Nabinger had heard the argument many times. Isolationists cite natural evolution to explain this curious bit of synchronicity. They also explain many common points in the archaeological finds of these civilizations as due to man’s genetic commonality. Thus the fact that there are pyramids in Peru, in Egypt, in Indochina, in North America — some made of stone, some of earth, some of mud, but remarkably similar to one another given the distances between those sites — all that is just because each society as it developed had a natural tendency to do the same thing.
Nabinger himself found this a bit of a leap. It would have been quite a genetic coup if all these civilizations should also have developed this same ancient high rune writing and then abandoned it, well before the first hieroglyphics were being etched on papyrus.
The diffusionists argued the other side of the civilization coin, and Nabinger felt more affinity for their stance. They believed that those civilizations rose at approximately the same time on the cosmic scale — and exhibited all those similarities, including the high runes — because those civilizations had all been started by people from a single earlier civilization.
There were problems with the diffusionist theory, though — serious problems — and that is why Nabinger kept his views on the subject to himself. The strongest argument against the diffusionist theory was that there was no way for people from these different locations to have communicated with one another or have had any social or cultural intercourse. Those early people would have had to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific, according to diffusionist theory. They had a hard enough time even sailing around on the Mediterranean at that epoch, never mind crossing the oceans.
Slater’s face wrinkled as she smiled. “And you know who the number-one spokesperson for the diffusionists is, don’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Leif Jorgenson. The man who sailed the Atlantic in a Viking ship to prove that Europeans were in North America long before Christopher Columbus. And who floated from Indonesia to the Hawaiian islands on a wood raft to support his theory that the islands were colonized from the west.
“But he’s taken all that — and more — a step further in the last ten years. He’s currently working the recently discovered ruins in Mesoamerica, looking at pyramids and the Mayan calendar and — guess what? — new high runes discovered there.
“Four years ago Jorgenson uncovered a massive site in Mexico near Jamiltepec. Over twenty large earthen and stone pyramids covering almost seven hundred acres on the west coast of Mexico, less than two miles from the Pacific Ocean. It had been covered by the jungle and because of the mountains around it was accessible only by sea.
“At the site he found further evidence of cross-cultural communication at a time earlier than traditional historians say is possible. There was jewelry made with gems that could only have been mined over two thousand miles away in South America. Stonework very similar to that at other sites, some on the other side of the Pacific in Oceania. He has in his possession hard evidence of a certain degree of interaction among widely spread peoples many centuries ago, but he is basically being ignored by the mainstream scientific community because they simply do not believe it is possible.”
Nabinger was aware of the find, but he didn’t want to offend Slater. After all, he’d come to her. “How does Jorgenson think civilization originated?”
“He believes that there was an original culture of white-skinned, long-eared, pyramid-building, rune-writing people living and flourishing at what he calls the ‘zero point,’” Slater replied. “And that civilization spread out from that zero point at what he calls a ‘zero time’—just prior to civilization developing simultaneously at all those other places that we are now studying. Civilization came from the zero point.”
“And where is the zero point?” Nabinger asked, even though he had a very good idea of what the answer would be.
“It is the place so many legends call Atlantis.”
“And that is why you are so familiar with his theories,” Nabinger said.
“Yes. Because there are connections that have not been adequately explained.” She paused. “Let me put it this way. Most people dismiss Jorgenson’s zero-point theory based on physical impracticality. They say that there is no way man at that time — somewhere around four thousand B.C. — could have made it from the zero point to the other locations around the globe, regardless of where you place the zero point. They would have had to cross the oceans.
“Jorgenson’s reply is that while there is not enough scientific evidence to convincingly support his theory, there is also not enough to refute it. If you assume there was a way ancient man could have crossed the oceans and spread, then the evidence falls into place. Thus all the sea journeys Jorgenson has undertaken in replicas of old sailing vessels.”
She tapped the translation Nabinger had given her. “I must give you credit, young man, for pursuing your study of the commonalities among the high runes, in defiance of the common theories. Obviously it has brought you success that many other scientists and investigators have failed to find because they accepted the standard theories and could not see the greater possibilities in thinking differently. I have tried my own hand at translating the high runes, but it is not my area of expertise.”
“Let’s get back to the Atlantis idea,” Nabinger said, checking his watch again.
“Jorgenson believes — and as you know there is scientific data to support this — that there was a major geological event in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere around 3400 B.C. Pretty much every culture around the globe refers to a great flood at about that time. Even the Tibetan Book of the Dead talks of a large land mass sinking into the sea at that time, and they are on the other side of the world from the Atlantic.
“And there are so many legends referring to the same thing: a great civilization in the middle of an ocean, destroyed by fire or flood! The Mayans called Atlantis Mu. The northern Europeans called it Thule. There was also the land called Lemuria — which a Madame Blavatsky picked up for her own cult of Thule — which is the question you started this meeting with.
“Lemuria was a land that scientists in the nineteenth century postulated must have existed because of the presence on Madagascar of a certain type of monkey, the lemur, that was also found in India. They believed Lemuria had been in the Indian Ocean. Blavatsky’s followers, with the stroke of their pens, moved Lemuria to the Pacific, tying the legend in with the statues on Easter Island, which loops us back to Jorgenson’s large-eared race. The statues on Easter Island are of, as you also know, a large-eared people.”
Slater laughed. “I can tell you even better myths and stories. In 1922 another German published a book about Atlantis and claimed it had originally been occupied by a genetically perfect people. But the perfection was marred when an outside woman arrived and taught them how to ferment alcohol. So much for the perfect society. Because of this imperfection Atlantis was then destroyed by the tail of a comet! The continent burned and only a handful of people escaped.”
“Where do these people get their ideas from?” Nabinger asked.
“Ah, ever the scientist,” Slater said. “You want source material?” She went to her crowded desk and searched for a minute, before pulling out a dog-eared hardcover book.
“This is the original mention of Atlantis from the Timaeus, a treatise on Pythagorean philosophy written by Plato. I have it here in the original Greek. Allow a little bit of leeway for my translation, as I don’t often converse in the language.”
She turned several pages and ran her finger down the writing. “As is traditional with the Greeks, this manuscript takes the form of a dialogue among several persons, Socrates being one of them. In this passage Solon is telling the story of some of the Greek legends — for example the flood of Deukalion and Pyrrha. He is rebuked by an older priest: Solon, you Greeks are children. There have been and will be many destructors of mankind, of which the greatest are by fire and water.”