XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.atheism, alt.history.ancient-worlds   
      
   Seems logical. Bridges exist, therefore this one must have a Troll underneath   
   it.   
      
   Apparently on date 2 Oct 2005 13:29:00 -0700, geister@mailinator.com said:   
      
   > You just have to hate it when history proves atheism wrong.   
   >   
   >Lost island home of Odysseus found after 3,000 years   
   >By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent   
   >FOR almost 3,000 years, its location has been a mystery, but classical   
   >scholars around the world are now convinced that a British businessman   
   >and amateur archaeologist with a passion for Homer has found the island   
   >   
   >of Ithaca, home of the Greek hero Odysseus and the site of his palace.   
   >Many thought that the island existed only in the imagination of the   
   >Greek poet Homer and in his epic, the Odyssey. Certainly his   
   >description   
   >of it did not match the Ionian island now called Ithaca, but, after   
   >following a detective trail of literary, geological and archaeological   
   >clues, scholars led by Robert Bittlestone, a management consultant,   
   >have   
   >identified Paliki, an area of Cephalonia, as the site.   
   >Calssicists have been overwhelmed by the compelling evidence.   
   >NI_MPU('middle');James Diggle, Professor of Greek and Latin at   
   >Cambridge University and co-author of a book on the discovery, said   
   >that almost   
   >all of the 26 locations that Homer described in detail can be   
   >identified today in northern Paliki and its neighbourhood.   
   >The topography of Homer's island fits the area "like a glove", he   
   >said.   
   >Paliki was once a separate island. Since Homer's day, earthquakes   
   >triggering massive landslides had filled in a narrow sea channel that   
   >separated it from the island of Same - modern Cephalonia, the setting   
   >for   
   >Captain Corelli's Mandolin.   
   >Professor Diggle said: "Some 3,200 years after the events that are   
   >described in the Odyssey, ancient Ithaca has at last been discovered   
   >- a   
   >discovery which will revolutionise our understanding of the ancient   
   >world   
   >and is of profound importance to our understanding of the origins of   
   >western civilisation."   
   >Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey are the oldest books in   
   >Western literature. They describe the Trojan War and the return of   
   >Odysseus - who devised the wooden horse that helped to end it - to   
   >his palace   
   >on Ithaca. Homer's accounts of events around 1,200BC inspired the   
   >philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Socrates and shaped the intellectual   
   >and   
   >cultural development of Greece.   
   >Troy was also thought to be fictional until the 1870s, when Heinrich   
   >Schliemann conducted excavations in northwestern Turkey that led to the   
   >   
   >discovery of the ancient city and, buried beneath it, the gold of Troy.   
   >   
   >Scholars and archaeologists had been baffled by Homer's description   
   >of   
   >Ithaca: "Around are many islands, close to each other,/Doulichion and   
   >   
   >Same and wooded Zacynthos./Ithaca itself lies low, furthest to   
   >sea/Towards dusk [ie West]; the rest, apart, face dawn and sun [ie   
   >East]."   
   >Today's Ithaca lies to the east of the other islands, not to the   
   >west,   
   >and it is not low-lying but mountainous. Scholars therefore came to the   
   >   
   >uneasy conclusion that Ithaca must have come from the poet's   
   >imagination.   
   >However, after field trips to western Greece and computer analysis of   
   >literary, geological and archaeological data, the use of the most   
   >advanced satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques   
   >developed   
   >by NASA, Mr Bittlestone found up to 70 clues leading to Caphalonia.   
   >The research has convinced leading academics worldwide, including John   
   >Underhill, Professor of Stratigraphy at Edinburgh University, who has   
   >now co-written a book with Professor Diggle and Mr Bittlestone.   
   >Their research will be published by Cambridge University Press on   
   >October 6 in Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca.   
   >   
   >Search 'locates' Homer's Ithaca   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >An amateur British archaeologist says he has located Ithaca, the   
   >homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus.   
   >Robert Bittlestone - backed by two experts - claims the rocky island   
   >depicted in The Odyssey is part of Greek tourist destination   
   >Cephalonia.   
   >He used satellite imagery to match the area's landscape with   
   >descriptions in the poem about the return of the man behind the wooden   
   >horse of   
   >Troy.   
   >Many experts had stated Homer was referring to the island of Ithaki.   
   >They had explained geographical inconsistencies in The Odyssey by   
   >suggesting that Homer lived much later than the events portrayed and in   
   >a   
   >different part of the country.   
   >Previous studies have also named other Ionian islands including   
   >Cephalonia.   
   >Earthquakes   
   >Surrey-based management consultant Mr Bittlestone first came up with   
   >his theory in 1998.   
   >During field trips to western Greece he also analysed literary,   
   >geological and archaeological data, and utilised 3D global   
   >visualisation   
   >techniques developed by Nasa.   
   > There is something both very new and very old to be found at this new   
   >location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca   
   >very seriously   
   >   
   >   
   >Robert Bittlestone   
   >   
   >   
   >His new book Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca is   
   >co-written by Cambridge University professor James Diggle, and   
   >geographic   
   >expert John Underhill from Edinburgh University.   
   >It suggests earthquakes have helped fill a narrow channel which had   
   >separated Cephalonia from Ithaca - said to have been located in the   
   >peninsular now known as Paliki.   
   >Future research   
   >It is not clear whether Odysseus or Ithaca really existed.   
   >But Mr Bittlestone said: "Our purpose has been to demonstrate that   
   >there is something both very new and very old to be found at this new   
   >location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca   
   >very   
   >seriously."   
   >He has described his find as one of the most important classical   
   >discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in Turkey in the 1870s.   
   > The book says Ithaca was the peninsular now known as Paliki   
   >   
   >   
   >The book details 26 locations in The Odyssey that can be identified   
   >today in northern Paliki and its vicinity.   
   >The research was conducted in cooperation with the Hellenic Ministry of   
   >   
   >Culture and with the Athens-based Institute of Geology and Mineral   
   >Exploration.   
   >"The book opens exciting prospects for future research regarding the   
   >location of Homeric Ithaca," said Petros Tatoulis, Greece's Deputy   
   >Minister of Culture.   
   >"The Ministry eagerly follows Mr Bittlestone's hypothesis and looks   
   >forward to staying informed about any future developments."   
   >Cephalonia is the same island where Louis de Bernieres' best-selling   
   >novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin was set.   
   >The novel, which was made into a film starring Penelope Cruz and   
   >Nicholas Cage in 2001, is set against the real-life massacre of   
   >thousands of   
   >Italian soldiers by German troops during World War II.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >sources:   
   >   
      
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