ANSAmed

(by Giulio Gelibter) (ANSAmed) - ATHENS, NOVEMBER 13 - Atlantis, the great civilisation lost after an ancient cataclysm, is no longer a myth, but has become a serious subject for scientific research thanks to a multidisciplinary approach using satellite and new technologies. This is the news from the second International conference in Athens 'Atlantis theory, In search of a lost land''. And the new approach will help to put aside the innumerable, often fantastic theories regarding the five continents, and will concentrate on the more concrete ones: that places Atlantis on the south-west coast of Spain, and at Santorini in the Aegean. "We have moved from theoretical speculation to serious scientific research. This is the great news from Athens" said Dr. Massimiliano Stucchi from the National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology in Milan. Stucchi presented a memorial to expert Marcello Cosci who used satellite imaging to place Atlantis near the island of Sherbro off the Costa Leone. "There is no doubt that research and studies into Atlantis have undergone an important change in emphasis" said Professor Mario Negri from the Institute of Humanities at the Iulum University in Milan. "The myth, especially the Greek one, is not a story, an invention, and this conference has contributed to a wholly scientific approach which is needed for reinterpreting it, using all means at our disposal." Professor Stavros Marinopoulos, professor in Geophysics at the University of Patrasso suggests that we should go back to the original mythology. "For the ancients, mythology was a source of information about the past. A myth should be analysed with multidisciplinary methods to penetrate the nucleus, removing the exaggerations". So the shared opinion is that it will be possible to concentrate on more concrete theories, starting with Santorini. "The willingness to go in that direction is what came out of the meetings" says Negri. An eruption in the 17th century BC destroyed the island of Thera, the remains of which is now Santorini, and causing an enormous tsunami on Crete which speeded up the fall of the Minoan civilisation. Papamarinopoulos announced that the next conference, the third, will take place on Santorini. But he hasn't abandoned the other theory, the Spanish one which identifies Atlantis with Tartessos, the mysterious, ancient city on the coast of Andalusia. This theory was advanced at the beginning of the 20th century by archaeologist Adolf Schulten, and supported recently by experts Wickboldt and Kuehne thanks to satellite photos which reveal huge manmade structures. Wickboldt presented a memorial to the conference stressing that despite the lack of an archaeological survey, geophysical and electromagnetic examinations "support the theory". But it is not even certain whether the city of Tartessos existed. Mentioned by Herodotus and Strabo, when the Romans occupied Spain in the 3rd century BC, it had already vanished into legend. (ANSAmed).