Ataka

Described in the Harris Papyrus, a 133-foot long document dated April 14
(Epiphi 6), circa 1180 B.C., summarizing in detail the political, cultural, religious,
and military accomplishments of Ramses III, Pharaoh of the XX Dynasty, who
defended his kingdom from invading “Sea Peoples” identified with Plato’s
Atlanteans. After their defeat, he declares in the Harris Papyrus, “I sent out an
expedition to the land of Ataka for the great foundries of copper which are in that
place. Our transport ships were loaded. Having located the foundries loaded with
metal, loaded as myriads upon our ships, they sailed back to Egypt, arriving safely.
The cargo was piled in stores as hundreds of thousands of the color of gold. I let
the people see them like marvels.”
Ataka appears to be an Egyptian linguistic inflection of the Atlanteans’ original
name (the prefix “At” often designated Atlantean holdings) for Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula, in North America, where they engaged in extensive copper
mining. Plato describes them as preeminent miners of the world’s highest-grade
copper (orichalcum). Ramses mentions “foundries,” implying the large-scale
mining operations that went on in Ataka, and which certainly existed throughout
the Upper Great Lakes area up until his time, when they were abruptly and
coincidentally shut down. The great quantities of copper his expedition took from
Ataka required transport ships sailing a great, hazardous distance (they returned
“safely”), while their “color of gold” suggests Plato’s gold-like orichalcum and
Michigan’s high-grade copper. Only from the Upper Peninsula could Ramses have
obtained such large amounts of exceptional copper. The Egyptians were wellaccustomed
to seeing riches of all kinds, but the prodigious stores of the world’s
best copper made even them “marvel.”
It would appear that, after the Atlanteans’ defeat and capture by Ramses,
they divulged the location of their copper sources in North America. His transports
ventured a transatlantic crossing, “located the foundries loaded with metal, loaded
as myriads upon our ships, they sailed back to Egypt.” He does not indicate any
trade negotiations or military operations in Ataka, but simple seizure of the vast
amounts of copper, as though there was no one there with whom to barter or
fight. Historians know that at this time, the early 12th century B.C., the Michigan
mines were likewise abandoned. With the sudden, simultaneous collapse of Atlantean
Civilization, their copper treasure was easy pickings for the victorious Egyptians.
In the name Ataka may survive the closest reference to the Atlanteans’ coppermining
region in the Upper Great Lakes.