In anticipation of its most recent animated movie, Disney Enterprises and ABC Television aired a reality-based television show (Voyage to Atlantis: The Lost Empire, on Sunday, June 10, 2001) that boasted of "proof" of the existence and discovery of the mythical island of Atlantis. Hosted by actors Tom Skerritt and Melissa Joan Hart, viewers were told that Atlantis has been found and that the lost civilization had a profound impact on human civilization.

The evidence brought forth in the show included reliance on the writings of Plato about Atlantis, the similarities in the rituals and writings of different cultures on both sides of the Atlantic as evidence of the widespread impact of the Atlantian civilization, seemingly "advanced" technology that has been found from ancient times, and recent expeditions that claim to have found Atlantis.

Much of the beginning of the show dealt with a discussion of Plato's conception of Atlantis in The Republic and other works. Although Plato was a philosopher, there was an implicit assumption in the discussion that Plato is referring to an actual place. Paraphrasing Plato's writings, several interviewees on the show described the philosopher's vision of Atlantis as a kind of paradise and "perfect civilization." Robert Sullivan, a senior editor from Time magazine, stated, "It [Atlantis] was the best and the brightest of Earth at that time... an advanced civilization ... something of an Eden on Earth." Descriptions from several other experts painted a scene of an idyllic, technically advanced civilization that was destroyed because they were living in a way that displeased their gods. More paraphrasing from Plato told of the people of Atlantis becoming "debased," "decadent," "arrogant," and "rapacious." Evidently, destruction came quickly and the entire island society sank in a day.

Besides the storybook-like features of Plato's writings and the very moralistic tones used, the assumption that Atlantis was a real place and civilization is far from certain. According to Joseph Manning, an assistant professor of classics at Stanford University, "... the story is a fiction intended to instruct Dionysius II of Sicily of what would happen if he continued on his political course ..." (personal communication). Nevertheless the show's use of Plato and the "lessons" from the Atlantis story played heavily throughout the show.

The "Evidence"

Much of the show was spent presenting evidence of Atlantis as an "economic powerhouse" around 9600 B.C., serving as a locus for civilizations on both sides of the Atlantic to visit and conduct trade. Similarities in different civilizations on both sides of the Atlantic--from pyramids and their construction techniques to archaeological finds and DNA testing--were used to bolster the so-called "Trans-Atlantic Connection" that suggests that the civilization of Atlantis spread to the lands along the Atlantic Ocean.

Comments by several of the interviewees, including three authors of different Atlantis books, described recently found artifacts that are a few thousand years old. These discoveries suggest, according to the show, that the Atlantis civilization was much more technologically advanced than previously depicted. The show pointed to societies with flushing toilets, hot and cold running water, an ancient "computer," batteries, electricity, and possibly even aviation. Specific references were presented to the "Baghdad Battery" that may have been used for electroplating, the 2,000-year-old "Antikythera mechanism" used for astronomical observations, and pyramid wall drawings of objects that are claimed to be electric lights.

The last part of the show dealt with other potential locations for Atlantis, such as the Azores, the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and the island of Theta. All of these ideas were dismissed, with emphasis on removing the Minoan civilization on Theta (Santorini) as the likely origin of the Atlantis myth. Atlantis--revealed in the show to be none other than Cuba--was said to have been destroyed through the impact of a comet on or near the island. Evidence for this impact consisted of legends from American aborigines and the Carolina Bays--assumed to be impact craters from the comet.

The show concluded with Taffi Fisher Abt, director of the Mel Fisher Center, suggesting that a treasure-hunting group actually found the central city of Atlantis off the coast of Cuba.

Bad Science

Critiquing the show from the viewpoint of a physical scientist, the common notion that Atlantis "sank" is geologically implausible; islands simply do not float on the ocean's surface.

The use of a comet impact as a destruction mechanism, coupled with the show's claim that this impact had global implications and caused Earth to come out of the Ice Age, is not supported by any physical evidence. A cursory look at the geologic history of Cuba shows no evidence for the expected geologic deposits that would easily be found if a sizeable impact had occurred on or near the island only 12,000 years ago (Palmer 1945).

A large, geologically young impact crater would be fresh and would quite likely have been found by now, as the ocean floor has been globally imaged at high resolution.

As supporting evidence, the Carolina Bays and their presumed cometary impact origins were brought forth to bolster the notion of an impact near Cuba. Scientific investigation of the Bays has been conducted since the 1930s. A good overview of the current state of knowledge of large impacts can be found in the work of French (1998). Terrestrial explanations for the Bays seem to be currently more prevalent as seen in the work of Grant et al. (1998). Even if the Carolina Bays were authentic impact craters, it would be difficult to use them as corroborating evidence of an impact off the coast of Cuba where the main impact crater does not seem to exist.

Many of the other claims in the show have either been found to be hoaxes, are misleading, or have been exaggerated. A strong effort was made to convince viewers that advanced technology existed long before our time. However, a little research shows that examples cited in the show are neither advanced technologies, as we would commonly think of them, nor anything beyond the capabilities of the people of those time periods. One example put forward is a fraud: The stone cylinder with hieroglyphic symbols found in Davenport, Iowa, has been extensively documented as a nineteenth century fraud (McKusick 1991).

Another factual lapse in the show involves the use of DNA testing of Egyptian mummies that purportedly found traces of nicotine and cocaine from the remains of the mummies. The show claimed that this finding is inconsistent with the knowledge that coca and tobacco were only found in the Americas at that time. While stating that coca and tobacco plants were only found in the Americas is correct, DNA testing does not have the ability to detect compounds such as nicotine and cocaine. DNA typing or fingerprinting uses sequences of unused DNA strands to identify individuals.

A "Roman terra cotta head" was used to imply that trans-Atlantic crossings in ancient times were more frequent and widespread than previously known. However, scholarly research only suggests that the head is evidence of the occasional, possibly accidental, Atlantic crossings made by some Old World vessels (Hristov and Genoves 1999). One interpretation suggests the head to be of Roman origin and made between the second and third centuries A.D. (Hristov and Genoves 1999). This find is still the subject of debate within the archaeological community, but that controversy has nothing to do with the "fantastic speculations" (Hristov and Genoves 1999) made about transoceanic crossings-one of which involves Atlantis.

The ancient, 2,000-year-old "computer" found off the coast of Antikythera in 1901 does exist and is thought to have performed astronomical calculations such as showing the position of the Sun throughout the year, displaying the changing lunar phases, and indicating the positions of bright stars and constellations (Price 1959). Although considered to have been a relatively complex gearing mechanism compared to other devices at the time (Price 1959), it is a significant stretch to say that this device compares favorably to today's technology.