Atlantis Electric Lighting in America
Atlantis electric lighting and its migration from the ancient continent of Atlantis to America seem to be a distinct possibility according to an article by Larry Brian Radka. It appeared in Issue No. 73 of Ancient American magazine and runs as follows: Did Ancient Electric Lighting also Travel to America?
From The Electric Mirror on the Pharos Lighthouse and Other Ancient Lighting, a recently published work, we can certainly conclude—from the abundance of literary as well as archaeological evidence presented therein—that the ancient Egyptians and others employed electricity to light up their temples, tombs, and lighthouses in the pre-Christian era. Even the Jews, Christians, and Muslims residing in Jerusalem were well aware of its great illuminating properties—hundreds of years later. And they certainly must have been awe-stricken at the sight of the holy city lit up at night from eight electric searchlights casting their beams out of windows in the distant Christian Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives.
Arculf (Arculfus), a Frankish bishop, perhaps of Prigueux, who visited and explored the Holy Land, accompanied by Peter, a Bergundian monk, who acted as a guide, reported the details and effects of those eight brilliant carbon arc lights—and some others also.
The Catholic Encyclopedia gives us a little background on his marvelous report—as follows:
"St. Bede relates (Hist. Eccles. Angl., V, 15) that Arculf, on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 670 or 690, was cast by tempest on the shore of Scotland. He was hospitably received by Adamnan, the abbot of the island monastery of Iona, to whom he gave a detailed narrative of his travels to the Holy Land, with specifications and designs of the sanctuaries so precise that Adamnan, with aid from some extraneous sources, was able to produce a descriptive work in three books, dealing with Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the principal towns of Palestine, and Constantinople. Adamnan presented a copy of this work to Aldfrith, King of Northumbria in 698. It aims at giving a faithful account of what Arculf actually saw during his journey. As the latter 'joined the zeal of an antiquarian to the devotion of a pilgrim during his nine months’ stay in the Holy City, the work contains many curious details that might otherwise have never been chronicled.'"
The following two excerpts, from The Pilgrimage of Arculfus in the Holy Land (About the Year A.D. 670) was translated by the Rev. James R. MacPherson in 1895. He says: “The translation has been made as literal as possible in passages where the exact rendering was of any controversial or archaeological importance, as in the description of the sites and buildings.” Here are those two excerpts wherein Arculf continues to describe one of those buildings, a revered church on the Mount of Olives, and the effects of its bright searchlights as follows:
The ancient electric searchlights had to cover nearly a mile to light up the far side of Jerusalem
“In the western side of the church we have mentioned above [before], twice four windows have been formed high up with glazed shutters, and in these windows there burn as many lamps placed opposite them, within and close to them. These lamps hang in chains, and are so placed that each lamp may hang neither higher nor lower, but may be seen, as it were, fixed to its own window, opposite and close to which it is specially seen. The brightness of these lamps is so great that, as their light is copiously poured through the glass from the summit of the Mountain of Olivet, not only is the part of the mountain nearest the round basilica to the west illuminated, but also the lofty path which rises by steps up to the city of Jerusalem from the Valley of Josaphat, is clearly illuminated in a wonderful manner, even on dark nights; while the greater part of the city that lies nearest at hand on the opposite side is similarly illuminated by the same brightness. The effect of this brilliant and admirable coruscation of the eight great lamps shining by night from the holy mountain and from the site of the Lord's ascension, as Arculf related, is to pour into the hearts of the believing onlookers a greater eagerness of the Divine love, and to strike the mind with a certain fear along with vast inward compunction.”
And Arculfus went on to add: “This also we learned from the narrative of the sainted Arculf: That in that round church, besides the usual light, of the eight lamps mentioned above as shining within the church by night, there are usually added on the night of the Lord's Ascension almost innumerable other lamps, which by their terrible and admirable brightness, poured abundantly through the glass of the windows, not only illuminate the Mount of Olivet, but make it seem to be wholly on fire; while the whole city and the places in the neighborhood are also lit up.”
Other examples of such bright lights are portrayed on the crypt walls under the temple at Denderah, which still serve as reliable witnesses to the accomplishments of ancient Egyptians in the field of electric lighting. But what about the American Aborigines? Did the pre-Columbian inhabitants on this side of the Atlantic enjoy its benefits? Well, this is quite likely, if we are to believe all the evidence that Lewis Spence presented in Atlantis in America. His historical research and illustrations of several artifacts tend to tie some of the practices of ancient Egypt and America firmly together, albeit not directly, but through the technology of the migrating gods from the continent of Atlantis, from whom the Egyptians had probably obtained their electric lighting technology.
Evidence of one common practice is found in the mummification of corpses for burial. “On the mainland of America there is an abundance of evidence that the practice of embalming the dead was obtained,” claimed the renowned writer, “especially in the more highly civilized centers, Mexico, Central America and Peru.” But before presenting all the evidence that supported much of his case there, he included an illustration of a remarkable artifact of “Zemi from Antilles,” a reflection of one of the gods revered across the Atlantic Ocean in antiquity. In his introduction of this artifact into evidence, he quoted J. H. Fewkes, the author of a work on the mortuary customs of the aborigines of Puerto Rico, a stepping-stone for the Atlanteans traveling to the mainland. Fewkes pointed out that
“The dead were sometimes wrapped in cotton cloth, and cotton puppets or effigies of stuffed cotton cloth in which the bones of the dead were wrapped. They are mentioned in early writings. One of the best of these is figured in an article by an author in his pamphlet on zemis from Santo Domingo. . . . The figure, which was found, according to Dr. Cronau, in a cave in the neighborhood of Maniel, west of the capital, measures 75 centimeters in height. According to the same author, the head of this specimen was a skull with artificial eyes and covered with woven cotton. About the upper arms and thighs are found woven fabrics, probably of cotton, following a custom to which attention has been already called. There is a representation of bands over the forehead.”
Zemi, with cotton wrappings and eviscerated abdomen
“Here we see a distinct reminiscence of mummy bandaging,” wrote Spence, “and a great gap in the abdomen of the figure conclusively shows that the intention of the maker was to represent an eviscerated corpse.”
If ancient Americans and Egyptians learned mummy practices from the Atlanteans, then they may have gained electric lighting technology from the same source. And there is certainly some evidence that they acquired it. An enlightened French writer included two examples of strange lighting in his book: Forgotten Worlds, Scientific Secrets of the Ancients and Their Warning for our Time, which indicates the ancient Americans may have advanced even beyond Egyptian electric battery technology—so adequately displayed in The Electric Mirror. Lowell Bair’s English translation of Robert Charroux’s French work points out, under the title “An Electric Lamp,” that
“There is abundant evidence showing that in Brazil, and all over South America, including Peru, the civilization of the Incas and Aymaras was preceded by an unknown civilization, equally powerful and probably more advanced.
“In 1601, the Spanish writer and traveler Barco Centenera visited the ruins called El Gran Moxo near the sources of the Rio Paraguay, that is, in the vicinity of the Sette Sgunas (Seven Lakes) in the middle of the Matto Grosso, near the modern town of Diamantino. He found a kind of large electric lamp in good working order. It was certainly not powered by batteries, but it gave light uninterruptedly and there is reason to believe that the source of the light was chemical and electrical. This is what appears from its description: ‘A column surmounted by a moon or large sphere, which brightly illuminated the surrounding area.’”
After pointing out another place that a similar spherical lamp was discovered, which was comparable to our neon or mercury vapor lamps, he went on to say, speaking of “The Radiant Rock of Ylo,” that
“The archaeologist Harold T. Wilkins (Introduction to the Mysteries of South America, London, 1950) discovered an extraordinary monument that seems to be related to the ancient spherical lamps. At Ylo, on the Pacific coast south of Arequipa, Peru, stands the Tombo del Ynca (Tomb of the Inca). It bears an ancient inscription that is said to reveal the location of the entrance to a tunnel leading to the “Ancient Lost World [of] mysteries and gold, whose hidden door lies fouled with gases behind one of the Los Tres Picos (The Three Peaks). Wilkins believes that the tunnel is at the southern end of the Atacama desert in southern Chile.
“The indecipherable description in phosphorescent and the top of the rock itself gives off a light like that of the lamp in El Gran Moxo.”
For much more on ancient electric lighting, see The Electric Mirror on the Pharos Lighthouse and Other Ancient Lighting.
This page was last modified on Friday, August 20, 2010