Understanding Lost Civilizations: Atlantis and Lemuria

Three assumptions regarding Atlantis and Lemuria must be believed to validate their existence:

• The first is that the myths of Atlantis and Lemuria are very ancient, existing in an unrecorded past and before any surviving history. Natural history, geology, and zoogeography, which came into their own as paleo disciplines over the nineteenth century, lend credence to these lost continents.

• The second is that Lemuria and Atlantis are lost in every sense of the word, but their cultures are not. Lemuria and Atlantis are paleo-mythic worlds; they will never be known in our present world, and their existence can only be speculated about.

• Lastly, the spatial history of Atlantis and Lemuria is contested and lost. There was a catastrophe in which they sank violently to the bottom of the ocean, but the locations are contested. Therefore, these lost places exist only as long as people believe they exist.

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