Or maybe we could just mention Plato a bit here? Certainly that wouldn't be "theological!"
I'm not sure how to reconcile the biblical dating here with what geologists have to say about the period in question; i.e., ~2,200 B.C.
Yet the fascinating thing is it is precisely within this geological period that Plato places his myth of Atlantis (~2,200 B.C.), in the "unfinished" dialogue, Critias. [Warning: the Greeks generally do not get high marks for their handling of time problems....]
As far as I know, Plato's reference to Atlantis is the only recorded instance in history suggesting that such a place actually existed. Plato describes Atlantis as the wealthiest, most prosperous, most technologically advanced, and most strictly socially integrated society of its day. An Athens that was well in Plato's past at the time of his writing this dialogue went to war with Atlantis; and ultimately, under the most difficult circumstances, ultimately prevailed.
But by then, it simply didn't matter: For what instantly occurred was a great natural cataclysm that set up earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence, such that "in a single dreadful day and night all [the Athenian] fighting men were swallowed up by the earth [earthquake], and the island of Atlantis was similarly swallowed up by the sea and vanished [great flood]."
My own view is that Plato's tale of Atlantis is pure fiction, a literary device that he used to explore certain aspects of his political and social thought that need not detain us here. What I suspect, however, is that Plato may well have been aware of geological events that occurred nearly 2,000 years before his own time, which would have been within the ken of the greatest scientists of the day, the Egyptians. Indeed, Plato himself has Critias document the tale of Atlantis as information that came to him ultimately from Solon, who heard it from the Egyptian priests; which information Solon transmitted to Critias's grandfather, from whom Critias heard the tale.
The Myth of Atlantis gives us yet another "tale" or account of a Great Flood occurring within the geological period of interest here.
Plato never really tells us where his Atlantis "is." There is some suggestion that she lay outside the Pillars of Hercules; i.e., in the Atlantic Ocean. There would be good literary reasons for putting Atlantis "outside" the Mediterranean basin altogether, to emphasize the more universal implications of Plato's account.
But scholars seeking possible empirical connections between the myth and the geological record tend to associate Atlantis with ancient Crete. Crete, evidently, was devastated, overwhelmed by a great natural disaster which occurred around, or fairly closely following, the above-indicated timeframe — the devastating volcanic eruption of Thera (a volcanic explosion that was like the Krakatoa explosion of the modern period, on steroids).
Thera was an island in the Mediterranean Sea; when she blew, she disappeared forever. Some geologists and cultural historians credit the volcanic explosion on Thera as responsible for the widespread destruction which took place on Crete, after which this great island culture never recovered its former glory and prosperity....
The point of the Atlantis myth, it seems to me, is its reference to the extraordinary geological disturbances occurring in this time period, involving extremely violent, widespread volcanic activity; pervasive, recurring earthquakes; and especially gargantuan floods.
What could have set off such events? Why not comets and the disaster they evidently unleashed, in the Bronze Age?
Thank you so much for sharing this information, dearest sister in Christ!
Interesting things could happened with any number of possiblies even meteors large and small and/or tsunamis.. and vulcanism.. there were no newspapers internet or mostly even books to document it.. The printing press changed documented history completely..