Sunday 31 January 2010

Atauro

A small island near East Timor, memorializing in native tradition a larger
landmass, long ago swallowed by the sea.

Atas

Natives inhabiting the mountainous central region of Mindanao, a large
southern island in the Philippines. They tell how the Great Flood “covered the
whole Earth, and all the Atas were drowned except for two men and a woman.
The waters carried them far away.” An eagle offered to save them, but one of
the men refused, so the bird took up the other man and woman, carrying them
to safety on the island of Mapula. Here the Atas were reborn and eventually
multiplied sufficiently to conquer the entire Philippines. The Atas still claim
descent from these light-skinned invaders who, over time, intermarried with
the Negritos and aboriginal peoples.

Atarantes

“Of Atlantis.” A people residing on the Atlantic shores of Morocco and
described by various classical writers (Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, etc.).

Atara

Among the Guanche, the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, the word
for “mountain,” apparently derived from and related to the Atlantean mythic
concept of the sacred mountain of Atlas

Atapaska

The Ascohimi Indians’ flood-hero, who arrived on the shores of North America
after some oceanic catastrophe. They relate that the world was deluged as the
result of a powerful earthquake, during which the air became extremely hot,
followed by a prolonged period of intense cold. Their tribal memory accurately
describes a celestial collision of a comet or associated meteoric debris with the
Earth, preceding the aftereffect of a so-called “dust veil event,” wherein thousands
of cubic kilometers of ash are extruded into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight
and drastically lowering world temperatures. Just such a catastrophe connected
with the final destruction of Atlantis and simultaneous close of the Bronze Age
did indeed take place around the start of the 13th century B.C.
The Athabascan Indians of Alaska derived their tribal name from their
Atlantean ancestor, Atapaska.

Atao

According to archaeo-linguists, a masculine name in Linear A,the language
spoken by the Minoans, who raised a great civilization on Crete from 3000 to 1500
B.C. “Atao” may be the Minoan version of the Greek “Atlas,” the eponymous
Titan of Atlantis.

Atanum

The Indian name for a river in Washington State. It means “water by the long
mountain.” Here, as elsewhere throughout the world, a name appears among a
native people, combining the “At” prefix to describe a mountain bounded by water.
In this instance, “Atanum” suggests the ancient Egyptian Atum (god of the Primal
Mound) and/or Nun (the sea-god who sank it), both intimately connected with
the Egyptian version of the Atlantis story.

Atanua

The Marquesans’ memory of Atlantis, described in their oral epic “Te Vanana
na Tanaoa”: “Atanua was beautiful and good, adorned with riches very great. Atanua
was fair, very rich and soft. Atanua produced abundantly of living things. Atea [and
his brothers] dwelt as kings in the most beautiful palaces supported on thrones.
They ruled the space of heaven and the large, entire sky and all the powers thereof
[astrology]. The first lords dwelling on high. Oh, throne placed in the middle of the
upper heavens! The great lord Atea established in love to love the fair Atanua. A
woman of great wealth is Atanua. From within Atea came forth Ono [a terrible
sound, the explosion of Mt. Atlas erupting]. Atea produces the very hot fire.”
These lines from “Te Vanana na Tanaoa” vividly compare with Plato’s description
of Atlantis and its destruction. Atea’s, like that of Atlas’s association with a
volcanic mountain, was recognized by the early 20th-century anthropologist
Abraham Fornander: “In this sense, it would appropriately convey the idea of the
lurid light which accompanies an eruption of the volcano.”

Atana

Meaning a “cultic center” or “sacred site” in Linear B, Atana is a linguistic
term archaeologists use to describe a Greek language spoken on the island of
Crete after 1500 to about 1200 B.C. “Atana” is comparable to sacred places around
the world identified with variants of “Atlantis.”

Atami-san

Mt. Atami, on the northeastern coast of Japan’s Izu-hanto, the Izu Peninsula
(Shizuoka prefecture ken, Honshu), facing Sagami-nada (the Gulf of Sagami), an
enormous but extinct volcano, the ancient source from which the city of Atami,
built within the crater, derives its name. Almost half sunk into the sea, Atami-san
presents an Atlantean appearance.
Atami was an important resort as early as the fifth century A.D., although
Neolithic finds in the crater prove the site has been occupied from much earlier
times, when the name originated. “Atami,” an Atlantean linguistic survivor, has
no meaning in the Japanese language.