Message #101256

[Bianca]

Now the village looks very much as if it is becoming an Eastern Mediterranean Pompeii, an intact city of two- and three-story houses apparently still standing under the ash.



As one researcher summed it up, "We had expected to find the ruins of a prehistoric town. What

surprised us was that it was three-dimensional. In most finds, the ruins don't come up to your knee..."



Even the frescoes, usually just piles of plaster on the floor by the time the archeologists get to them, are beautifully preserved. The first nine trenches that were dug, yielded enough artifacts to load down 35 donkeys.

The absence of skeletons and gold suggests that the ancient inhabitants had some disaster warning, escaping in their boats and leaving houses and furniture sealed under the preserving ash for the scientists to find.

A volcano which smoked for a few days before blowing up would have been enough to drive the frightened citizens away.

Some refugees almost certainly went to Lebanon and Syria; some of today's Middle Easterners are thus Atlanteans by heritage.