Lemuria

Lemuria is a lost continent that supposedly existed in the Indian Ocean before sinking beneath the waves. Originally proposed by the zoologist Philip Sclater in 1864 to explain the existence of lemurs or their fossils in both Madagascar and India, the theoretical continent was adopted by occultists like Helena Blavatsky, who asserted that it was the homeland of human civilization. The notion was adopted into the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft and other writers.
==Hypothetical Continent==
according to current supporters of the theory of such a lost continent:
"Lemuria was an ancient civilization which existed prior to and during the time of Atlantis. Physically, it is believed that Lemuria existed largely in the Southern Pacific, between North America and Asia/Australia. Lemuria is also sometimes referred to as Mu, or the Motherland (of Mu). At its peak of civilization, the Lemurian people were both highly evolved and very spiritual. While concrete physical evidence of this ancient continent may be difficult to find, many people "know" that they have a strong connection to Lemuria."
Lemuria originated in the Western World in 1864, when the British lawyer and zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater wrote a paper titled “The Mammals of Madagascar” which was published in the The Quarterly Journal of Science. Based on his own observations, Sclater noted that the lemur had far more subspecies in Madagascar than there were in either Africa or India. Based on this contemporary evidence he deduced that Madagascar was the animal’s original homeland.
To explain the diffusion of Lemurs to India and Africa from Madagascar, he postulated the existence of a now sunken continent in the Indian Ocean, roughly triangular in shape. This continent of “Lemuria,” would have formed land bridges with India’s southernmost point, southern Africa, and western Australia. At some point in prehistory, Lemuria sank to the ocean floor.
In 1870, Ernst Haeckel, a biologist, suggested that Lemuria was the original homeland of the human race.
In 1888 as part of her published book The Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky, as part of the Theosophy project, claimed that Lemuria was indeed the homeland of ancestral human forms - albeit four-armed ones.
It should be noted that Sclater merely suggested an ancient land bridge and later subsidence of previous landmasses. It was Haeckel who added the evolutionary biology of humanity to the theorem, and Blavatsky, ever the opportunist, who together with the others working on the Theosophy project added Lemuria, as with so many other more or less random components, to the mix.
Lemuria as a sunken landmass was validated as a theory in 2013 by the finding of geologically recent rocks on the sea floor as well as revising the dating for the formation of islands in the Indian Ocean. Loathe to give credit to Sclater who properly is the theorist whose original and general theorem has now been validated, the researchers of 2013 have renamed Lemuria as "Mauritia".
==In the Mythos==
The manuscript of Claes van der Heyl claims that the city of Shamballah was built by the Lemurians about 50 million years ago, yet remains intact to this day "behind its walls of psychic force in the eastern desert" (: "The Diary of Alonzo Typer"). The idea that these Lemurians existed 50 million years ago suggests that they might not have been human.
Aeons after the Shining Trapezohedron was recovered from the ruins of the Elder Things' cities by the Serpent-men of Valusia, the first human beings peered at it in Lemuria. (: "The Haunter of the Dark")
When Pánfilo de Zamacona y Nuñez arrived in K'n-yan in 1541, the K'n-yanians lauded him as the most reliable source of information about the surface world "since the refugees straggled back from Atlantis and Lemuria aeons before". (: The Mound)
In 1928, when Halpin Chalmers consumed the Liao drug that allowed him to see visions of other times and places, he witnessed "the migrations from Lemuria", as well as those from Atlantis. (: "The Hounds of Tindalos")
Category:Regions/Territories
Category:Locations Incorporated From the Real World
Category:Lovecraft's Inspirations (works)