A: Aalu to Aztlan 63
such as the example at San Miguel. Both the Phoenicians and Etruscans were
outstanding seafarers.
Atlantologists speculate the Etruscans did not discover the islands, but learned
of them from their Atlantean fathers and grandfathers. The Azores’ lack of
human habitation at the time of their Portuguese discovery and their paucity of
civilized remains may be explained in terms of the Atlantis catastrophe itself, which
forced their evacuation and, over the subsequent course of centuries of geologic
activity, buried most of what survived under lava flows, which are common in the
islands. The oldest known reference to the Azores appears in Homer’s Odyssey,
where he refers (probably) to San Miguel as umbilicus maris, or “the Navel of the
Ocean,” the name of an Atlantean mystery cult.
(See Ampheres)Aztecs
A Nahuatl-speaking people who established their capital, Tenochtitlan, at the
present location of Mexico City, in 1325 A.D. Over the next two centuries, they
rose through military aggression to become the dominant power in pre-Conquest
Middle America. Although their civilization was an inheritance from other
Mesoamerican cultures that preceded them, the Aztecs preserved abundant and
obvious references to Atlantis in their mythic traditions. Despite the millennia that
separated them from that mother civilization, their royal ancestry, though not
entirely unmixed with native blood, could still trace itself back to the arrival of
Quetzalcoatl, the “Feathered Serpent,” an Atlantean culture-bearer.Aztecatl
The Aztecs themselves drew their national identity from this term, which
means, “Man of Watery (that is, sunken) Aztlan,” the Aztec name for Atlantis.Aztlan
An island civilization in the Atlantic Ocean from which the ancestors of the
Aztecs arrived in America following a destructive flood. A clear reference to Atlantis,
Aztlan was remembered by the Aztecs as “the Field of Reeds,” “Land of Cranes”
(denoting its island character), and “the White Island.” On the other side of the
world, the ancient Egyptians referred to an island in the Atlantic Ocean from
which the first gods and men arrived at the Nile Delta as Sekhet-aaru, or “the
Field of Reeds.” To both the Aztecs and the Egyptians, reeds were symbolic for
wisdom, because they were used as writing utensils. Atlantis was likewise known
as “the White Island” to North African Berbers, ancient Britons, and Hindus of
the Indian subcontinent.
(See Albion, Atala)