The Atlantis Keystone

by Caroline Väljemark

  His grandmother’s funeral had been a painful experience. Although the church had been full of people, not many seemed to cry or show any feelings. Erik was no exception. He could not feel any grief. She had had a long privileged life, selfishly using other people to serve her own interests and living by old-fashioned rules, ruining his childhood and his parent’s happiness. There had been a small gathering of family members after the church ceremony and this had been followed by the reading of the will. Most of the estate’s assets were to pass to his mother but Erik had been given the old Torpa stone house. This was a peculiar request since Erik would in any event be entitled to the entire estate at some point in the future. What was more bizarre was the next statement, read out by the lawyer executing the will:

  “To Anna Ahlquist, fiancée of my grandson Erik Stenbock, I leave my annotated copy of the Holy Bible.”

  Seeing the horrified look on everyone’s faces, the lawyer had quickly understood that Anna was no longer part of the family. He had explained that the will had been written and witnessed nearly two years ago and because her death had been sudden no amended will had been drawn up.

  Erik wondered why his grandmother had decided to give Anna her bible copy. He could only see two possibilities. Either this was an attempt by her to send a message of moral standards from her grave. This had been a common occurrence when she was alive. He had lost count long ago of the number of times she had preached about the importance of virtues and taking a moral high ground. Therefore, he saw this possibility as the more likely, although he had never got the impression that his grandmother took offence to Anna. In fact, she had been one of only a handful of people the old woman had actually accepted, or at least not bullied. The second possibility was that his grandmother would have expected that her particular copy of the holy bible actually meant something to Anna and that they had discussed it at some point. It was possible that Anna had had conversations with the old woman while he was not there. Erik was intrigued as this would have revealed a side to his grandmother that he had never seen. Anna, like himself, had not been in the least bit religious but a common interest here could not be seen as a complete impossibility given her interest in ancient history, of which the bible was one ‘source’, and his grandmother’s fascination or perhaps obsession with preaching the ‘word’ of god. She had been a regular churchgoer before the ‘demise’ which confined her to her bed. Unfortunately, he thought, he would probably never know the reasons behind the gift. Both were dead, never to return…

  The captain turned off the seatbelt sign and Erik made his way out. It felt like an eternity before he had collected his suitcase and rushed through passport control. He then went straight outside to the taxi rank where he got into the first taxi he laid eyes on. After only a short journey through town and on a country road by the sea, the taxi slowed down and turned onto a small lane. The villa was conveniently located, only a stone’s throw from the sea and about twenty minutes from Heraklion. The house looked contemporary from the outside, clad in white render which complemented its boxy shape. After he had paid and got out of the car he knocked on the front door. No one came to open so he stepped inside. The house had an open plan layout and a large kitchen with modern appliances. He could not have chosen better himself. He heard excited voices outside on the patio area. He went through some sliding doors by the sofa and as he came outside he saw four people sitting at a plastic patio table unnecessarily shielded from the cloud-weakened sun by a large parasol. There was even a small swimming pool. The patio was enclosed by a low fence which didn’t block out the view of the surrounding open fields, a couple of bungalows further down and the sea in the distance. They all stood up to greet him. Emma walked up to him, giving him a friendly hug. He noticed that her complexion had deteriorated and that she was as pale as when they had first met in London but that she looked well nevertheless, albeit very unlike Anna.

  “Lovely to see you Erik!” she beemed.

  “And you,” he responded with mixture of sincerity and doubt about his decision to join them.

  Paul gave him a light clap on the back, almost as if they were best friends. “Good to see you man,” he said before he sat down again.

  Emma introduced Ball, the Japanese PhD student and Laura, a post graduate student of history at Oxford. What Ball was wearing was somewhat at odds with his general appearance: a T-shirt displaying the 1980’s rock band Guns ‘n Roses but other than that he was very much like Erik had pictured him from Emma’s previous description; extremely polite and with typically Japanese features, although remarkably tall for a Japanese man and somewhat older than he had envisaged, perhaps in his early thirties. Erik guessed that Laura was a couple of years older than Emma. He noticed that she had a very pretty well-groomed face and fair skin but her thick ill-suited glasses seemed to hide most of her potential beauty and her long dark brown hair was messily arranged in a knot which threatened to untie itself. She was very slim and a few centimetres taller than Emma. His first impression of her was that she was a fairly reserved sort of person, who preferred reading to socialising. Paul looked thinner than the last time they had met and he appeared perhaps a little more absent minded as well, as if he had a lot on his mind but otherwise he was the same energetic person Erik remembered.

  “Laura is writing her dissertation on the Crete/Santorini-Atlantis theory, or, I believe, critically analysing it,” Paul said looking encouragingly at Laura when speaking. “Am I right in saying that you are here to disprove the theory that Crete could have been Plato’s Atlantis?” Paul added with a smile.

  “I suppose you could say that”, Laura agreed with an extremely posh English accent, at odds with her presently untidy appearance. “Although I would prefer to reserve judgment until I have considered all the facts. Being here may well prove me wrong. As you say, I have yet to view the ruins at Knossos and the Heraklion museum collection.” Erik thought he could sense that this was the back-end of a previous discussion between the two of them on the subject. In any event, Paul seemed extremely pleased with her choice of topic. Laura joining them on Crete must have been a rather late arrangement as Emma had said nothing about her previously; just indicating that she did not know for sure who was going to join them other than Ball.

  “I understand you’re here to study the effects of the Thera volcanic eruption on Santorini”, Erik enquired in Ball’s direction. A chilly wind blew from the sea causing the parasol to move violently just as Erik sat down on the one remaining white plastic chair.

  “Yes, this is my intention,” Ball said in response with a slight accent. “But I will first study the effects on Crete of the tsunami which hit this island as a result of the eruption. This was one of the most powerful and largest volcanic eruptions on record and in my view the eruption must have caused a severe tsunami, just like it did in Krakatoa. The Thera eruption dwarfs Krakatoa, that’s for sure. After Krakatoa there were tidal waves up to 36 meters high destroying several hundred towns and villages. Thera was five or six times greater still!”

  Erik could immediately sense that this was a person wholly dedicated to his topic. His face lit up at the chance of talking about it. “Sounds like the Thera eruption must have had a devastating impact on the Mediterranean.” Feeling obliged to say something further Erik continued: “I have firsthand experience of a tsunami. I was in Thailand on Boxing Day 2004. Although I suppose that tsunami would have been nothing compared to that caused by the Thera volcanic eruption.”

  He regretted bringing that up. This could only lead to comments about Anna, something he really wanted to avoid. Ball seemed delighted to continue the conversation in an area where he had the upper hand. He started to ask questions about Erik’s exact location when the Indian Ocean Tsunami had struck, how he had escaped, what he had seen and the effects but without giving him a reason to mention the death of his wife. He was moved to see from Emma’s tense face that she too was hoping that Anna would not be mentioned, out of sympathy for him, he assumed. />
  “We should really have some lunch now, I’m starving”, she said interrupting the conversation. “I suggest we make it easy for ourselves and have readymade pizza.” As none of them felt like cooking, they all agreed.

  “I understand you met Paul and Emma through an ancient Egyptian tablet”, Ball said and Erik laughed at how absurd that sounded. It was true, he supposed, that they had met because of the link the tablet had to his childhood home. Ball continued: “Paul mentioned to me that this tablet could possibly contain an ancient description of the effects in Egypt of the Thera eruption.”

  “Yes, it certainly sounds like some sort of natural disaster to me”, Erik said looking at Paul.

  Paul responded: “Certainly, but we should remember that this is not the only ancient Egyptian text from this time which seems to describe the Thera eruption.” Paul paused and looked at them in turn as if he was checking to see if they were interested. “The Tempest Stele of Ahmose seems to convey a similar message. There is no consensus on this point but in my opinion given the timing and the lack of alternative descriptions of this cataclysmic event, I would say that its account of the Thera eruption is very feasible, almost beyond doubt in fact.” Paul stood up and went to his bedroom to get a photocopy of the half tablet and a translation.

  Erik was amused. He should have expected this when he had agreed to stay in a villa with an Oxford professor, a PhD student and two post-graduate students. His idea of a relaxing holiday in the sun would only be realised if he moved to a nearby hotel. Whilst staying in the villa he could expect discussions like this every day. He found it interesting though, in particular as it concerned the tablet.

  As Paul came back downstairs he said mid step as he sat back down: “Obviously this probably portrays the eruption from Egypt, nearly 650 miles from it. He showed Ball the picture of the tablet and read out the first part of the text which talked about the calamity:

  “…of water which swept in over the land with godly force. Smoke was clouding the sky. By day, the darkness was persisting with no [torch] being lit and by night a pillar of fire could be seen in the [west]. With his council, His Majesty descended in his boat to observe the devastation of the victors… coloured white.”

  Ball was quiet in contemplation for a moment and then started a lengthy deliberation about the consequences of a volcanic eruption. Erik was only half listening but caught fragments like “Tambora eruption in 1816… a year without summer… continual rains… clouds of ash blotted out the sun… dark periods… Mount St Helens… hail… brimstone… widespread violent storms… emission of dust into the atmosphere… low temperatures… tsunami…” Erik started to pay attention at the mention again of the more recent tsunami which he had experienced, when Ball glanced at him.

  “…Distant shores, further away from the event than 650 miles, were flooded by the Tsunami. Imagine the impact on the surrounding sea of a volcanic eruption of literally gigantic proportion, with much greater force than the tectonic plate shifting of the Indian Ocean. It’s not difficult to imagine that the Tsunami could easily reach the shores of Egypt and cause several subsequent waves with deadly force destroying temples and other buildings in its way. It’s obviously incomplete but I for one am almost convinced that this description is portraying the effects of a volcanic eruption. The pillar of fire and smoke is also very suggestive of this.”

  Having sat quietly for a long while, Laura stirred and joined the conversation, taking off her glasses and rubbing one eye as she started to speak: “I just had a thought. From what I can recall from the Bible”, she put her glasses back on again, “there is also a mention of something like a ‘pillar of cloud’ by day and ‘a pillar of fire’ by night in connection with the Israelites’ pilgrimage through the desert in the Exodus. This is very similar to the text on the tablet. Surely, a ‘pillar of fire’ and indeed a ‘pillar of smoke’ do seem to suggest that the volcanic eruption could actually be seen from Egypt?”

  “Well”, Ball said, “I would have doubted very much whether the pillar of fire or smoke could be seen all the way to Egypt. Perhaps the rumour of it though.” Laura nodded absently and they all quietly considered the significance of this.

  Emma was the first to voice her thoughts: “Does this mean that it’s possible that the tablet indirectly provides evidence that both the eruption and the Exodus in the bible took place in Ahmose’s reign at the beginning of the new kingdom?”

  “What’s your view on the timing of the eruption, Ball?” Paul asked abruptly with his mouth full. Laura glanced at him disapprovingly. Her eyes were nevertheless almost glittering, either from the reflection from the swimming pool next to her or more likely from excitement at the academic ponderings. Ball responded with some more technical facts:

  “Well, as you know there’s no consensus on the timing but the eruption is thought to have occurred some time between 1650 BC and 1450 BC. Although the dating of pottery supports a dating in the traditional later time frame, dendro-chronology and radiocarbon dating supports the earlier. I for one would put my bet somewhere in the middle.”

  “Ahmose’s reign from around 1550 BC falls right within this conventional dating range”, Paul noted excitedly. “I would say that it’s very likely that Ahmose was pharaoh of Egypt when the eruption took place. Only in his reign have documents which describe a great calamity been found. But whether the Exodus took place in his reign is difficult to say, even though the mention of a pillar of fire in both the bible and on the tablet is a strange coincidence.”

  “Well, others have linked the Thera eruption with the ten plagues of Egypt,” Emma noted as she stood up to get some more orange juice from the kitchen. “I recall reading an article about a theory which proves how nearly all the ten plagues can result from a volcanic eruption.” She disappeared and came back within a few seconds with the juice.

  “That’s interesting. I like the idea of finding a natural explanation to supernatural or godly events,” Paul added. “I’m a firm believer in science, not so much religion.”

  “It does make sense and the tablet can prove to be the missing link,” Laura suggested. “What the tablet conveys is clearly at least three of the ten plagues of Egypt; and this is at roughly the time before the Exodus could have occurred. What if the other half gives the remaining plagues? That would prove almost beyond doubt that the ten plagues of Egypt were caused by a natural disaster; the Thera volcanic eruption!”

  “I have to say, my knowledge of the Bible is a bit rusty”, Paul admitted and continued. “There was the plague of ‘hail’ and that of ‘darkness’. That’s two plagues which can most definitely be explained by the eruption. I seem to recall an increase in locusts, insects and flies and death of frogs; and the Nile turning into blood. Can these really be explained by a natural disaster?” He looked at Ball who seemed sceptical.

  “I suppose, it has happened that Volcanic activity has caused pollution in lakes and other water sources. My only guess is that coupled with the ash-polluted rain and hail and due to the colour of Nile silt, pollution could have given it a reddish appearance and would have meant that they couldn’t drink the water. It’s not uncommon to see dead frogs after a volcanic eruption. Their death could have been caused by the polluted water. A lack of frogs, or their rotting carcasses and that of dying fish, may have spurred on an increase in the insect population.” The way Ball explained everything, it all sounded perfectly plausible.

  “But what about the tenth plague – the killing of the first born son? Surely, that could not be explained by the Thera eruption?” Erik asked almost rhetorically.

  “No”, Ball said laughing. “You would have to work that one out for yourself! I can guarantee you that there’s no natural explanation to that, other than human cruelty! I have to admit, I’m not at all religious and would never have thought to look in the Bible for a description of the Thera eruption but it would seem that at least to a certain extent it fits.”

  They all fell silent for a moment. Erik almost
jumped when Laura then stirred and voiced another thought in Ball’s direction: “Hm, I wonder if there’s a possibility that the story of the parting of the Red Sea could’ve been recorded in people’s memory from what was a Tsunami caused by the eruption.”

  Ball who may not have known about the parting of the Red Sea in the bible responded hesitantly: “Well, I suppose the effects of a Tsunami would definitely have appeared as a parting of the sea, with the water first retreating from the shore, revealing the bottom of the sea and then rushing back in with violent force.”

  “Sure. It was just a thought,” Laura said. “There’s no evidence for this theory, nor do I think it would be possible to find such evidence. After all, it’s only a story.”

  “I agree”, Paul said in his most pompous professor voice. “In science we have to seek evidence in order to prove our assumptions using different sources and empirical study. On the other hand, we’re all entitled to our own opinion and a theory which sounds perfectly plausible compared to any other alternative does hold some value. Maybe it’s time for us to pay a little bit more attention to the rest of the text on the tablet. Perhaps it reveals something we’ve missed.”

  As they sat there, snacking on their pizzas, they all felt that this tablet may actually be more significant than both Paul and Emma had initially expected. It was true that in this respect it didn’t say a whole lot more than the Tempest Stela but what it did was to provide a second source for the fact that the eruption would have occurred in Ahmose’s reign, something which according to Paul was not a universally accepted assumption.