The Atlanteans: a short background piece for the October Prompt Request
For unknown reasons the ancestors of the Atlanteans, also known as the mitochondrial haplogroup L7, migrated west to the Atlantic coast of Africa instead of taking the northern route out of the continent. They lived there for a relatively short period of time, the Casa 5 site has the longest period of habitation discovered from that period at just under one hundred years, and then they crossed the ocean to reach Atlantis. The abandoning of the African settlements has been dated to 110,000 Before Current Era (BCE). No archaeological record of their people remains in Africa from then until the beginning of their First Colonial phase.
Atlantis was fertile with abundant resources. What we have of Atlantean writings describing their early homeland depict an earthly paradise. However there were sufficient challenges that they were driven to develop tools and weapons rather than remaining stagnant. The seismic event that destroyed Atlantis put all archaeological evidence for the long period when the Atlanteans were confined to their continent at the bottom of the mid-Atlantic trench. However by the time the Atlanteans began establishing their first colonies on the Atlantic shores of the other continents they were generally more advanced than the peoples they met there and they excelled in the skills and sciences of metallurgy, crystallography, piezoelectrics and biological modification and manipulation.
The Atlanteans did suffer some initial colonial failures and it is telling that in his memoir Nga!mbe gave revenge against the savages as one of the reasons for his first African expedition. However by 4,000 BCE the Atlanteans dominated the African Atlantic coast. From there they spread north to the European coast and west to Arawak Coast. Settlements beyond the coastal fringes and in the north western Atlantic were tied to the locations of strategic and luxury resources, the emerald mines on the Itoco being a case in point.
The Atlanteans did not found any colonies east of the Pillars until 1,000 BCE however Atlantean trade goods have been found in Egyptian sites dating back to the First Dynasty, Mycenaean sites and in the iron trading settlements of Noricum. Evidence indicates that they also conducted gunship diplomacy with the Han. This attitude was typical of their dealings with other peoples and no doubt contributed to the rapid dissolution of the Empire after Atlantis was destroyed.