original phenotype of Egyptian records, as a continuum in a series of “generations”. In the process, the “legacy” phenotype is determined by “genotype”, “epigenetic” and “non-inherited environmental” factors from the “ancestors”. The “genotype” factors are that part (“DNA sequence”) of the “genetic makeup” of the story. The “epigenetic” factors are the phenotypic trait variations of the story that are caused by external or environmental factors. The “non-inherited environmental” factors are distortions, embellishments and embodiments of the story by the tellers. “Genetic mutation” of the story may also occur in the process. The only known now is the inherited phenotype, so that those factors are not detected, but certainly has experienced.

After a comprehensive research, the author discloses a new theory hypothesizes that the lost island and city of Atlantis is located in Java Sea, Indonesia, as written in a book Atlantis: The lost city is in Java Sea, published in April 2015. The works include over 5-year research and analysis of references as well as some site observations. These resulted in converging evidence to the hypothesis that the phenotype of the story fits the location in question.

The following table shows summary of the converging evidence in the hypothesized location made by the author. Some other less important evidence are not included.

No	Phenotype	Plato’s account		Evidence
		Section in Timaeus	Section in Critias
A	THE COUNTRY
1	At a distant point in the “Atlantic Ocean” (ancient Greek understanding)	24e		ü
2	Larger than “Libya” and “Asia” (Asia Minor) combined (ancient Greek understanding)	24e	108e	ü
3	The way to other islands	24e		ü
4	Might pass to opposite continent encompasses true ocean	24e		ü
5	Landscape of the whole country, at the region on the side of the ocean, was very lofty and precipitous		118a	ü
6	A small hill and a vast level plain near the sea, accessible by ships, vessels and boats from the sea; waterways on the plain discharge to the sea		113c, 113e, 118d	ü
7	Beyond bordering monuments, the Greek call monuments of “Heracles”	24e, 25c	108e, 114b	ü
8	In front of a strait	24e, 25a		ü
9	A sea surrounded by a boundless continent	25a		ü
10	Some islands in the sea	24e	114c	ü
11	Two-season climate – “summer” (dry) and “winter” (wet)		112d, 118e	ü
12	Hot and cold springs		113e, 117a	ü
13	Abundant of water benefit of the annual rainfall		111c	ü
14	Excellently attempered climate		111e, 112d	ü
15	Fertile, best soil for agriculture and farming		111e, 113c	ü
16	Vast diversity of flora and fauna		114e, 115a, 115b	ü
17	Elephant, horse, “bull” and dolphin		114e, 116e, 117c to 117e, 119b, 119d to 120a	ü
18	Abundant of food to sustain a civilization and to create an army (about 20 million people)		111e, 118e, 119a	ü
19	Advanced civilization in the era	24e, 25a		ü
20	Earthquakes and “floods” from the sea (tsunami)	25c, 25d	108e, 111a, 112a	ü
21	Sunken ceaselessly (post-glacial sea level rise)		111b, 111c	ü
22	The sea at the Atlantis capital “is now” (Solon’s time) impassable and impenetrable because of a “reef of clay” (coral reef), caused by “subsidence” of the island (sea level rise)	25d		ü
23	The “Atlantis City” is now under the sea	25d		ü
B	PRODUCES (“FRUITS”)
24	Two harvests each year, in “winter” fed by rains and in “summer” by irrigation from the canals		118e	ü
25	Roots, herbage, woods and essences distilled from “fruit” and flower		115a	ü
26	Cultivated “fruit”, dried, for nourishment and any other, used for food – common name pulse		115a	ü
27	“Fruits” having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments		115b	ü
28	Chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement		115b	ü
29	“Fruits” which spoil with keeping, consoled after dinner		115b	ü
30	Wondrous and in infinite abundance		115b	ü
C	VAST PLAIN NEAR THE CAPITAL
31	Immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain		118a	ü
32	Surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea		118a	ü
33	Smooth and even		118a	ü
34	General shape was rectangular and oblong		118a, 118c	ü
35	Extending in one direction 3,000 stadia (± 555 km), across the center inland 2,000 stadia (±370 km)		118a	ü
36	Looked towards the south, sheltered from the north		118b	ü
37	Surrounded by mountains celebrated their number, size and beauty, there were many wealthy villages of country folk		118b	ü
38	Rivers, lakes and meadows – abundant food supply for every animal, wild or tame		118b	ü
39	Plenty of wood of various sorts – abundant for each and every kind of work		118b	ü
D	WATERWAYS ON THE PLAIN
	Perimeter ditch
40	1.    Incredible in size, unexpected that they were artificial		118c	ü
41	2.    100 ft (±30 m) deep, 1 stadium (±185 m) wide, 10,000 stadia (±1,850 km) long		118c	ü
42	3.    received streams from the mountains		118d	ü
	Inland canals and transverse passages
43	1.    Inland canals were straight, about 100 ft (±30 m) wide, 100 stadia (18.5 km) intervals and let off into the perimeter ditch		118d	ü
44	2.    Transverse passages were cut from one inland canal into another		118e	ü
45	3.    Means for transporting wood and products in ships		118e	ü
	Irrigation streams
46	1.    Tapping from the canals		118e	ü
47	2.    Supplied water to the land in “summer” (dry) but rainfall in the “winter” (rainy) yielding two crops in a year		118e	ü
E	MINERALS AND ROCKS
48	“Brass”/”bronze” (copper, tin and zinc)		116b, 116c	ü
49	Tin		116b, 116c	ü
50	“Orichalcum”, more precious mineral than anything except gold, flashing, red color, abundant resources		114e, 116c, 116d	ü
51	Gold		114e, 116c, 116d, 116e	ü
52	Silver		116d, 116e	ü
53	White, black and red stones		116a, 116b	ü
54	Hollowed out rock for double docks		116a, 116b	ü
F	MYTHS AND CUSTOMS
55	“Poseidon” (sea or water god, law founder)		113c to 113e, 116c, 116d, 117b, 119c, 119d	ü
56	“Heracles” (son of a supreme god, outrageous birth, has insatiable appetites and being very rude, brutal and violent)	24e, 25c	108e, 114b	ü
57	“Bull” sacrifice		119d to 120c	ü
58	Temple or pyramid		116c, 116d, 116e, 117c, 119c	ü
59	Maritime activities		114d, 115c to 116a, 117d, 117e, 119b	ü
60	Transportation by waterways		118e	ü

Phrases or names in double quotes are, wherever possible translated into English, as given by Plato, either Greek translation from the original account or terms not found in Greek. Phrases in parenthesis are interpretations by the author.

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