Frank Joseph (1) (1944–)

How did I ever get sucked into buying this book? It's been on my shelves unread for quite a while so can't recall where I bought it, but I've always been interested in ancient civilisations and unusual ruins etc....and I had read Plato's stories about Atlantis. But even Plato recited it as myth if my memory serves me correctly. When I started reading a few entries in this book I started to get the distinct feeling that the author had accepted legends of Atlantis as factual but had gone a bit show more further than having an island just west of Gibraltar that was Atlantis. In fact, he seems to think of it as the source of all sorts of cities and structures and manages to weave just about any set of old stones into his encyclopaedia as more proof of Atlantis.
It's not so much that it's impossible that there was a city that was engulfed by the sea...as the seas rose. In fact, we know that this has occured in the Black Sea and we know that Crete had a city that was destroyed by earthquake. But to claim that this is linked in with the natural rock formations in the Caribbean as a "road" built by Atlanteans...and pyramids all over the world were either constructed by Atlanteans or refugees from Atlantis seems to me to be totally far fetched.
Basically, it is a huge collection of material that I would not like to rely on for any of the proposed interpretations. He appears to have no Archeological qualifications (apart from having travelled a lot) ...he does not appear to have the support of qualified archeologists. But more to the point, All the known civilisations developed alongside agriculture...and usually extensive agriculture; normally requiring land and water from rivers. And also often requiring labour from slaves who were brought in from subjugated tribes nearby. I think it is pretty unlikely that a whole civilisation would have developed on a remote island without these sort of resources to draw on.
OK there are lots of stories about mankind being wiped out by floods ....and, if you live beside rivers and use them for watering your crops, then floods are going to be a fact of life. And yes, if you have your city alongside the sea and you are in an earthquake zone, then you are likely to cop tsunamis every now and then. But even if there was an Atlantis, I think it's drawing a very long bow to claim direct links with just about every ancient ruin or city in the world.
There are also obvious factual errors. The Lady of Elche sculpture from Spain is not terracotta but Limestone and was a funerary urn. The Bimini "roads" are not the work of men but natural rock formations. (And somewhere I recall seeing that similar rock formations ...I think off Japan were natural formations not the work of refugee Atlanteans). Isla de mujeres...."Island of women" as I recall, was not named after statues of women found there but because the Pirates of the Caribbean, used to leave their women there whilst they went raiding....and a rather nice place for them to be left from my experience of the place. Anyway, I've wasted more than enough time writing this review. It is, in my opinion, not worth reading. I give it half a star because I can't give it less. ....And there are some interesting photos. show less

Atlantis. Just the name conjures up mysteries and undiscovered secrets of a past, magnificent, and now fallen civilization. Unsurprisingly, in modern times, countless books have been written on the subject; numerous movies have been made; and just as many theories have been espoused. Did Atlantis exist? If so, why are there no physical traces of an island past the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ (Straits of Gibraltar) that Plato (427-347 BC) describes as being ‘larger than Libya and Asia show more together’ when the island supposedly was destroyed overnight in a volcanic explosion? The writings of Plato have prompted theories and debate for over 2000 years. Plato was not the only person to speculate about Atlantis. There are 24 or so references to Atlantis by ancient authors, whose works date from 4000 BC to 450 AD (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Indian writers). Many people believe the tale to be complete fiction; others believe that the story was inspired by catastrophic events that may have destroyed the Minoan civilization on the islands of Crete and Thera. Still others maintain that the story is an accurate telling of a long-lost and almost completely forgotten land.

I love the whole concept of Atlantis, and fell upon Frank Joseph’s book eagerly. The author puts forward the theory, and compellingly so, that the culture itself spread widely throughout the Mediterranean, Africa (north and west), and as far as the Americas, although the physical island base was not as large as Plato describes. Various jumping off points and established colonies maintained the strength and control of the Atlanteans over conquered territories. The author provides numerous cited examples, including wars, archaeological discoveries, massive architectural remains, similarities in names of places, people, gods, rulers, etc. (although I found some linguistic links a little tenuous).

The only area where I disagreed was the date. This has created problems ever since Plato pinpointed Atlantis as being in existence around 9600 BC, according to the legendary 6th century Athenian lawgiver Solon (supposedly the source of his story). Frank Joseph puts his Atlanteans rise and fall within more accurate periods, identifying the Atlanteans and their battle allies as the historically documented ‘Sea Peoples,’ a confederacy of seafaring raiders that attacked various countries such as Egypt, Anatolia, Syria, and Cyprus at the end of the Bronze Age (3200-600 BC). Plato calls the Atlanteans by name; historical records in the time the author cites (3200+) do not. Surely, such a powerful group, if they existed in the time of established record keeping (from 3100 BC), would have been named directly, although the 3rd century BC Egyptian historian Manetho describes a group that have similarities to the Atlantean survivors as ‘Auriteans.’

Plato describes the destruction of Atlantis as having taken place 9000 years earlier than the time he wrote. While this cataclysmic destruction sounds farfetched, the melting of ice caps and glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age (around 12000 BC) resulted in the Mediterranean Sea level rising by 200 feet or more, swamping coastal and island settlements. In addition, around 7500 BC extraordinary rainfall in the Middle East led to catastrophic flooding and other natural disasters, which again affected civilizations. Frank Joseph is more specific and points to four catastrophic events—the cyclical return of a comet and its debris—as being the downfall of this magnificent culture (3100; 2200; 1628 and 1198 BC.). Mass immigrations that followed each disaster spread the Atlanteans’ culture and achievements to Peru, Ireland, Greece, and Mexico, where descriptions of superior visitors are recorded.

The author also points to the particular metal, orichalcum, as being the source of the Atlanteans’ wealth, enabling them to achieve power quickly over their neighbours. Sound far-fetched? The Menomonie Indian tradition mentions fair-skinned strangers that mined the Earth’s ‘shiny bones’ in the North American Great Lakes area. However, by the time Plato wrote, the metal was known by name only.

Another telling point that resonates with the 21st century and the future is the reason the Atlanteans perished. Natural disasters aside, Plato describes the Atlanteans’ hubris, their overweening pride, as a symptom of a sick society. Once heralded for their pure and noble qualities, the Atlanteans became materialistic, proud, aggressive, and forgot the source of their good fortune. They ignored the gods, with dire consequences. Frank Joseph describes how the Atlanteans, at the zenith of their magnificence, thought they could go on conquering various people forever. In control of a purported global empire, who would stop them? They assumed that the rest of humanity would be better off under an Atlantean warlord. The author describes this kind of arrogance as just one of many that various civilizations indulged in before they crashed. “History is littered with the wreckage of broken civilizations…” The pattern of a rise to power, a period of uncontrolled carnage in conquering, and then decline is all too familiar. Herein lies a moral, historical, and cautionary tale for the future. An extensive bibliography is testament to the author’s mammoth research. Despite quibbling about dates, I enjoyed this book so much that I will definitely read other works by this author. show less

I always enjoy a book exploring this theme, because there's so much evidence for there having been a civilization before ours. This synthesizes a lot of data from varied streams, like geology, archaeology, linguistics and ethnography in a concise way. Just in language alone, there are so many words that are shared on each side of the Atlantic, so many similar place-names that have the same legends attached to them, that there had to be something connecting them. The conclusion of the book show more postulates a branch of homo sapiens that followed game out along land bridges to a central Atlantic island that became cut off by rising sea levels and eventually sank. In the meantime they developed sciences, navigation arts and who knows what else. In early November 1198 BC (so the author narrows it down to), the Atlantic was smashed by a huge meteor storm. The resulting geologic upheaval sank the remainder of the landmass caused many other disasters recorded around the globe. The Egyptians reported ashes in the sky and a final frenzied attack of the 'Sea People'. Virtually all of Europe and Asia Minor demonstrably burned, taking with it many great ancient cultures. Even in the Americas and Pacific basin meteors and ash and fire were recorded. Everywhere. The Taurid shower is a donut of debris that the Earth's orbit passes through twice a year (July with the stream and November against) and might explain the significance of bull worshiping cults and sacrifices around the world, as well as Day of the Dead, Hallows Eve type celebrations all clustered around the 1st of November, worldwide. Some interesting new ideas in this were that Plato's years were not classic solar years, but ceremonial lunar years, which was commonly used in Egypt, where Plato got the story in the first place, some acknowledgment of the Michigan Upper Peninsula copper mines that were worked on a massive scale three thousand years ago (just the right time for some sort of Atlantean culture, who by the way was wealthy and famous for their high grade copper trade and expert levels of sea navigation), and just the small mountain of shared myths and shared words and places world wide. I would consider it a key reference for anyone interested in the subject. show less

Atlantis: And Other Lost Worlds by Frank Joseph is a recommended for those interested in speculation about Atlantis and Lemuria (Mu).

After researching and writing a paper about Atlantis many years ago, the sunken city has always fascinated me. Joseph gathers evidence that he claims support the conclusion that Atlantis really existed, where it most likely was located, along with information about their religious beliefs, as well as other thoughts. He does the same for the lost civilization of show more Lemuria, also known as Mu. This is a book which is clearly for those who already have an interest in the topic.

Obviously, many books about Atlantis are going to have a lot of speculation rather than hard facts, which makes them entertaining, but not necessarily a scholarly work that will be taken seriously by experts. Joseph manages to present a plethora of conjecture along with some discoveries and facts that could be interpreted to potentially be Atlantis - and Lemuria. The most important thing to note is that there are no footnotes or chapter notes, so the reader has no other point of reference to refer to. There are archeological discoveries discussed, but no extensive research into them. There is only a limited bibliography.

I also wanted more pictures. There are some pictures, but certainly not enough to prove and document many things described. It also stretches my credulity when Edgar Cayce is a major source of evidence. Read it for fun if you are interested in the topic, but don't expect a serious scholarly work with well documented information.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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