Lost cities / archaeology / ancient history

I didn't get around to watching it earlier, but yes, it's trash. I'm with you on the sound effects. I've never understood why this constant whoosh-bang stuff is considered essential, especially in action movies, when it doesn't represent any naturally-occurring sounds, and why audiences seemingly just accept it.

Videos like this convey very little information. Nowadays they're just made with some annoying computer graphics and very few substantial points.

I visited Akrotiri in 1996 and it's definitely a very interesting place, and one that I've read about intermittently since then. What's been excavated is undoubtedly only a small part of its original extent ...

... but if I recall correctly, nothing has so far been found in the caldera, and I really didn't find the images in the video convincing. I don't really expect anything to be found there, because it seems that the caldera was enlarged in the eruption and whatever fell into it would have been destroyed completely. The only reason why we have such interesting remains at Akrotiri, or whatever it was called 4,000 years ago, is because it was initially buried under 60 metres of volcanic matter, which protected that of it which remained on land from the main force of the eruption. While there's little doubt that there would have been a harbour, there's equally very little chance of any of it remaining. I mean, people will undoubtedly be able to keep excavating there for decades to come, but because the remains lie buried so deep, who knows what they'll find? I always say that I think we tend to underestimate the size of ancient cities (it's pretty overwhelming archaeologically to excavate something even of the size of a village, as has so far happened in Akrotiri), but because of the industry around 'Atlantis', here it's almost the other way around. :) It may well have been huge, but it'll be a long time before we can say with any certainty how much of it could still be excavated today. It might well become like an archaeological open-cast mine if they carry on extending the scope.

But to again say this on 'Atlantis'--this is probably a creation of Plato's, as with his other myths. Here, he tells clearly of a place beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Of course, you can ignore that and claim that the myth is inspired by/put together from various different sources, which I don't doubt for a second, and that Santorini is a very important source, and blah and blah, but what is clear is that *it's not Atlantis, because Atlantis is actually defined by what's in the myth, and *whisper it, it may not *actually* have existed. :)

Anyway, whatever the truth of all that may be, Akrotiri is always worth a look:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_(prehistoric_city)

The only thing that prevents it from being more of an archaeological sensation is the absence so far of any written material. It's very likely that people of that culture had writing, but as they evidently weren't surprised by the eruption and managed to leave the island before it happened, they may well have taken written records with them. (For that same reason, their civilisation didn't 'vanish', as is often claimed. They simply went to live in other places and undoubtedly carried on their civilisation there.)