The flashy golden metal
can only be brass, an alloy of copper and zinc of very difficult synthesis
whose technology would only be mastered again in modern times.
The lavish use of metals by the Atlanteans
extended to the gold and the silver used with abundance in their temples
and palaces. Alexander, in his fabled conquest of the Indies, had the opportunity
of seeing in person the multitude of golden pillars quite like the ones
the kings of Atlantis used to inscribe their laws and edits. Proclus, a
Neo-Platonic that commented Plato's works, tells how Crantor, another Neo-Platonic,
could still see, in Egypt, the golden pillar that the priests of Sais showed
to the tourists, and which was inscribed with scripts telling the story
of the lost continent.
Proclus also affirms that Atlantis' remains
formed an archipelago in the Outer Ocean, "beyond the Pillars of Hercules".
In brief, many traditions concur in the fact that Atlantis was immensely
rich in all sorts of metals and minerals such as gemstones, and particularly
in tin, gold and silver, which it furnished to all nations of the ancient
world. Traditions such as those of Solomon's fabulous mines in Ophir, or
of heroes such as Ulysses and the Argonauts seeking the fabled golden
realms of Phaeacia and Aiaia are no more than dim recollections of Atlantis,
distorted and magnified to impossible limits by the ancient bards. So are the ancient traditions such as the bronzy walls of Hades, the golden and silvery mountains of the Far Orient, and the Eldorado
of the Conquistadors, who mistook the Americas for the Indies, the true
site of Atlantis-Eden.
Some of these golden realms are sunken cities like
the flashy submarine realm of Poseidon (Aigaia), or the likewise
superb golden palace of Triton, in the bottom of the Ocean. Others were
explicitly submerged by the Flood, as was the case of golden Troy and its
bronzy walls or the one of Atlantis itself. Finally, most were remote
islands of the Far East, located beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Such was
the case of the rosy Erytheia of Geryon and of the mysterious islands mentioned
by Proclus, who equated them with the fabled remains of Atlantis.
In every case it is possible to show
as we do elsewhere that all these half-sunken realms turned into islands
are indeed the same as those of Indonesia. More exactly they also include
the Moluccas (or Spice Islands or Golden Islands), as well as the nearby
lands of Malasia (South and Southeast Asia). These forlorn islands are,
moreover, the same as the Elysium or Isles of the Blest, the paradisial
Hades where our dead Atlantean ancestors spend their eternal life in joyful
banquets, games, dances, hunts and fishings. This dismal Paradise was yet
the same the Egyptians called Punt (or Amenti or Duat, etc.).
17) Superior Science
and Technology
The only hard evidence given by Plato of
a superior technology utilized by the Atlanteans consists in the use of
orichalc, the mysterious metal which "flashed like fire" and which they
used to clad the walls of their citadel. As we adduced above (see item
16) orichalc or aurichalcum, that is "golden copper", as Pliny wrote
is brass, an alloy of copper and zinc of a beautiful golden colour and
superior mechanical properties.
The manufacture of brass was a technological
feat that could only be repeated in modern times due to the difficulties
inherent in the process. The fact that the Atlanteans could mass produce
this alloy is a direct proof of their superior science and technology.
So is, for that matter, the fact that they could mass produce metals and
gemstones in quantity sufficient to supply the ancient nations with these
items so difficult to procure and to process in the primitive conditions
that were then prevalent.
The proofs of a superior science and technology
possessed by the Atlanteans are of a twofold nature: traditional and factual.
