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Jacques-Cousteau-Calypso-Search-for-Atlantis-traveljus

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

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“But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.”
*Timaeus, by Plato. Written 360 B.C. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Sea explorer Jacques Cousteau search for Atlantis

What if Atlantis lies drowned in the Aegean Sea? There is only one way to find out. To look for archaeological clues that can support or contradict the theories according to which Atlantis and the Minoan civilization are one. “He who dives,” says Cousteau, “ends up in heaven.”

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

The story of Plato’s Atlantis

Around 360 B.C. the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote in Timaeus and Critias about the cataclysmic destruction of the civilization of Atlantis. It is a story that still captures our imagination. As nobody found any traces of Atlantis yet, it justifies the question is Atlantis fiction or not? According to Plato, the founders of Atlantis were half god and half human. They created a utopian civilization, which became a mighty Mediterranean maritime trading empire. According to Plato, Atlantis reigned over all of Libya, all the way to Egypt’s far borders. Atlantis became so powerful, aggressive and evil that it merited divine punishment. When Atlantis waged an unprovoked war on the parts of Asia and Europe it was destroyed by a disaster, an earthquake and tsunami. The presumption is that the islands of Crete and Thera, later called Santorini, formed the “Lost Continent of Atlantis” as they were ravaged by a volcanic eruption in around 1450 B.C.

Cousteau’s search for Atlantis

In 1975 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Tourism Organisation invited world-renowned French explorer Jacques Cousteau to Greece to shoot a series of documentary films named “Calypso’s Search for Atlantis”. Greek archaeologists and a research team from the newly established Institute of Marine Archaeology (HIMA) participated in the mission too. Atlantis is a myth people like to fantasise about, but what is the truth behind the myth? In “Calypso’s Search for Atlantis” Cousteau and his team are looking for clues that can support or contradict the theories about Atlantis and/or any link with the Minoan civilisation. Cousteau’s famous ship the Calypso anchored for a few days near Pseira, an island in the Gulf of Mirabello in North-Eastern Crete with the archaeological remains of the Minoan and Mycenean civilisation. While exploring one of the underwater hills near the harbour of ancient Pseira, divers found a real “cliff” of ceramic products. It stretched over a hundred meters in length and formed an inclined wall at a depth of 8 to 30 m. 

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira
Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

Archaeological discoveries of this magnitude are rare

This wall of pottery or “warehouse” of ceramics belonged to the Minoan period. Next to hundreds of thousands of vases, vessels, mugs and cups on the seabed, Calypso’s divers discovered hewn building stones. And, stumbled upon perfectly preserved remains of a wall, most likely part of an embankment to moor and shelter ships from the fierce north-western winds. The dived up pottery is more than 3000 years old. Moreover, it is surprising that all these products are of approximately  of the same age and have been preserved mostly in an excellent condition.

It is all something of an enigma. How could such a huge accumulation of clay products mount up in one single place? Yet even more mysterious, why does most of the pottery look intact, despite the effects of sea water and the inexorable passing of time? Does it indicate the remnants of Atlantis? Or is it the outcome of a shadowed memory of past events reshaped by human imagination?

More…

Read also our story about Elphida Hadjidaki, a woman, the Cretan sea and a Minoan shipwreck. Elphida Hadjidaki started to dive in 2003 for a Minoan shipwreck, not far from the Pseira diving site of Jacques Costeau.

More info about this part of Calypso’s Atlantis quest you can find on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/oHvGsD8QwqE?si=ojv6ZTARgqtXEb0b

Kato-Zakros-Archaeological-site

Archaeological sites are theatres of another time – Minoan Kato Zakros

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Exploring the silence of  stones

Almost at the far edge of eastern Crete, in a barren, mostly unspoilt landscape, you’ll find the Minoan Palace of Kato Zakros close to the shores of the Libyan Sea. The Minoan palace of Kato Zakros fascinates once you start imagining its past. Its existence is an act open to possibilities. The palace had about 300 rooms arranged around a central courtyard and covered an area of about 8,000 square meters. It is the fourth largest Minoan palace complex on Crete. Exploring the site you are bound to pick something up from its silent stones. 

Archaeological sites are theatres of another time – Minoan Kato Zakros

Historical footprint

The palace of Kato Zakros may not be as imposing or widespread as the more well-known palaces of Phaistos or Knossos, but its historical footprint is revelatory. From its establishment around 1900 BC until 1450 B.C. the palace of Kato Zakros was the religious, administrative, and economic centre of eastern Crete. Evidence of trade with the East were found in a storeroom in the West Wing consisting of four elephant tusks and six bronze talents. Since the Zakros Palace operated as a commercial outlet from and to the East, the palace also had access to a port through its main gate at the northeastern side.

An often overlooked trade exchange with the East was cultural. Sovereigns from Canaan and Egypt for example would hire Minoan artists to paint stylish Minoan frescoes on their palace walls. Excavations at the site of Tell el-Dabʿ in the Nile Delta region of Egypt revealed high-quality wall paintings executed in Minoan technique and style. In these palaces, dating back to the Thuthmoside period, the walls were covered with  Minoan court emblems and motifs, such as bull-leaping and wrestling scenes, such as seen mainly in Knossos. 

Zakros and Knossos

One of the historical enigmas of Zakros is its status in relationship to Knossos. At the time Eastern Crete was an area of strategic importance and kept an extensive trade network with the Near and Middle East. One theory assumes that Zakros, because it lacked sufficient agricultural land to sell or exchange produce, made its living from importing luxury items for Knossos. There is likewise the presumed theory that Zakros was one of the major naval bases of the Minoan fleet in Crete. And what does this say about the political structure of Minoan Crete? Was Zakros governed independently or as part of an autonomous region controlled by the monarch of Knossos?

Archaeological sites are theatres of another time – Minoan Kato Zakros

A considerable number of Minoan buildings and clay imprints

Kato Zakros was first excavated in 1901 by the British archaeologist and scholar D. Hogarth. The remains of a Minoan settlement came to the surface, indicating a flourishing and sophisticated civilisation. Hogarth found around 300 clay stamps. These clay imprints indicated an administrative system for the stock counting of (commercial) products. Some of these clay stamps dating back to 15th century B.C. originate from Knossos, another sign of a possible close relationship between Knossos and Zakros. When a typhoon hit the area in the summer of 1901 Hogarth was forced to abandon the excavation. He almost drowned, but managed to escaped by miracle.

Spectacular craftmanship

Sixty years later, in October 1961, the Ephore of Cretan Antiquities N. Platon started a new excavation in the valley of Kato Zakros. The Greek archeologist was convinced that Kato Zakros was much more than a harbour or a naval settlement. The 1960s excavations discovered a large palace complex with many typical Minoan architectural features. These include a large central court (30x12m), secondary courts, porticos, a monumental stepped entrance, one and two storey buildings, and storage rooms. Some rooms were embellished with frescos similar to those at Knossos, depicting bulls, spirals and double axes.

Archaeological sites are theatres of another time – Minoan Kato Zakros

Contrary to palaces of Knossos, Malia and Phaistos, the palace of Zakros was not looted. During millennia it was covered by earth and left untouched. The remote location surely helped. Artefacts of great aesthetic and artistic value were found, ceremonial pots and vessels, including the most beautiful stone vessel of the Cretan-Mycenaean era. One of the highlights as well is the small (16 cm) rhyton carved in rock crystal. A real masterpiece of craftsmanship and technical skill exhibited in the Heraklion Archaeological museum. The body is made of a single core of hard stone. The neck is attached to the body by a ring of crystal beads and gilded ivory discs. Nobody knows which techniques were used to carve it or how they made the handle of spherical crystal beads threaded onto a bronze wire.  To work the crystal you need a material that is harder than the crystal itself.

Archaeological sites are theatres of another time – Minoan Kato Zakros

The architecture of the palace of Kato Zakros

The architecture of the palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros in the first period around 2000-1900 B.C. seems to be based on an organic building structure. The natural environment, mostly the climatic and geological conditions,  dictated the construction more than geometric principles.

The palace was not only the king’s residence, but also the centre of religious, economic and political life. Living quarters, reception halls, sanctuaries, warehouses and workshops are all grouped around a central courtyard. Columns are a fundamental element of Minoan architecture. The living quarters are often located on the east side, sometimes spread over several floors, connected by stairs. On the west side are the warehouses and the religious spaces. From the terraces with overhanging gardens, colonnades and loggias, one looks out over the landscape.

Similar to many other Minoan buildings on Crete, the Zakros palace and the town were suddenly destroyed around 1450 BC, marking the end of the Neopalatial period.