[S0122017]

Nice stele.

Which reminds me, actually, if there was an Atlantis and if the south americans are survivors from Atlantis, they would write in the same language as all the other designated survivors from Atlantis. Like the egyptians and sumerians. But despite some spoken words that are similar between these three cultures there are no similarities in writing.

Unless.. only the Atlantean elite knew how to write and the common people did not, and the survivors where common people.

Which means that Atlantis did not have as good an educational program as many people claim, as most people in Atlantis apparently didn't knew how to read or write, just like arabs!

Which means.. I busted another Atlantis myth.
I can now sleep happy tonight :)

[colorcountry]

Does it look like reformed Egyptian? Were the Olmecs really the Jaredites of the Book of Mormon?

Now you can stay awake at night pondering the possibilities.

[SunkenCiv]

if there was an Atlantis and if the south americans are survivors from Atlantis, they would write in the same language as all the other designated survivors from Atlantis. Like the egyptians and sumerians. But despite some spoken words that are similar between these three cultures there are no similarities in writing. Unless.. only the Atlantean elite knew how to write and the common people did not, and the survivors where common people.

Actually, that isn't a reasonable conclusion to draw, it's just a series of straw men. But it's clear you were just having fun.

Since Plato -- the fountainhead of the story -- places Atlantis a very long time ago, there has been plenty of time for languages to diverge, for other immigrants to enter and settle the Americas, and writing systems to be superseded (as they were in the space of a century or two in the eastern Mediterranean, when cuneiform was abandoned).

And since it was a disaster that claimed the Atlantis of Plato's story, it's a good bet that the entire body of literature went with them (depending on the credence one lends to Edgar Cayce, of course), along with most of the population. Furthermore, while Plato does imply the existence of the Americas in his description of Atlantis, he doesn't mention anything about escaped Atlanteans settling anywhere.

[blam]

"Like the egyptians and sumerians. But despite some spoken words that are similar between these three cultures there are no similarities in writing."

(Ahem)

The Olmec And The Shang

"The continent of Asia at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean and the Americas at the ocean's eastern edge lie 15,000 kilometers apart. Today, a US-resident Chinese scholar believes he has found evidence in ancient writing that 3000 years ago, a lost people of the Shang Dynasty went to Columbus's "New" World. . . ."