Luigi sold the world literary rights to this book to Orion – part of the Hachette Group, the world’s largest publisher. Orion has been enormously supportive and enthusiastic. I should particularly like to thank Rowland White my publisher, his assistant Nicola Crossley and Susan Howe, foreign rights director and her team, as well as Helen Ewing and Georgie Widdrington.
Gaynor Aaltonen played a key role. She has skilfully turned my stilted prose into a readable book whilst at the same time incorporating an endless flood of new evidence, which has flowed on to our computers since Orion first took this book on. Without Gaynor’s work there would not have been a book. I am indebted to her.
Finally Marcella, for without her unfailing kindness and support there would have been no Lost Empire of Atlantis. I and the book owe her everything. I am so happy the Minoan Linear A spelling of her name starts with the face of a cat!
Gavin Menzies
London
St Valentines Day 2011
Photo Section I
The great pyramid of Khufu, Egypt.
An image, painted circa 1479–1425 BC in the tomb of Menkheperraseneb, clearly shows a ‘Keftiou’ (Cretan) bearing a gift of a bullhead rhyton.
A view of the magnificent Palace of Knossos, Crete.
The archaeologist Arthur Evans, who first unearthed the palace of Knossos and named the ‘Minoans’ after King Minos.
The bullhead rhyton unearthed at Knossos.
The enigmatic Phaestos disc. Experts have struggled for over a century to decipher both it and the mysterious Minoan language, Linear A.
A view of the great Palace of Phaestos, Crete.
A beautiful carved axe in the form of a panther – Heraklion Museum, Crete.
A beautiful Minoan fresco at the Palace of Knossos.
The throne room at Knossos.
Pithoi storage jars, as seen at Knossos, have been found at various sites around the Mediterranean and beyond.
Jewellery in the ‘Aigina Treasure’ – the Master of Animals at the British Museum.
A golden bee pendant and a Minoan bee brooch at the Heraklion Museum, Crete.
The flotilla fresco at Akrotiri, unearthed by Dr. Spyridon Marinatos in 1967.
Items from the Uluburun shipwreck treasure trove include copper ingots, hippo teeth and elephant tusks.
Bronze tools and implements from the Yemeni Al-Midamman bronze hoard.
Photo Section II
The Hagia Triada sarcophagus, Crete.
Clockwise from top left: Sculpted stone sunflower juxtaposed with live sunflower, Halebid, Karnataka, India; Stone carving at Pattadakal temple, India, shows a parrot perched on a sunflower; Stone carving of a pineapple in a cave temple in Udaiguri, India; Wall sculpture from Hoysala Dynasty Halebid temple at Somnathpur, India, showing maize ears.
Clear similarities in the custom of bull leaping, which transcends cultures and countries. Top: Engraving by Goya, ‘The Agility and Audacity of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring at Madrid’.
Minoan bull leaper, British Museum.
Minoan bull leaper, Heraklion Museum.
The Dover Boat at the Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery.
The mysterious Nebra disc, found in Germany, 1999.
England’s most celebrated stone circle, Stonehenge, Wiltshire.
An amber necklace from the Upton Lovell Bronze Age hoard, Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes.
A selection of artefacts found near Stonehenge and in the surrounding area, courtesy of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes.
Comparisons of copper tools and implements found in the Mediterranean and at the Great Lakes, USA:
Coiled snake effigy (Uluburun wreck and Great Lakes).
Animal weights at the British Museum.
Weights from the Uluburun wreck.
Weights found in the Great Lakes area of the USA.
Conical points (Uluburun wreck and Great Lakes).
Triangulate spear heads (Uluburun wreck and Great Lakes).
Gaff hooks (Uluburun wreck and Great Lakes).
Bronze knives (Uluburun wreck and Great Lakes).
Skeleton known as the ‘Amesbury Archer’, now in Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.
The Antikythera device, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece.
The Isopata ring, Heraklion Museum, Crete.
About the Author
GAVIN MENZIES is the globally bestselling author of 1421: The Year China Discovered America and 1434: The Year China Ignited the Renaissance. His ideas have been profiled in the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and Wall Street Journal, and he has lectured at the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), Royal Geographical Society (London), National Maritime Museum (London), and Great Hall of the People (Beijing). He served in the Royal Navy for nearly two decades, becoming a submarine captain. His knowledge of seafaring and navigation sparked his interest in the epic voyages of Chinese admiral Zheng He, which he described in 1421 and 1434. Menzies lives in London, England.
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By the SAME AUTHOR
1421: The Year China Discovered the World
1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy
and Ignited the Renaissance
Credits
COVER DESIGN BY RICHARD AQUAN
THE FLOTILLA FRESCO © BY NIMATALLAH / ART RESOURCE, N.Y.
COVER PHOTOGRAPH OF PHAESTOS DISK © BY PRA
Copyright
If you would like to contact Gavin Menzies and the research team, please email them at [email protected]. Our website www.gavinmenzies.net is a focal point for ongoing research into pre-Columbian voyages to the New World. Please get in touch and join us on this great adventure!
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Swordfish, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group, Ltd.
THE LOST EMPIRE OF ATLANTIS. Copyright © 2011 by Gavin Menzies. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-204948-3
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062049513
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