BBC - Why Ancient Volcano Myths Are Likely True, and Atlantis may be one of them.
In this age of "it must be proved, in order to be believed", it is sometimes advisable to accept all evidence presented as a part of the big picture. Anecdotal evidence is also real, and even cultural myths may offer clues about ancient events.
This article is from the BBC. In order to view the entire article, please follow the LINK .
Story has it that many hundreds of years ago, Tanovo, chief of the Fijian island Ono, was very partial to a late afternoon stroll. Each day he would walk along the beach, watch the sun go down and undoubtedly contemplate this paradise on Earth.
The cultural memory was right, and our scientific surveys were wrong
But one day Tanovos rival, chief of the volcano Nabukelevu, pushed his mountain up and blocked Tanovos view of the sunset. Enraged at this, and robbed of the pacifying effects of his daily meditation, Tanovo wove giant coconut-fibre baskets and began to remove earth from the mountain. His rival, however, caught Tanovo and chased him away. Tanovo, in his flight, dropped earth at the islands of Dravuni and Galoa.
When geologist Patrick Nunn first heard this myth, it made sense that it described the volcanic eruption of Nabukelevu, with the associated ash falls on other islands in the Kadavu group. But his scientific investigation of the region concluded that the volcano had not erupted for 50,000 years, long before the island was first inhabited around 2000 B.C. The myth, it seemed, was simply a storynot a description of previous events.
Then, two years later, when diggers carved out a road near the base of the volcano, they uncovered pieces of ancient pottery buried underneath a metre-deep layer of volcanic ash. This clearly demonstrated that the volcano had erupted within the last 3,000 years while humans lived here, says Nunn, a professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia . The cultural memory was right, and our scientific surveys were wrong.
You attribute it to supernatural forces and you say it is a battle between the giants and the gods
From prehistoric times to, more recently, the pyrotechnics of Hawaiis Kilauea, volcanic eruptions have aroused fear and inspired myths. Often cultures have seen active volcanoes as the abode of gods - typically gods quick to anger.
I think the creation of myths is essentially the human reaction to witnessing a natural process that you cannot explain, says Haraldur Sigurdsson, a volcanologist at the University of Rhode Island, US . So you attribute it to supernatural forces and you say it is a battle between the giants and the gods.
But deities aside, these traditional oral tales can contain valuable information about the type, and nature of volcanic eruptions, Nunn says. In particular they can contribute missing data to geologists about events that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago .
As we discuss our own myths and cultural stories, perhaps we should understand that the people that lived through the time had no other way to pass on the lessons they learned to their descendants, except by cultural stories, or myths. Even if they did have other ways, it is often misinterpreted today.
In this, I am thinking of the Japanese stones carved with mysterious glyphs that actually said, "the water reached here". LINK Having survived a tsunami, much like the one that devastated the Japanese coastline in 2011, had the Japanese people understood the warning stones and heeded their advice, many people may have been saved.
Perhaps as we view the myths of our own cultures, we can search for an understanding of our ancestors, and better comprehend their larger message.
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The entire article is very informative and quite good! You may enjoy it!
I think that when we look at our own myths about phenomenal events, we may have to take it from the stance of "point of view". For example Noah and the flood. Perhaps, to Noah, it seemed that the whole world was flooded-- when, in reality, it was his part of the world.
Just a thought: What are our ancestors really trying to tell us?
Dowser
Great story
I enjoy reading mythology and seeing how it might have been or even probably was about true events that occurred.
I saved the link for a more indepth read later.
Thanks
My pleasure! I found it to be very interesting!
I love how the geologists are proving that some of the volcano myths are based on fact.
I think that, as scientists, we should all be more open minded.
Great article Dowser,
The oral history (myth to some) is very real, and in many instances has proven to be correct.
Great post.
Dowser..... As far as I believe we really don't know if this earth hasn't had such drastic changes in the past there is no possibility of ever knowing any further back than the myths but there could have been much more before them we will never know.
Which is an interesting way to say that archaeologists and anthropologists are now finding the a vast many of the oral stories of the elders are, indeed, factual stories.
Dowser....
Myths, legends, folklore, or facts. who knows, but is sure is interesting to read hypothesis, theories, and learn facts about instances like this. Bigfoot is a big mystery in my part of the woods!
Thanks for the interesting article, dear Dowser. Be well, take care.
''Bigfoot is a big mystery in my part of the woods!''
To the Ojibwe and Menomenie it is knows as ''Gitchi Sabe'' and has been in our oral history since well before Columbus dd.
When I was a kid, mothers used to tell kids in my town to be home by dark, or Bigfoot may get you. Of course some of us hung out in the woods for hours after dark trying to see him. On Stevens Pass, over the Cascades there is even a Bigfoot Museum. Made famous by the movie "Harry and the Hendersons". A favorite of mine.
If you met Gitchi Sabe, you'd have no worries dd. He is a gentle giant and protector of children lost in the forest.
I love how oral history is being proven, in many cases, to be factual, or based on real events. I think it is wonderful!
Now, what I want to know-- Does the Choctaw have stories about the 1812 earthquake that struck western KY/MO? I'd love to hear them! They were there! All I've read were the few accounts by white settlers, and there weren't many of them...
The only way to know them is to study the fossil record and the rocks themselves. We know what kind of environments yielded what kinds of rocks-- and can do general studies... The shells of ancient creatures tell us a lot about what was going on climate-wise-- and we're learning more every day.
We know that the earth has undergone several extinction level events-- notably the changes between eras, are based on large global changes, i.e. periods of high volcanic activity, etc. We know where the continents were, about, during past geologic history, and whether a large land body was on the equator or elsewhere... We can make fairly accurate general guesses. And we're slowly getting better at it.
That's not much, but it's something.
Any time you see a rock, think of it as a snapshot of what was going on at that one place at that particular time. It's pretty fascinating stuff, to me, anyway!
Thanks for coming by! We never know-- maybe there is a rare creature that looks like a man/beast...
Take care, too!
Wonderful legend!
Dear Friend Dowser: Modern day myths are no less interesting.
One urban legend that fascinated me is the story that the Road Kill Grill Caf serves only non frozen meats. Could this too be correct?
E. at the Salad Bar.
I would stick like glue to that salad bar!
(What a hoot!)
Love you!
Cool!
I'd heard the Santorini bit before, but not the Pacific bits.
"Legend" works for other stuff, too. Schliemann found Troy by analyzing the Iliad. Nordic legends of Western Isles eventually led to Vineland.
I think that as we have gained literacy, we have lost the capacity for oral history... and we have lost respect for it along with the capacity. "If I can't do it, then it cannot be done!" Despite "storytelling" being a key part of so many cultures...
VERY interesting Dowser, thanks for sharing this.I'm a person that tends togive people and things the benefit of the doubt. Great find!!
Dear Friend Dowser: Love you back three times!
The News Talkers that graze together, stays together.
Smiles.
Enoch.
Especially when we survive The Road Kill Diner together! Here, have some AlkaSelzer!
Yes-- and they found the Island of Ithaca, where Odysseus lived... I think it is wonderful!
I think, in this day and age, we are too caught up in "proving" everything. Some things, you have to take on faith. Have you noticed that scientists sometimes ballyhoo every time the prove something that just makes common sense? As an example, a few years ago, the scientists actually proved that people with insomnia don't live as long as others who can sleep. Well, gee-mo-netti, I knew that.
Story-telling, myths, cultural legends, etc., are all a part of a people's ethos, and should be treated with respect as an oral history. I think, anyway.
Me, too, Nona! I enjoy the stories, very much!
My Grandpa told me stories about so many animals, insects, and other things he knew, growing up on a farm. When I was writing down the stories, I looked up these animal's and insect's behavior, and he was right on the money. Grandpa was an astute observer of nature-- and he didn't lie.
Enoch,
If you freeze it, you don't get that rare, subtle essence of tire track rubber in the roast.
LOL! EW!
Dowser,
Of course he was. He was growing up learning how to be a farmer. A farmer (before the Extension Service) had better know those things if he wants his family to eat. A farmer not knowing them would be like you not knowing how to identify rocks and minerals or spot formations and then trying to be a geologist. It would simply be impossible to do the job without that knowledge.
My grandpa was much like him. He knew the behavior of every animal on his farm, wild or tame. He too, told the truth (well, almost always). When I was five, I stayed up there for a week. We were outside when a medium sized plane flew over. He told me that it was the mail plane and to keep watch for a parachute with our mail hanging from it. There never was a parachute with mail; I know because I stood out there watching for three days whenever the plane came by, while he and my grandma were inside laughing. That was a regular plane going from Mackinac City to Detroit and actually may have carried mail, but it sure didn't drop it to farmers along the way. Even at five, it should have occurred to me that there was a mail box out by the road.
In that same vein scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago spent $250,000 on a study to find out why people in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan speak with the accent that they have. The result: It probably has something to do with the Norwegian ancestry of many of them. What the heck, I could have told them that for nothing.
Exactly! I find it to be sort of annoying... A lot of times, general knowledge is right on the money.
Grandpa's stories were about the wildlife, near the farm-- such fun!
Dear Friend TTGA: Agreed. In science, this is known a the Firestone effect.
It is also present in liquids. Frozen ice is a lot harder to sip than plain cold water.
Smiles, E.
You are so very right!
I sometimes despair of humans as 'civilized' beings... We haven't evolved all that much, despite being up and running around on this planet for so long. I feel that we should all take a tip from the ancients, and be careful of where we are.
Take care, dear friend!