This Theory Connects Atlantis And The Black Sea Flood

Atlantis began as a legend invented by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato but has lingered on in our collective imagination ever since, especially after some historians considered the possibility that he could have been inspired by real-life events. According to History, the 19th-century writer revived the concept of the underwater civilization being a real place that was highly advanced before it reached its watery grave, where survivors could have given ancient societies the knowledge for metallurgy and agriculture. Others feel that Atlantis is a mythical retelling of a historical flood, like the Black Sea Deluge.

The Black Sea was very likely flooded thousands of years ago as melting ice caps caused the Mediterranean to spill over. While new evidence shows that the flooding was less severe than initially thought, if it even happened at all, any towns or civilizations on the lake's shore would have had to flee the rapidly rising waters. Could tales of a sudden flood drowning out entire villages have inspired Plato to create the sunken civilization of Atlantis?

History Things notes that the Black Sea Deluge occurred thousands of years before Plato was even born, which could enhance or harm its chances of being the inspiration for the myth. On one hand, the tales would have needed to survive for several thousand years to reach Pluto's ears, which seems unlikely given that we now know the Black Sea flooding was less catastrophic than previously thought. Yet had stories about flooded towns passed through so many generations, it's easy to imagine how they could be exaggerated to the point where advanced civilizations (rather than prehistoric villages) were washed under the sea.

The locations also don't quite add up. Plato was adamant that Atlantis was found in the mid-Atlantic just past the Rock of Gibraltar. Could the survivors of the Black Sea Deluge and their descendants have ended up west of Greece, then made their way back east toward Plato? Natural disasters have inspired many mythological and religious tales, like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Indeed, it's not out of the question that Plato's myth could have the slightest tinge of truth to it, even if there are no ruins of an advanced civilization on the bottom of the seafloor.