Atlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldDonnelly, Ignatius
History
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Deluge; Ethnology
In both America and Egypt the pyramids were used as places of sepulture;
and it is a remarkable fact that the system of earthworks and mounds,
kindred to the pyramids, is found even in England. Silsbury Hill, at
Avebury, is an artificial mound one hundred and seventy feet high. It is
connected with ramparts, avenues (fourteen hundred and eighty yards
long), circular ditches, and stone circles, almost identical with those
found in the valley of the Mississippi. In Ireland the dead were buried
in vaults of stone, and the earth raised over them in pyramids flattened
on the top. They were called "moats" by the people. We have found the
stone vaults at the base of similar truncated pyramids in Ohio. There
can be no doubt that the pyramid was a developed and perfected mound,
and that the parent form of these curious structures is to be found in
Silsbury Hill, and in the mounds of earth of Central America and the
Mississippi Valley.
We find the emblem of the Cross in pre-Christian times venerated as a
holy symbol on both sides of the Atlantic; and we find it explained as a
type of the four rivers of the happy island where the civilization of
the race originated.
We find everywhere among the European and American nations the memory of
an Eden of the race, where the first men dwelt in primeval peace and
happiness, and which was afterward destroyed by water.
We find the pyramid on both sides of the Atlantic, with its four sides
pointing, like the arms of the Cross, to the four cardinal points--a
reminiscence of Olympus; and in the Aztec representation of Olympos
(Aztlan) we find the pyramid as the central and typical figure.
Is it possible to suppose all these extraordinary coincidences to be the
result of accident? We might just as well say that the similarities
between the American and English forms of government were not the result
of relationship or descent, but that men placed in similar circumstances
had spontaneously and necessarily reached the same results.
CHAPTER VI.
GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS.
Money is the instrumentality by which man is lifted above the
limitations of barter. Baron Storch terms it "the marvellous instrument
to which we are indebted for our wealth and civilization."
It is interesting to inquire into the various articles which have been
used in different countries and ages as money. The following is a table
of some of them:
Articles of Utility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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