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Ignatius Donnelly and the Diffusionist theory.
Thirteen propositions for the existence of Atlantis.
Although many thousands of books have been written on the Atlantis mystery one of the best known authors on the subject is Ignatius Donnelly. Born in Philadelphia USA in 1831, Donnelly studied law but graduated as a land speculator then turned to politics. A Democrat and then a Republican, he was to serve three terms in Congress.
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
However Donnelly was also an author and his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World first published in 1882 is still in print today. In it he set out to prove the existence of a large, long vanished, mid-Atlantic island from where, he argued, human civilisation spread to other continents.
The Diffusionist theory.
Donnelley's Diffusionist theory as it was to become known had 13 main propositions which are shown below.
The 13 Propositions.
That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was he remnant of an Atlantic Continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis.
That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as has long been supposed, fable, but veritable history.
That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of barbarism to civilisation.
That it became in the course of the ages, a populous and mighty nation from whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South America, the Mediterranean, the west coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic,
the Black Sea, and the Caspian were populated by civilised nations.
That it was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden; the Gardens of the Hesperides; The Elysian Fields; the Gardens of the Alcinous... the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness.
That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hindus and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens and heroes of Atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a confused recollection of real historic events.
That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original religion of Atlantis, which was sun-worship.
That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in Egypt, whose civilisation was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic island.
That the implements of the ‘Bronze Age’ of Europe were derived from Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron.
That the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all the European alphabets, was derived from an Atlantean alphabet.
That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, as well as the Semitic peoples and possibly also of the Turanian races.
That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the whole island sank into the ocean with nearly all its inhabitants.
That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and carried to the nations east and west tidings of the appalling catastrophe, which has survived to our time in the Flood and Deluge legends of the different nations of the old and new worlds..
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