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EVIDENCE OF ATLANTIS

By
Norman Scherer

A Hutton Commentaries Subscriber

Introduction

Much has been written about a lost civilization that existed thousands of years ago on a landmass in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet are we any closer to knowing if there really was an island continent located in the North Atlantic that gave birth to one of the world’s greatest civilizations? Most scientists scoff at the very idea. But science is an on-going, ever-changing, dynamic study of the world around us. New facts emerge, theories are adjusted and we inch slowly toward the ultimate truth.

True science adjusts its theories when new facts emerge and avoids falling into the trappings of dogma. While psychics like Edgar Cayce have given us much information about Atlantis, this material would not be deemed scientific unless it could be verified. People want proof. So let us take a look at what the Cayce readings actually say about Atlantis and if they can be verified scientifically.

Cayce gave an important reading about Atlantis on February 16, 1932. This reading states in part:

1. EC: Yes, we have the subject and those conditions. As has been said, much data has been received from time to time through psychic forces as respecting conditions in or through the period, or ages, of this continent's existence. That the continent existed is being proven as a fact.

2. Then, what took place during the period, or periods, when it was being broken up? What became of the inhabitants? What was the character of their civilization? Are there any evidences of these, or any portion of, the inhabitants' escape? The POSITION of the continent, and the like, MUST be of interest to peoples in the present day, if either by inference that individuals are being born into the earth plane to develop in the present, or are people being guided in their spiritual interpretation of individuals' lives or developments BY the spirits of those who inhabited such a continent. In either case, if these be true, they ARE WIELDING - and are to wield - an influence upon the happenings of the present day world.

3. The position as the continent Atlantis occupied, is that as between the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand - and the Mediterranean upon the other. Evidences of this lost civilization are to be found in the Pyrenees and Morocco on the one hand, British Honduras, Yucatan and America upon the other. There are some protruding portions within this that must have at one time or another been a portion of this great continent. The British West Indies or the Bahamas, and a portion of same that may be seen in the present - if the geological survey would be made in some of these - especially, or notably, in Bimini and in the Gulf Stream through this vicinity, these may be even yet determined.

4. What, then, are the character of the peoples? To give any proper conception, may we follow the line of a group, or an individual line, through this continent's existence - and gain from same something of their character, their physiognomy, and their spiritual and physical development.

5. In the period, then - some hundred, some ninety-eight thousand years before the entry of Ram into India - there lived in this land of Atlantis one Amilius [?], who had first NOTED that of the separations of the beings as inhabited that portion of the earth's sphere or plane of those peoples into male and female as separate entities, or individuals. As to their forms in the physical sense, these were much RATHER of the nature of THOUGHT FORMS, or able to push out OF THEMSELVES in that direction in which its development took shape in thought - much in the way and manner as the amoeba would in the waters of a stagnant bay, or lake, in the present. As these took form, by the gratifying of their own desire for that as builded or added to the material conditions1, they became hardened or set - much in the form of the existent human body of the day, with that of color as partook of its surroundings much in the manner as the chameleon in the present. Hence coming into that form as the red, or the mixture peoples - or colors; known then later by the associations as the RED race.

Reading 364-3

Much information can be gleaned from this single reading. It gives rough boundaries for Atlantis and gives us some clues where we still may find evidence of that civilization. It would seem logical that the American Indian, as the prime representative of the “RED” race, and the various people populating the Yucatan area and British Honduras (Belize) would show remnants of the Atlantean civilization. Of course Bimini, is specifically mentioned as an important site. The Pyrenees Mountains and Morocco are mentioned as areas that would show evidence of what would be the eastern coast of Atlantis. From this it would seem obvious that the central area of this landmass would lie over what is now called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Therefore, there should be some scientific evidence of Atlantis in the general area of the MAR.

 

Map of the Atlantic Ocean showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Fig. 1. The North Atlantic showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and some areas where we might find evidence of Atlantis.

 

First Exploration of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The longest mountain system on Earth--the mysterious Mid-Atlantic Ridge, extends nearly 10,000 miles from Iceland almost to the Antarctic Circle. It is roughly 300-600 miles wide, separating the Atlantic Ocean into eastern and western basins about three miles deep. The range is probably continuous except for a narrow break at the Equator called the Romanche Trench. From its base on the ocean floor, at a depth of about 3 miles, the Ridge rears its rugged crest to an average height of 10,000 feet or about a mile below the surface. A few of its peaks actually emerge as islands of the Azores, St. Paul Rocks, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha, Gough and Bouvet.  Dr. Maurice Ewing, former Professor of Geology, Columbia University was the leader of an expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) sponsored jointly by the National Geographic Society, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Columbia University. The MAR was first discovered 75 years before this first expedition which set sail in a research vessel (ironically named the Atlantis) on July 16, 1947.  Dr Ewing wrote of his journey and discoveries over the MAR in two articles for National Geographic Magazine.2,3

Dr. Ewing examines a 60-million year old rock retrieved from the foot of a cliff on the flank of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. Copyright National Geographic.

One of the first areas investigated by Ewing’s group was a seamount northeast of Bermuda on their way out to the Ridge. They decided to take their first core sample from the center of the mount, about a mile below the surface. When the core was examined later at Columbia University they were surprised to find that after 8 inches of typical deep-sea sediment called "globigerina ooze" the sample became much whiter and graded into finer grained chalk containing foraminifera of Eocene Age. As Dr. Ewing explained,

This meant that an interval of 60 million years had gone by between the deposition of chalk in the bottom of the core and the top 8 inches of ooze and added greatly to the mystery of the origin and history of the seamount. Our discovery of open-ocean sediments of Eocene Age on a seamount near Bermuda, far to the west of the MAR, is hard to reconcile with the Wegener Theory of the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. According to that theory, advanced by the late German scientist Alfred Wegener, the Atlantic Basin was formed by the "drifting apart" of the continents upon the molten interior of the Earth, and the Atlantic Ocean in Eocene times was only a very narrow rift in the vicinity of the Ridge. Our core showed that this western part of the Atlantic was ocean even that long ago.4

This would seem to preclude using the continental drift theory as a reason for Atlantis not existing. In other words, there was room for Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean as far back as 60 million years ago.

Another surprising discovery was a great plain that took them over two and a half days to cross. The bottom of the deep ocean was thought by most geologists (at that time) to be covered with a great and uniform thickness of sediment--thousands of feet thick--which has accumulated upon it like a steady un-drifted snowfall since its formation and which remained forever undisturbed. However, from a point about 385 nautical miles northeast of Bermuda to a point about 945 miles west of the Azores the sediment was less than 100 feet thick. This would seem to indicate that accumulation of sediment had not been occurring in this area for very long. Why?

Dr Ewing also found what appeared to be "beach-like terraces two miles deep".5 His hypothesis was that the long, level terraces, with sediments ranging up to 3000 feet thick, were submerged shore lines. Ewing tried to label this as "extremely radical speculation to identify these level stretches more than two miles below the sea surface as former beaches6.” But obviously, that's what they looked like otherwise why bother to hypothesize about them? Just because, as Ewing noted, "such a theory would require the obvious but almost incredible conclusion that the land here has subsided two miles..."7 does not mean that such subsidence could not have occurred however.

Dr. Ewing's first expedition over the MAR was summarized by him by making note of the following discoveries:

On the western side of the Ridge stretches the great plain of the American Basin. It is very level and over 3 miles deep. No sedimentation is present. The American approach to the Ridge is rough and rises slightly and has a thick sediment layer 1,000 to 2,000 feet in about three-fourth's of the cases; none in the others. On the western flanks of the Ridge lie level stretches, 2 to 20 miles broad, like terraces or beaches. These stretches showed thick sediments, ranging up to 3,000 feet. Rough higher ground often separates successive terraces, and occasional isolated peaks punctuate this part of the Ridge. The Central Highland of the Ridge comes to within a mile of the surface in some areas and is always rugged with never a flat stretch and no sedimentation.8

Also discovered within a deep gorge was tremolite asbestos9 which is generally considered typical of continents and not of ocean basins. On the return voyage, about halfway between Bermuda and New York (300 miles from the coast) at a depth of over 2 miles they found beach sand which must have been a coastline at one time.10

The following year Dr. Ewing again went out on two additional cruises staying out over the MAR for over 4 months covering the area from the latitude of Newfoundland to almost down to the bulge of South America. One of the more puzzling discoveries on this second cruise was the discovery of…

...prehistoric beach sand in two core samples of the bottom, brought up in one case from a depth of two and in the other nearly three and one-half miles, far from any place where beaches exist today. In one case there were actually two layers of sand, one 20,000 to 100,000 years old and the other 225,000 to 325,000, these ages being calculated from the depth and the average rate at which sediment is deposited.11

Dr. Ewing offers two "startling" theories on how that beach sand got there:

Sometime in the distant past this sand, found deep beneath the ocean, must have been located on a beach, at or near the surface of the sea. Either the land must have sunk two to three miles, or the sea must have been two to three miles lower than now. Either conclusion is startling. If the sea was once two miles lower, where could all the extra water have gone? Some sand found in other places on the Atlantic bottom undoubtedly was rafted out from shore by floating ice during past glacial periods. But the grains in the sand we found are well sorted into various sizes, with no large fragments. This fact suggests that here is a real beach, unless the sand was originally picked up from a beach by the ice which is extremely unlikely. One of the sand deposits is 1,200 miles from land and so far south that it is improbable that ice could ever have carried sand that far before melting.12

In other words, a part of the Atlantic Ocean, 1,200 miles from land, had to be a beach at one time.

Again Dr. Ewing mentions how they had checked sediment depths in "more than 3,000 different places over vast areas of the Atlantic." While there are

thousands of feet of sediments on the foothills of the Ridge, surprisingly, however, we have found in the great flat basins on either side of the Ridge this sediment appears to be less than 100 feet thick, a fact so startling that it needs further checking.13

So it seems that as far back as the first scientific expedition over the MAR there was already some evidence that some areas of the MAR may have sunk in pre-historic times.

 

The RED Race

Another statement made in reading 364-3 is that Atlantis was home to what is termed the “RED race” and evidence of Atlantis could be found in America. Since the American Indian is the only “red race” left, it makes sense to conclude that some of the remaining tribes should show some genetic evidence of an unknown ancestor. Conventional theories on the origins of the North American Indian center on the migration of people across the former land bridge spanning the Bering Strait (Beringia) from Siberia. Genetic studies to date seem to bear this out. Approximately 97% of all North American Indians fall into four major (or founder) haplogroups designated A,B,C and D. Briefly, a haplogroup can be defined as a cluster of similar haplotypes. A haplotype (contraction of “haploid” and “genotype”) is a set of closely linked alleles that are inherited as a unit with an allele being one of several different forms of a gene occupying a particular location on a chromosome. So all four of these haplogroups show a strong Mongoloid component which would support the contention of an eastern Siberian people migrating into western America and then fanning out eventually across the entire country. Recently, however, a fifth haplogroup has also been proposed. This is because some tribes exhibit genetic characteristics that preclude them from being designated in the above four groups. They have been assigned a fifth, albeit minor, founding lineage designated as “X”. Unlike haplogroups A,B,C and D, haplogroup X is also found at low frequencies in modern European populations (~4%). It is virtually absent from Asian populations (see Table 1). A recent study concluded:

In studies of Native American mtDNA diversity, the co-occurrence of the same haplogroup at significant frequencies in both the modern Native American and European populations is unique. Recent European genetic admixture cannot explain the presence of haplogroup X in the Amerindians. First, if the occurrence of haplogroup X were the result of female gene flow from Europeans, then other, more common European mtDNA haplogroups should also be present in the northern Native Americans, and they are not. Second, the Native American and European mtDNAs are very different and are connected only through an ancient common ancestor. Hence, Native American and European haplogroup X mtDNAs diverged long ago. Finally, Native American haplogroup X mtDNAs encompass substantial continent-specific diversity, implying an ancient arrival in America. Thus, haplogroup X represents a fifth founding mtDNA haplogroup for the Native Americans, supporting the conclusions of Bailliet et al. (1994), Forster et al. (1996), and Scozzari et al. (1997).14

Of course this was extremely controversial in light of the currently accepted theories of North Amerindian origins involving land bridges over the Bering Strait. Since almost all of the tribes exhibiting haplogroup X are centered around the northern Great Lakes area and east of there, and no Asian group had been found with haplogroup X, it makes sense to conclude there was a land bridge (Atlantis) between northeastern America and Europe. Of course this conclusion was not a viable option so they concluded that they didn’t sample enough Asian populations.

Table 1. Frequency of Haplogroup X mtDNAs in Native American and Asian Populations
 
Population
(n)		 Frequency of Haplogroup X
(%)		 Reference(s)
Native Americans    
    Na-Dene    
        Haida (41) . . . Ward et al. (1993)
        Dogrib (30) . . . Torroni et al. (1993a)
        Apache (25) . . . Torroni et al. (1993a)
        Navajo (92) 6.5 Torroni et al. (1993a), present study
    Amerindians:    
        North America:    
            Northern Ojibwa (28) 25.0 Torroni et al. (1993a), present study
            Southern Ojibwa (35) 25.7 Scozzari et al. (1997), present study
            Sioux (41) 14.6 Bianchi and Bailliet (1997)
            Nuu-Chah-Nulth (15) 13.3 Torroni et al. (1993a), present study
            Nuu-Chah-Nulth (63) 11.1* Ward et al. (1991)
            Yakima (42) 4.8* Shields et al. (1993)
            Bella Coola (40) . . . Ward et al. (1993)
            Pima (30) . . . Torroni et al. (1993a)
            Seminole (37) . . . Huoponen et al. (1997)
        Central America (243) . . . Torroni et al. (1993a, 1994a, 1994c), Kolman et al. (1995)
        South America (451) . . . Ginther et al. (1993), Horai et al. (1993), Torroni et al. (1993a), Easton et al. (1996), Ribeiro-Dos-Santos et al. (1996)
    American Eskimos (22) . . . Shields et al. (1993)
Asians    
    Siberian:    
        Eskimos (157) . . . Ivanova (1993), Shields et al. (1993), Torroni et al. (1993b), Starikovskaya et al. (1998)
        Chukchi (66) . . . Starikovskaya et al. (1998)
        Koryak (107) . . . T. Schurr and D. C. Wallace (unpublished data)
        Nivkhs (57) . . . Torroni et al. (1993b)
        Evenks (51) . . . Torroni et al. (1993b)
        Udegeys (45) . . . Torroni et al. (1993b)
    Tibetans (54) . . . Torroni et al. (1994b)
    Mongolians (103) . . . Kolman et al. (1996)
    Koreans (319) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992), Lee et al. (1997)
    Malaysian Chinese (14) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992)
    Taiwanese Han (20) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992)
    Vietnamese (28) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992)
    Malays (14) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992)
    Malay Aborigines (32) . . . Ballinger et al. (1992)
* Putative and obtained from literature report---only partial CR sequence was available. These samples have the 16223T and 16278T CR mutations and do not belong to Native American mtDNA haplogroups A--D; thus it is probable that they are members of haplogroup X.

Table 115 shows that 1,039 Asian people were genetically tested and none showed haplogroup X. In a follow-up study16 they tested an additional 790 Asians and they finally found seven people who could be classified as belonging to haplogroup X.

 
Table 2. Survey of Asian mtDNAs for the Presence of Haplogroup X
 
Population Total Tested Number with
Haplogroup X
  Buryats 105   0
  Tuvinians 111   0
  Koryaks 35   0
  Evens 65   0
  Yakuts 62   0
  Khakassians 54   0
  Shors 42   0
  Sojots 34   0
  Altaians 202   7
  Evenks 80   0
 

Total:  

790

  

7

 

Map of Altai in Central AsiaThis is less than 0.4% of all the Asians tested. All seven came from the remote central Asian area known as Altai at the crossroads of Mongolia, China, Russia and Kazakhstan. It is located at 50N 85E which is practically halfway around the world from the Great Lakes area where almost all the Indians with haplogroup X were found. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that,

the candidate source population for American Indian mtDNA haplotypes therefore may include the populations originating in the regions to the southwest and southeast of Lake Baikal, including the Altai Mountain region [even though]… the X mtDNAs that we detected in the Altaian sample do not bear the 16213A and 200G variants that are characteristic of most American Indian haplogroup X mtDNAs.17

Apparently, this “candidate source” from tiny Altai, traveled across Siberia, over the Bering Strait, through Alaska, Canada and northwest America, crossed the Rocky Mountains and all the Great Plains and settled in the Great Lakes area without mixing with any other populations along the way because no one from Altai east to the Great Lakes shows haplogroup X. Yet this migration is supposed to have taken place and is a viable conclusion from the data!

Perhaps there is a more viable genetic source for the American Indian that didn't have to travel quite so far from home to reach America? In a study published in Tissue Antigens in October 1999 I found the following abstract:

 

Tissue Antigens. 1999 Oct;54(4):349-59.

 


Erratum in:

  • Tissue Antigens 1999 Dec;54(6):628.

 

Click here to read 

HLA in the Azores Archipelago: possible presence of Mongoloid genes.

Bruges-Armas J, Martinez-Laso J, Martins B, Allende L, Gomez-Casado E, Longas J, Varela P, Castro MJ, Arnaiz-Villena A.

Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital de Santo Espirito de Angra do Heroismo, Azores.

The HLA profile of the Azoreans has been compared with those of other world populations in order to provide additional information regarding the history of their origins. The allele frequencies, genetic distances between populations, correspondence analyses and most frequent haplotypes were calculated. Our results indicate that the Azorean population most likely contains an admixture of high-frequency Caucasoid, Mongoloid and, to a lesser degree, Negroid HLA genes. The middle Atlantic Azores Archipelago was officially colonized by the Portuguese after 1439 and historical records are concordant with the existence of Caucasoid and Negroid population. However, Mongoloid genes were not suspected, but the Oriental HLA haplotypes A24-B44-DR6-DQ1, A29-B21-DR7-DQ2 and A2-B50-DR7-DQ2 are the fourth, fifth and sixth most frequent ones in Azores. A correspondence analysis shows that the Azorean population is equidistant from Asian and European populations and genetic distances are in some cases closer to the Asian than to European ethnic groups, and never are significantly different; also, B*2707 subtype is found in Asians and Azoreans (but not in Europeans) and the same Machado-Joseph Disease founder haplotypes (Chr 14) are found in both Japanese and Azoreans. It is proposed that a Mongoloid population exists in Azores; whether, the arrival occurred prior to discovery is undetermined.
 

Maybe the Azores (which many consider as merely the mountain peaks of Atlantis) would be a more logical "candidate source" for the genetic makeup of the American Indian. Could it be that the major genetic source for the American Indian didn't travel from the west across the Bering Strait via Berengia, but came from the east and landed on the Atlantic seaboard when their homeland disappeared beneath the waves? Unfortunately, genetic theories that include the possibility of a former continent in the Atlantic Ocean are generally not considered viable by mainstream science.

 

In another reading we find specific mention of the Iroquois as direct descendants of Atlanteans.

The entity then was among the people, the Indians, of the Iroquois; those of noble birth, those that were of the pure descendants of the Atlanteans, those that held to the ritualistic influences from nature itself.

Reading 1219-1

What do we know about the Iroquois? They were a tribe made of five Nations (later six) that were centered in the State of New York and southern Quebec. Much can be learned from their website at Welcome to Iroquois.net which is maintained by the Iroquois themselves and gives much detail about their history and traditions. Especially noteworthy is their form of government upon which they say our Founding Fathers based our own Constitution. This was taken from their “Great Law of Peace”. A cursory look at a typical encyclopedia entry would include much of the following:

No other native Indian government north of Mexico has been the subject of so much study as the confederacy or league of the Iroquois, and probably no other was so complex and exact in detail and so wisely adapted to permit the fullest measure of freedom to each component tribe, while securing united action in all that concerned the whole. In general plan, it might be compared to our own system of independent state and federal jurisdiction, and in fact the Iroquois themselves, at the outbreak of the Revolution, recommended their system as a model for imitation by the American patriots...  

Their location in New York could “fit” with a possible area that was not too distant from their possible homeland of Atlantis or perhaps that area was part of Atlantis and never sank. Reading 364-13 seems to bear this out. It describes the world before the last pole shift and reads in part:

That along the Atlantic board formed the outer portion then, or the lowlands of Atlantis.

I am not sure what haplogroup the Iroquois tribe belongs in as I cannot find a specific study that deals with this issue. What would be interesting to see is a study that would compare the genetic data of either the Ojibwa (Chippewa) (known haplogroup X carriers) or one of the Iroquois tribes and two other populations that may have had Atlantean “roots”: the Berbers of North Africa and the Basque from the Pyrenees. If a genetic relationship can be found between these two groups from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean then science may be forced into making conclusions about the existence of Atlantis.

 

Morocco

Another area said to contain evidence of Atlantis yet on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean is Morocco. This land was first settled by a people encountered by the Romans and named Berbers. A simple “Google” search of “Berber history” yields the following information about the people:

The origin of Berbers is not certain either, some believe they may have come from Europe, but it is safest to consider the Berbers as the original population of North Africa.

From the Atlas Mountains--the northwest border of the Sahara desert--to the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts and the Strait of Gibraltar--gateway to Europe--Morocco is a unique and historically crucial African territory. Berbers lived there over 3000 years ago.

A current theory on the origin of the Berber population is that they were descended from Hamites who came from the Red Sea coast. These Hamite-speaking people were subdivided into Berbers, Egyptians and Ethiopians. The Berbers were thought to have continued west through Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. In Roman times their population was around 3 million spread through-out North Africa. The Arabs conquered Morocco in the 8th century.

In a study to determine the genetic profiles of Arab-speaking Moroccans18, it was found that they were still genetically Berbers or Imazhigans and the Basque (who live in the Pyrenees) were also related. Some of their findings are summarized in Table 3 below.

 

Table 3. “Standard Genetic Distances between Moroccans and other populations”.

Standard genetic distances (SGD) between Moroccans and other populations (x 102) obtained by using HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies (Negative values may be assumed as 0 values; otherwise, the highest negative value may be regarded as the closest one). Standard error is 0 in all cases.
Population

HLA-DRB1
 (SGD x 102)
Algerians (Algiers) -5.83
Berbers (Agadir) -2.77
Spaniards 3.02
Basques 8.98
Non-Ashkenazi Jews 10.87
French 11.30
Ashkenazi Jews 15.69
Italians 16.75
Cretans 22.46
Moroccan Jews 25.19
Sardinians 30.06
Lebanese (NS) 46.51
Lebanese (KZ) 54.04
Japanese 86.30
Greeks 89.17
San (Bushman) 122.71

 

In another genetic study comparing Tunisian Berbers with other Berber groups, the combined data

support the hypothesis that the Berbers are native to North Africa and their ancestors, the first modern man (Homo sapiens) of North Africa, were the founders of the European populations.19

One of the problems of Mediterranean ethnography has been the lack of genetic marker data coming from southern Mediterranean populations. This has led to a lack of comparative genetic studies between northern and southern Mediterraneans. The powerful genetic polymorphisms of the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) system have been used to identify individuals and populations. The HLA system has been used to identify individuals in order to solve paternity suits and also in forensic problems. DNA-typed HLA class II alleles and the discovery of new loci even increase the HLA strength for distinguishing individuals. This HLA discriminating ability may be used to identify populations because particular alleles only appear or are very frequent in certain populations. Particular combinations of neighboring alleles (HLA haplotypes) are in characteristic frequency in certain living populations.

In an effort to increase the data pool for southern Mediterranean populations a study was undertaken of Algerian Berbers and their relationship to other European groups particularly the Basque and Spanish population. Their findings can be summarized below:

 

TABLE 4. The nine most frequent estimated extended haplotypes in Algerians and tentative assignment to the original contributing ethnic groups.
 

HLA-A,B,C

HLA-DRBI-DRB3/4

HLA-DQAI-DQB1

HF
(%)

Possible origin
A1 B57 Cw7 DR7(DRB1*07-DRB4*0101) DQ2(DQA1-0201-DQB1*0201)a 1.9 Iberian-paleo-North African (Basque-Algerian)
A30 B18 Cw5 DR3(DRB1*0301-DRB3*0202) DQ2(DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201)b 1.5 Iberian-paleo-North African
A33 B14 Cw8 DR1(DRB1*0102) DQ5(DQA1*O1-DQB1*0501)c 1.5 Mediterranean
A2 B35 Cw4 DR11(DRB1*1104-DRB3*0202) DQ7(DQA1*0501-DQB1*0301)d 1.5 Mediterranean
A2 B35 Cw4 DR3(DRB1*0301-DRB3*0101) DQ2(DQA1*0501-DQB1*0202)e 1.5 Mediterranean (also in Sardinians)
A3 B49 Cw7 DR11(DRB1*1102-DRB3*0202) DQ7(DQAI*0501-DQB1*0301)f 1.5 Autochrhonous
A3 B7 Cw7 DR15(DRBI*1501) DQ6(DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602)g 1.5
A26 B44 Cb1 DR15(DRB1*1502) DQ6(DQA1*0103-DQB1*0601)f 0.9 Autochrhonous
A2 B44 Cw5 DR4(DRB1*0402-DRB4*0101) DQ8(DQA1*03-DQB1*0302)f 0.9 Autochrhonous
A2 B7 Cw7 DR15(DRB1*1501) DQ6(DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602)h 0.9

HF, haplotype frequency expressed as percentage. Alleles DQA1*0101 and 0104 were all assigned as DQA1*01
 
a

Only common to French-Basques (HF: 2.7) and Spanish-Basques (HF: 1.2) [3, 18]. It is probably a haplotype of a paleo-North African-Iberian origin; it is different from the worldwide distributed A 1-B57-DR7 haplotype which goes with Cw6 and DQ9. In a study done in 1981 in the Algerian/Kabyle population, this haplotype was also found to be the second most frequent [391. It was described as A1-Bw17.
b Also found in Spaniards (HF: 3.1), Sardinians (HF: 11.4), and French-Basques (HF: 4.7) [181. Its frequency is much lower or absent in other Caucasoid populations. This haplotype was defined as Iberian-paleo-North African [ 191. Presently, reported data on Algerians support this hypothesis. Bouali et al. [39] found this haplotype to be the first most frequent in Algerians; it was described as 1318-BtFl.
c Shows the highest frequency in Armenians (HF: 3. 1) and is also high in frequency or present in other Mediterranean Caucasoid populations and as Sardinians (HE: 2.7), Spaniards (HF: 2.6), French (HF: 1 4), Greeks (HF: 1. l), and Italians (HF: 0.7) [181. Bouali et al. [39] found it in Algerians. This haplotype does not appear in Basques and has a much lower frequency in northern European Caucasoid populations [3]. The fact that Armenians (and not Basques) bear this marker does not support a theory that Basques and Armenians are related and with common descent [31. Armenians may have acquired this haplotype during their historical Middle East Mediterranean settlements in the middle ages [451. Alternatively, this haplotype may be of Armenian origin.
d

Also found in Italians (HE: 2.3) and Greeks (HF: 2.0) [181. B35-DR11-DQ7 is also present in non-Iberian Mediterranean areas such as Albania (HF: 3.3), Armenia (HF: 5.0), and France (HF: 1.1) and in other populations such as Germans (HF: 3.4), Indians (HF: 3. 1), and Hungarians (HE: 3.9) [181.
e Common to Sardinians (HF: 2.7) and French (HF: 1.0) [ 18]. HLA-B35-DR3-DQ2 is also present in Greeks (HF: 1.9) and Uralic populations (HE: 3.1) [181. It could be a non-Iberian Mediterranean haplotype.
f Only present in Algerians.
g Appears in Spaniards (HF: 1.4) [31 and has been defined as a northern European haplotype 1291 due to its high frequency in Danes (HF: 3.6), Austrians (HF: 3.2), Czecks (HF: 2.5), Germans (HF 2.5), Yugoslavians (HF: 2.4), and also in French (HF: 1.8) and Italians (HF: 0.6) [18].
h Common to French-Basques (HF: 3.6), Cornish (HF: 3.6), Austrians (HF: 2.6), Britons (HF: 2.3), and Spaniards (HF: 1.9) 0,181 and does not appear in high frequency in northern Caucasoids, such as Scandinavian, or in other Mediterraneans. This haplotype is extended throughout England, Spain, and northern Africa.

 

The study noted that:

While the A1-B57-Cw6 haplotype is found in many populations over the world, A1-B57-Cw7 is found only in the Basque, Sardinian, Hottentote and Algerian populations. This characteristic groups the Basque with Algerians, Sardinians and other African populations (see dendrogram in Fig. 2). Also the A30-B18 haplotype was found common to the Basque, Spaniards, Sardinians and Algerians. It is a paleo-North African-Iberian marker.20

 

Dendrogram showing close relatedness of Algerians to Spaniards and Basques.
Fig 2. Dendrogram showing close relatedness of Algerians to Spaniards and Basques.

 

The study concluded:

Our results fully confirm that Basques and Spaniards cluster together with an African population, Algerians. This also supports the theory that Iberians and paleo-North African Hamites (mainly represented by Berbers at present) are genetically related populations with common ancestors and that Basques may be a relative isolate of these primitive Iberian populations. The genetic system used (HLA) is one of the most powerful and polymorphic genetic systems which may be utilized to discriminate populations. In addition, results obtained analyzing haplotype frequencies, particularly of the characteristic haplotype A-30-B18 and A1-B57-Cw7, which are probably markers of neolithic Iberian people (Table 4), further support a relatedness between paleo-North Africans (Berbers) and present-day Spaniards and Basques (Iberians).

In summary, in the present work, complete HLA data on Basques and Spaniards was compared for the first time with similar HLA data on a North African population (Algerian) with a high paleo-North African (Berber) component. Figure 2 (dendrogram) shows that Basques and Spaniards are closer to Algerians than to any other Caucasoid, Negroid or Mongoloid population….These data are the strongest reported genetic support for a common descent of Basques, Spaniards and Algerians [Berbers]…21.

Although reading 364-3 specifies Morocco as an area for Atlantean evidence and not Algeria, it may have been meant in more of an archeological context. Certainly the Berbers as an ethnic group were not bound by arbitrary divisions of the land they lived on into countries. Also it may be that Morocco was the original place in North Africa where Atlanteans first migrated and they subsequently fanned out in an easterly direction. This is in direct contradiction to what is currently accepted (see above). On the other hand, it may be remembered that many of the “life readings” channeled by Cayce mention people traveling from Atlantis to first the Pyrenees and then to Egypt. Perhaps some of the “former” Atlanteans who ended up in Egypt migrated west towards Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and “became” the Berbers. At any rate, a common ancestor of both the Basque population and the Berbers is now a fact. While this does not prove Atlantis in any way, the available genetic evidence could support either the current theory on the Berbers or the statements made in reading 364-3.

The “Quest for Atlantis”

A website named “Quest for Atlantis” also examines some interesting facts surrounding the languages and writings of our remote past.   It is a collection of materials from various scientific fields such as anthropology, geology, linguistics, archeology, paleontology, and ancient writings. The site ties information from these subject areas together with various legends and mythical stories to create a scientific basis for the historical existence of a place called Atlantis. The website is based on a book22 of the same name by Dr. R. Cedric Leonard. It highlights many areas the book covered and updates others. Dr. Leonard's credentials include a major in anthropology at the University of Oklahoma where he received his B.A. degree. Although concentrated on archaeology, his studies included Latin, Attic Greek, Classical Sanskrit and Linguistics. Majoring in languages at Oklahoma City University, he studied New Testament Greek under Prof. Thurman McGee--and schooled himself in the basics of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He also majored in Comparative Religion at the Kansas City College of Philosophy where he received his Doctorate in 1966.23

“Quest for Atlantis” offers an interesting and varied approach to the study of Atlantis. The website has separate articles from the above mentioned scientific fields summarizing the findings and offering possible different conclusions from the available evidence that would be proof of Atlantis. Some of the material is of course from Dr. Leonard's own area of expertise: linguistics and ancient writings. Dr. Leonard writes,

Scholars the world over have repeatedly declared that ancient sources describing Atlantis are plentiful, "but before Plato - nothing". They make such a declaration because of several reasons. (1) They disregard every record in which Atlantis is not mentioned by name. (2) Atlantis must be spelled the same way Plato spells it. (3) They are unfamiliar with the Sanskrit writings of India. These criteria are totally invalid.

He then describes two sources that pre-date Plato: ancient Egypt and India. From Egypt, Dr. Leonard describes the four basic facts known about the earliest Egyptian "rulers":

Plato described Atlantis as being ruled by ten kings before its demise. Egyptian king-lists going back thousands of years before Plato (we will look at one example here) establish four important facts which we should notice. They are:

  1. Egyptian tradition begins with the "reign of the gods"
  2. In all there were ten of these so-called "god-kings"
  3. They were said to have reigned in a foreign country
  4. From all appearances they were called "Atlanteans"

This last statement will be challenged by scholars, so let's take a closer look at the Egyptian king-lists. One noticeable fact is that Manetho (250 B.C.) calls the first series of kings who ruled during the "reign of the gods," Auriteans. This seems to be nothing more than a corruption of the word "Atlantean". Let me explain.

Egyptian hieroglyphics only approximate real sounds: for instance, a hieroglyphic "k" must be used to represent the hard "g" sound. The hieroglyph that Manetho transcribed as r can equally be transcribed as an l. Thus the "Auriteans" of Manetho's king-lists could just as well be "Auliteans": phonetically almost identical to "Atlanteans". This idea obtains credible support from the fact that the ancient Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon (1193 B.C.) calls these very same kings "Aleteans" (Cory, 1826). Isn't it likely that Aleteans=Atlanteans?

With respect to ancient India, Dr. Leonard writes:

Present day scholars are so steeped in Greek and Roman (western) culture that Indian sources are too often ignored. The Vishnu Purana (2000 B.C.), the oldest of the Hindu Puranas, speaks of Atala, the "White Island," which is one of the seven dwipas (islands) belonging to Patala (Book II, chaps. i, ii, and iii). The Purana locates Atala geographically on the seventh (heat, or climate) zone, which according to Col. Wilford (the translator) is 24 to 28 degrees north latitude: which puts it in the same latitude as the Canary Islands just off the North African coast.

Another Sanskrit writing:

The Mahabharata contains more than one account of a powerful island empire in the Atlantic which sank to the bottom of the "Western Ocean" following a horrendous war. As in the Vishnu Purana, it is called "the White Island, Atala" (which can be linked linguistically with the word "Atlantis"). Atala is described as an "island of great splendor," and its inhabitants are said to worship only one God (Santi Parva, Section CCCXXXVII). “Another description is remarkably similar to Plato's, even down to its circular capital city, Tripura! Tripura is made in three parts, just as Plato's Metropolis is divided into three parts by circular canals. The famed "Triple-city", with all its inhabitants, is sent burning to the bottom of the ocean in a most unique manner (Mahabharata). Atala is said to be inhabited by "white men who never have to sleep or eat". (Santi Parva, Section CCCXXXVII) The Greek historian Herodotus (450 B.C.) describes a tribe of Atlanteans who "never dream and eat no living thing". (History, Book IV) Can this be coincidence? And just as the god Poseidon is very much involved in the Atlantis story, likewise in the Sanskrit accounts we find Varuna (the Hindu Poseidon) very much involved in Atala.

Dr. Leonard covers many other areas at his website and many other cultures. His knowledge of ancient writings I find important because it predates Plato’s writings on Atlantis.

 

The Pyrenees

The Pyrenees Mountain area is home to a unique group of people who are called the Basques. In an article about the Basques, Robert Laxalt writes:

The Seven Regions of the Basque

The seven regions of the Basque

They call themselves Euskaldunak, their country Euskal-Herria their language Euskara. Their little homeland, once much larger in size, straddles the crest of the western Pyrenees between France and Spain. It is land of deep oak forests, green mountain valleys and the rugged seacoasts of the Bay of Biscay. In size it is barely a hundred miles across and in numbers they claim some three million inhabitants. The Basques are easy to define geographically, but impossible to account for historically. Where they came from nobody knows. Evidently they wandered into the Pyrenees millennia ago. It was in matters of language and blood type that scientists came to the conclusion that the Basques were a distinct people totally unrelated to the Indo-Europeans who dominated the rest of Europe.

Philologists and linguists still searching for language links have come to dead ends in their attempts to find anything but tenuous connections with Celtic, Old Egyptian, Berber, the languages of the Caucasus, Japanese and even Iroquois Indian.24

Even though the linguistic links are described as “tenuous” they seem to be the only links that exist. Laxalt notes that their “homeland was once much larger in size”. With their unique language and association with the ancient cave art in the surrounding area, the Basque seem to be from a different time and culture. Just how old is difficult to say.  A recent study, using the latest genetic techniques, and using conservative models for estimating the age of genetic markers (alleles) unique to the Basque, show their age may be over 30,000 years old.25 I wonder what age they would have arrived at with a more liberal model. Some of their results26 are tabulated below:

 

Table 5.  Estimated Ages for Some Basque-Specific Alleles
 
Alleles Number of
copies each 		Age
(years)		 Confidence
Interval
(years)
t8.39 t8.56 t10.23 t11.43 t11.61
t11.76 t11.115 t11.129 t12.33 t12.44
t12.65 t12.77 t12.92 t17.6  
2 15,079 (3,720-28,240)
t8.51 t11.37 t11.143 t12.39 t12.72
3 17,805 (8,860-30,360)
  t12.57 t14.01  
4 19,441 (11,260-31,700)
  t8.63 t12.21  
5 20,554 (12,900-32,760)
    t8.45    
6 21,442 (14,100-33,580)

 

Their homeland being much larger at one time could also explain their close genetic relationship to Spaniards. Other genetic data that apparently identified Basques from surrounding populations were mostly based on blood groups. Although the Basque have the highest percentage of type “O negative” blood and the lowest type B of any population in the world, many of the surrounding areas of western Europe have a similarly high negative rh and low B group phenotype which may indicate that the Basque once inhabited these areas. Although they share similar blood types with some surrounding populations one study of the Basques concluded:

The main underlying cause of this spatial genetic pattern seems to be admixture with surrounding populations. Our results do not support the hypothesis that Basques are a relict population of ancient Europeans. They might be a consequence of the colonization of the Basque area by a long-distance migrating group.27

Is the migrating group that colonized the Basque area now considered “long-distance” because their original homeland is nowhere to be found? Some of these other similar surrounding blood group populations are completely off the continent, namely the old Celtic-speaking groups of Ireland and Wales. In a study of the genetic make-up of people living on the British Isles it was discovered that the Celtic speaking areas (Welsh and Irish) were closely related genetically to the Basque. In part they state,

The Y chromosome complements of Basque- and Celtic-speaking populations are strikingly similar. Haplotype 1.15 is also modal in the Basques and constitutes 41% of the sample, rising to 56% for the cluster of one-step neighbors. We call this the Atlantic modal haplotype (AMH)… We know of no other study, that provides direct evidence of a close relationship in the paternal heritage of the Basque- and the Celtic-speaking populations of Britain. In fact, treating Orkney as a single population, all pairwise comparisons of hg distributions between the populations included here are significantly different except for those within the Atlantic group Welsh, Irish, and Basques none of which are distinguishable, showing that they form a Y-chromosome community with members more closely related to one another than they are to the other European populations…. It should be noted that Basque-Celtic similarity not only implies that Basque- and Celtic-speaking populations derive from common paternal ancestors, but that genetic drift in these communities has not been sufficiently great to differentiate them. 28

While the British Isles are not specifically mentioned in reading 364-3 it would not take too much of a stretch in the imagination to see that Morocco, the Pyrenees and the Wales/Ireland area to be lands that were very near to what once could have been considered the east coast of Atlantis.

Yucatan and British Honduras (Belize)

From the map below, one can see from the brown shaded area that the Mayan civilization was in the same general area where Reading 364-3 stated there should be some evidence of Atlantis.

 

Map of Central America showing Aztec and Mayan territories.

 

The later northward migration mentioned in some of the readings would seem to refer to the Aztec civilization (green shading) and eventually lead to the Mound Builders of America. Reading 3528-1 sheds some light on this subject:

The entity was among those of the second generation of Atlanteans who struggled northward from Yucatan, settling in what is now a portion of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio; being among those of the earlier period known as Mound Builders.

From reading 5750-1, we read of Iltar and ten followers from the House of Atlan, on the island of Poseidia, that last Atlantean island to sink beneath the waves some 11,900 years ago:

The first temples that were erected by Iltar and his followers were destroyed at the period of change physically in the contours of the land. That now being found, and a portion already discovered that has laid in waste for many centuries, was then a combination of those peoples from Mu, Oz and Atlantis.

Hence, these places partook of the earlier portions of that peoples called the Incal; though the Incals were themselves the successors of those of Oz, or Og, in the Peruvian land, and Mu in the southern portions of that now called California and Mexico and southern New Mexico in the United States.

 

It is interesting to note that the Navajo Indians are the only other tribe west of the Great Lakes (except for the Sioux in the Dakota area) to have a few members (6.5%) in haplogroup X and are located in New Mexico (see Table 1).

While archeological sites literally cover the Yucatan peninsula, Mayan ruins are obviously not linked to Atlantis because there is no Atlantis to link it to. Although ancient pyramid builders were on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean it is perceived by mainstream archeologists as a “coincidence”. About the only statement that can be made about the Yucatan area is that it is obvious that some ancient people built an advanced civilization there that lasted for thousands of years. Again, no one knows where they came from.

Bimini and the Bahamas

EC: Yes, we have the land known as Bimini, in the Atlantic Ocean. In the formation of the land, we find this of the nature that would make the oil production very low, for this is of the coral structure in the greater part, but this is the highest portion left above the waves of once a great continent, upon which the civilization as now exists in the world's history found much of that as would be used as means for attaining that civilization.

996-1 (8/14/26)

It is somewhat surprising that there seems to be very little evidence of Atlantis on Bimini. The “Bimini Wall” seems to be composed of beach rock.29 No temple of the Poseidians has been located nearby as one reading suggests. Of course that doesn’t mean it wasn’t part of Atlantis, just nothing has been found to prove it. If we read 364-3 closely however, it does not actually state that evidence of Atlantis will be found here but that the British West Indies or the Bahamas and Bimini were “some protruding portions within this that must have at one time or another been a portion of this great continent.” It may have been a statement made to further clarify where Atlantis was once located as opposed to where evidence of its existence might still be located. As we search the Caribbean area, the only place that has made any “waves” is Zelitsky’s discovery of apparent megalithic structures off the coast of Cuba. (see THC article). Until these are fully explored (Cuban permit and financial concerns are holding things up) we cannot say much about them, but it is reported that one of the rock samples brought up from the structures was polished granite which is not indigenous to the area. If this is true, then something important may have been discovered and hopefully a full scientific exploration of the area could be organized.

Conclusion

When checking the Cayce readings on Atlantis, a surprisingly high correlation is found between the readings and the scientific inferences and/or observations produced in this article. Since much of the evidence can be interpreted in various ways, the readings’ story of Atlantis cannot be scientifically dismissed out of hand. In fact, I believe I have shown that the readings are to a large extent validated by scientific observations.

There is much about our history that is based on conjecture and hypothesis. The further back that we travel into antiquity, the less certain science seems to be. Indeed, the various psychic sources channeled by Edgar Cayce may yet turn out to be better guides to our pre-history than science itself, for many years to come.

  1. Amplification of this sentence seems to be found in the following short note found in "Are The Readings’ “Monstrosities” Of Atlantean Days Represented By The Prehistoric “Composite” Beings Of Ancient Bone Carvings And Rock Art?" <back>

  2. Maurice Ewing, “Exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,” National Geographic, (1948) 94:3, <back>

  3. Maurice Ewing, “New Discoveries on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,” National Geographic, (1949), 96:5, <back>

  4. Ewing, op. cit., p. 279 <back>

  5. Ibid., p. 288 <back>

  6. Ibid., p. 288 <back>

  7. Ibid., p. 288 <back>

  8. Ibid., p. 291 <back>

  9. Ibid., p. 291 <back>

  10. Ibid., p. 292 <back>

  11. Ewing, op. cit., p. 613 <back>

  12. Ibid., p. 613 <back>

  13. Ibid. p. 614 <back>

  14. Brown et al, “mtDNA Haplogroup X: An Ancient Link between Europe/Western Asia and North America?”  Am. J. Hum. Genet., 63:1852-1861, 1998<back>