Television: TIMEWATCH Atlantis: The Evidence

In this special edition of Timewatch, Bettany Hughes hypothesises that the Atlantic of legend is in fact the ancient civilisation of Bronze Age Thera, destroyed by a cataclysmic earthquake and volcano. Below the cut: more information about the episode and a YouTube link to the episode itself. 

This documentary is actually a couple of years old now (first shown in June 2010) but has been on BBC iPlayer in the last week so I was lucky enough to catch it. It is still available here until 17th July, but is also luckily available to view in its entirety on YouTube as well. (I've embedded it at the bottom of this post too).

I have to confess that I am not remarkably familiar with Ancient History. Unfortunately it was never offered as a course at my school and I have never read very much about it so my knowledge comes mostly from excellent documentaries such as this.

Of course we all know of the myth of Atlantis -- the origin of many writings and theories, and even a Disney film -- but I was delighted to also learn of the history of Bronze Age Thera, which is interesting enough in itself without the comparisons to Atlantis.

The programme presents the idea that Plato -- writing 1000 years after the destruction of Thera in a cataclysmic factor 7 earthquake and a subsequent volcano -- is actually recalling this event when he writes about the great city of Atlantis. Bettany Hughes is clearly passionate about this theory, and presented much of the episode with a book of some of Plato's writings in her hand, to which she referred to in order to draw our attention to parallels between the story of Thera. Plato writes that the stones of Atlantis were made up of red, black and white bricks; Akrotiri, in Thera, also used stones of these colours and still does today. Atlantis was allegedly a forward-thinking and ahead of its time in terms of technology and ideas; Thera was a society where women flourished as equals and many of the paintings found depict sailing boats very advanced for the time. 

The documentary is undoubtedly fascinating and compelling, and this theory generally seems to hold, as supported by numerous experts featured. In particular in conversation with the wonderfully named Geologist Floyd McCoy the mention of floating pumice three feet thick on the sea around Thera after the volcanic eruption when compared with Plato's description of 'mud' covering the sea and making it 'impassable' seems especially noteworthy.

I would say my favourite part of the documentary was the section featuring the wall paintings found at the site of Akrotiri. Women are highly featured in these paintings, suggesting a mobile society in which women were seen as entirely inferior as in other parts of the world. Bettany compares these to the 'formulaic and controlled' paintings of the same period from Ancient Egypt, as it can certainly be said that Akrotiri's are much more fluid and expressive. The fleet frescoe (above) in particular is not only stunning and interesting to look upon but also reveals more about the advanced nature of these people.

All in all this is a great documentary even if you do not have a profound interest in the Ancient world, and stands both as a piece about the myth of Atlantis and the history of Thera.

"However beguiling the Atlantis of the imagination, it will never be as intriguing as the real place, the real event and the real people of the Bronze Age that inspired Plato magnificent tale"