Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-04-06
Lost Atlantis Discovered in Ahica?-Ry Prof. Frobeniu

had grown up here In other words, the
development of the arts does not appear.
There are no earlier types of pottery or
sculpture. Ali are apparently UI Tn
same period, and display the same artistic
facility. All that does appear is process
of degeneration in modern times, and this
also would tend to prove that the arts
were not developed here, but were i'm
ported at some very distant date.
The artremains found at life and in the
neighbOrhod all point to a remarkable
completeness of type and finish, a pow
erful unity and a perfection of charac-
terstics and independence in style which
cannot be accounted for save as imported
As this art appears near the Atlantic it
NAV be termed Atlantic art in a real
historic sense.
Whence came this wonderful art? This
culture that required ages for the full de-
velopment found at life. If any one were
to discover" some of the European col
onies in Africa he would have no doubt
or difficulty in concluding from the arts
there found. whether this colony was
founded by the French, or that by the
Germans, etc In the same way the dis
coverer may assert without fear of dis
pute that the wonderful ancient ciyiliZa-
ton of the YOrubis, the ideas of Creation,
the social laws and formations of clans,
the architecture and manufactures,
brought to so high a point of perfec
ton were an Independent development
especially as there is nothing in the Afri-
can culture at any time that would have
made these developments possible. The
mountain of the gods of the inhabitants
of life, with the sixteen divinities, is as
high above all African ideas of religion
as is the art found in that city.
But the people themselves prove that
this culture has not been introduced
TO Them but that it has been produced by
them 1t is native to them as they are
native to it. The resemblance of the art
ard ideas of the Yorubis with many of
the Etruscan ideas can hardly be acct
dental 1t is not difficult to imagine the
possibility of the Etruscan culture coming
through the Pillars of Hercules and find
ing it's way to the Atlantic coast of Africa.
OF course this must have occurred in very
ancient times for the remains to have the
character they now possess and for the
degenerative process to have gone as far
as it has in the life country.
There are many indications of similar
ity, and none is more characteristic than
that of the rOOf-cOnstructiOn, and the YER
andas and decorations found alike i'm
Etrurian ruins and in those of life
In weapons of war the anthropologists
find clear indications of borrowing. for
they are most Characteristic, especially
the bows. While almost every ancient ma
ton used a bow, yet in the stringing of
the bow lies the mark of popularity, and
here the Yorubls and the Etrurans agree
again.
In the resemblance OF weaving appar-
atus there is similar agreement although
the Norubis also use the implements OF
the Africans around them.
M in no Oh.
a great difference from all African tribes
and nations. The construction of the
buildings is more permanent and elaborate
and they are especially devoted to the
burnt offering, something almost unknown
&c Africans generally.
The manufacture of glass pearls and the
handling of natural pearls also point to
a peculiar civilization unknown to other
African tribes
Whence and how came this remarkable
people to the west coast of Africa? As to
the time, the art-remains prove without
question that it must go back to very re-
mote ages, called rather indefinitely an
cient times
According to HerOdotus, who is being
accepted more and more as a truth-teller
as the years pass by the Phoenicians
passed through the Pillars of Hercules
between Africa and Europe, where Gibral-
tai stands-and not daring to sail out upon
the trackless Atlantic Ocean, followed the
west coast OF Africa, planting colonies at
the most favorable spots. But this would
hardly account for the colOnists of Yoruba.
for they went far back of any period that
the PhOenicians might have covered Had
the Carthaginians known of this land it
certainly would be mentioned in ancient
literature somewhere but no such notice
has been found. It is therefore plain that
in the time of the Phoenicians the Yoruba
settlement was cut off entirely from Euro
pean and AsiatiC knowledge, forgotten, il
ever known.
Another very important fact is that the
lorubis knew in very remote ages many
arts and had developed them to a higher
stage than the Phoenicians ever reached
which makes it impossible for the Phoe-
nicians to have given birth TO the Yoru-
Dlan colony. There is only one nation old
enough, and with similar arts that resem-
bles the YOrubis closely and that is the
Etruscans. Nor should it be forgotten that
the Etruscans had reached their civiliza-
ton and power at least five hundred years
earlier than the Phoenicians
What then is the explanation of the
problem The Etruscans are as much
strangers to Europe as the YOrubs are to
Africa. Both must have come from some
great Western race or people, and no
other explanation as yet appears than
that both the TOrubs and the Etruscanss
originally came from the tabled Atlantt~
that wonderful land which once stOoya -.
the Atlantic Ocean, but has long sunk be
meath the waves, leaving its traces in
these two remarkable races one in West
Africa, the other in Europe
Of hn