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{{Short description|Mythical lost continent}} | |||
], ]]] | |||
{{Infobox fictional location | |||
|name = Mu | |||
|image = Book map1.jpg | |||
|imagesize = 250px | |||
|caption = Map of Mu by ] | |||
|source = ''Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men'' | |||
|creator = ] | |||
|genre = ] | |||
|type = Hypothetical ] | |||
|located_in = ] | |||
}} | |||
'''Mu''' is a ] introduced by ] (1825–1908), who identified the "Land of Mu" with ]. The name was subsequently identified with the hypothetical land of ] by ] (1851–1936), who asserted that it was located in the Pacific Ocean before its destruction.<ref name="chlost26"/> The place of Mu in both pseudoscience and fantasy fiction is discussed in detail in '']'' (1954, 1970) by ]. | |||
'''Mu''' is the name of a hypothetical lost ], which is thought to have been located in the ] before it sank beneath the waters, similar to ] (the ]) and ], with which it is sometimes identified. | |||
Geologists state that the existence of Mu and the lost continent of Atlantis has no factual basis, and is physically impossible, as a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short period of time asserted in the legends, folklore and literature about these places.<ref>{{cite book |last= Haugton|first=Brian | title = Hidden History| publisher = New Page Books| year = 2007 | isbn = 978-1-56414-897-1| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fSbRZunGbF4C&pg=PA59}} Page 60.</ref><ref name="camp">{{cite book| author = De Camp, Lyon Sprague | title = Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature| publisher = Dover Publications| orig-year = 1954| year = 1971| isbn = 978-0-486-22668-2| url = https://archive.org/details/lostcontinentsat0000deca| url-access = registration | page = }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Brennan|first=Louis A.| title=No Stone Unturned: An Almanac of North American Pre-history|url= https://archive.org/details/nostoneunturneda00bren|url-access= registration| publisher = Random House| year = 1959}} Page 228.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Witzel|first= Michael | title = Archaeological Fantasies| editor = Garrett G. Fagan Routledge | year = 2006|isbn = 978-0-415-30593-8| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oB7pBZ3s6dIC&pg=PA220 | publisher = Routledge | location =London}} Page 220.</ref> | |||
General acceptance by the scientific community of the theory of ] ended any scientific basis for the once popular belief in sunken continents. Plate tectonics explains that continental masses are composed of the lighter '']'' (]/]) type rocks which literally float on the heavier '']'' (silicon/]) rocks which constitute ocean bottoms. There is no evidence of SiAl rock in the Pacific basin. | |||
==History of the concept== | ==History of the concept== | ||
===Augustus Le Plongeon=== | ===Augustus Le Plongeon=== | ||
The idea of Mu first appeared in the works of the |
The mythical idea of the "Land of Mu" first appeared in the works of the British-American antiquarian ] (1825–1908), after his investigations of the ] ruins in ].<ref name="qmoo">{{cite book| title = Queen Móo & The Egyptian Sphinx|first= Augustus|last=Le Plongeon| year = 1896| pages = pages| url = https://archive.org/details/queenmooandegyp00plongoog| publisher = The Author}}</ref> He claimed that he had translated the first copies of the ], the sacred book of the ] from the ancient Mayan using ].<ref>Card J. Jeb (2018). ''Spooky Archaeology, Myth and the Science of the Past''. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque pg. 130</ref> He claimed the civilization of Yucatán was older than those of ] and ], and told the story of an even older continent. | ||
Le Plongeon |
Le Plongeon got the name "Mu" from ], who, in 1864, mistranslated what was then called the ] (now called "Madrid Codex") using the ]. Brasseur believed that a word which he read as ''Mu'' referred to a land that had been submerged by a catastrophe.<ref>John Sladek, ''The New Apocrypha'' (New York: Stein and day, 1974) 65–66.</ref> Le Plongeon identified this lost land with ] and, following ] in ''Atlantis: The Antediluvian World'' (1882), identified it as a continent that had once existed in the ]: | ||
{{blockquote|In our journey westward across the Atlantic we shall pass in sight of that spot where once existed the pride and life of the ocean, the Land of Mu, which, at the epoch that we have been considering, had not yet been visited by the wrath of Human, that lord of volcanic fires to whose fury it afterward fell a victim. The description of that land given to ] by ], priest at ]; its destruction by ]s, and submergence, recorded by ] in his '']'', have been told and retold so many times that it is useless to encumber these pages with a repetition of it.<ref name="qmoo"/>{{rp|ch. VI, p. 66}}}} | |||
This translation of the "Troano Codex" obviously {{Fact|date=October 2007}} includes a number in the original and this can be told because the figures are place-values in base-20 (used by the Mayans) including 64,000,000 and 8,000, and in sequence. The translation recognizes some of the values but translates others as words, hence creating one long sentence. The recognition of the base-20 values in the passage was recognized by Dale Drinnon and is elaborated in his yahoo group. <ref>http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kontikiandmu/</ref> | |||
Le Plongeon claimed that the civilization of ancient Egypt, which is found in Alkebulan/Africa, was founded by Queen Moo, a refugee from the land's demise. Other refugees supposedly fled to ], ], and ] and became the Maya.<ref name="camp"/> | |||
===James Churchward=== | |||
This lost continent was later popularised by ] (]–]) in a series of books, beginning with '']'' (]), '']'' (]), '']'' (]), and '']'' (]). Churchward claimed that Mu was the home of the advanced ] civilization. The books still have devotees, but they are not considered serious archaeology, and nowadays are found in bookshops classed under 'New Age' or 'Religion and Spirituality'. | |||
=== |
=== James Churchward === | ||
In the late ], Turkey's president ] promoted research on Mu and other lost continents, in the hope of establishing connections between the ] civilization and other ancient cultures, such as the ], ], ], and ]s.<ref>http://www.truvayayinlari.com/mu.asp</ref> | |||
] | |||
===Other authors=== | |||
] | |||
Mu is identified with Lemuria in ] and ]'s '']'' trilogy, in ]'s ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'', and in the Hungarian Jeno Csicsaki's ''Mu, az emberiseg szulofoldje''. | |||
Mu, as an alternative name for a lost Pacific Ocean continent previously identified as the hypothetical ] (the supposed place of origin for ]s), was later popularised by ] (1851–1936) in a series of books, beginning with ''Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man'' (1926),<ref name="chlost26">{{cite book | title = Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man |first= James|last=Churchward | year = 1926 | isbn = 0-7661-4680-4 | publisher = Kessinger Publishing | location = United States}} | |||
==Archaeological evidence== | |||
https://archive.org/details/the-lost-continent-of-mu</ref> re-edited later as ''The Lost Continent Mu'' (1931).<ref name="chlost31">{{cite book |first= James|last=Churchward | title = The Lost Continent of Mu | publisher = Ives Washburn | location = New York | year = 1931}} Re-published by Adventures Unlimited Press (2007)</ref> Other popular books in the series are ''The Children of Mu'' (1931) and ''The Sacred Symbols of Mu'' (1933). | |||
===Yonaguni=== | |||
The ] has suggested that underwater structures located off the coast of ], ], ] are possibly ruins of ].<ref>http://www.morien-institute.org/yonaguni_schoch1.html</ref> There is little scientific evidence to support this assertion,{{Fact|date=August 2007}} and geologists generally believe that the rock formations were caused by geological processes and are of natural, not man-made, origin. In a video news report, ] mistakenly referred to the site as the "ruins of the lost world of Muin".<ref>http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2007/08/24/vo.japan.underwater.ruins.reut</ref> | |||
Churchward claimed that "more than fifty years ago", while he was a soldier in ], he befriended a high-ranking temple priest who showed him a set of ancient "sunburnt" clay tablets, supposedly in a long-lost "Naga-Maya language" which only two other people in India could read. Churchward convinced the priest to teach him the dead language and decipher the tablets by promising to restore and store the tablets, for Churchward was an expert in preserving ancient artifacts. The tablets were written in either Burma or in the lost continent of Mu itself, according to the high priest.<ref name="auto">Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7661-4680-4}}.</ref> Having mastered the language himself, Churchward found out that they originated from "the place where first appeared—Mu". The 1931 edition states that "all matter of science in this work are based on translations of two sets of ancient tablets": the clay tablets he read in India, and a collection of 2,500 stone tablets that had been uncovered by ] in ].<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|7}} | |||
Marine ] Masaaki Kimura (] at ] and chairman of Marine Science and Culture Heritage Research Association) stated that he identified the ruins of a ] off the coast of ] Island at tip of ] as the ] of an ] equivalent of ]. Kimura believes the city was sunk in an ] 3,000 years ago.<ref></ref> | |||
The tablets begin with the creation of Earth, Mu, and the superior human civilization Naacal by the seven commands of the seven superlative intellects of the seven-headed serpent Narayana. This creation story dismisses the ].<ref name="auto"/> Churchward gave a vivid description of Mu as the home of an advanced civilization, the ], which flourished between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, was dominated by a “Melanated/Black race",<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|48}} and was "superior in many respects to our own".<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|17}} At the time of its demise, about 12,000 years ago, Mu had 64 million inhabitants and seven major cities, and colonies on the other continents. The 64 million inhabitants were separated as ten tribes that followed one government and one religion. | |||
===Easter Island=== | |||
] with ] showing locations of ]s, and submarine ] showing the depth of the surrounding ]]] | |||
] visited ] in the 1930s and subsequently made the following rebuttal of the theory that the island was a mountain top of a submerged continent. | |||
Churchward claimed that the landmass of Mu was located in the Pacific Ocean, and stretched east–west from the ] to ], and north–south from ] to ]. According to Churchward the continent was supposedly 5,000 miles from east to west and over 3,000 miles from north to south, which is larger than South America. The continent was believed to be flat with massive plains, vast rivers, rolling hills, large bays, and estuaries.<ref>Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7661-4680-4}}</ref> He claimed that according to the ] he read in the Indian tablets, Mu had been lifted above sea level by the expansion of underground volcanic gases. Eventually Mu "was completely obliterated in almost a single night":<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|44}} after a series of earthquakes and ]s, "the broken land fell into that great abyss of fire" and was covered by "fifty millions of square miles of water."<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|50}} Churchward claimed the reasoning for the continent's destruction in one night was because the main mineral on the island was granite and was honeycombed to create huge shallow chambers and cavities filled with highly explosive gases. Once the chambers were empty after the explosion, they collapsed on themselves, causing the island to crumble and sink.<ref>Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing.{{ISBN|0-7661-4680-4}}</ref> | |||
*The island's ]s (platforms for ] statues) are concentrated on the current coast of the island, which implies that little change had happened to the island's shape since they were built. | |||
*Easter Island is a ] of recent origin rising from the deep ocean (1,770 ]s deep twenty miles from the island). | |||
*The "Triumphal Road" that ] had reported ran from the island to the submerged lands below, is actually a natural lava flow.<ref>http://www.davidmetraux.com/daniel/docs/alfred/alfred_metraux_mysteries_of_easter_island.pdf</ref> | |||
Churchward claimed that Mu was the common origin of the great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Central America, India, Burma and others, including ], and was in particular the source of ancient ] architecture. As evidence for his claims, he pointed to symbols from throughout the world, in which he saw common themes of birds, the relation of the Earth and the sky, and especially the ]. Churchward claimed that the king of Mu was named Ra and he related this to the Egyptian god of the sun, ], and the ] word for Sun, ''ra’a''.<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|48}} He claimed to have found symbols of the Sun in "Egypt, ], ] and all ancient lands and countries – it was a universal symbol."<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|138}} | |||
== Mu in the arts and entertainment== | |||
===Books and comics=== | |||
*] (1890–1937) included ]. | |||
*In ] ] stories, Mu was a large continent with many great cities, and when it sank, the tops of mountain peaks became the isles of ]. | |||
*]'s '']'' comic strips (1932). "Moo" and "Lem" (after ]?) are rival prehistoric nations. | |||
*]'s albums: | |||
**'']'' (1961). Hero ] time-travels to a high-tech Mu. | |||
**'']'' (1975). | |||
*] novel Operation Time Search (1967). Mu and Atlantis are rival nations. | |||
*] and ]'s book '']'' (1971–). Features Mu. "James Churchward" used as a ]. | |||
*]' novel '']'' (1980) makes extensive reference to Mu. | |||
*]'s comics magazine '']'' (1986–1991). Mu is a base city for some of the characters. | |||
*]'s manga '']'' (Knights of the Zodiac) (1986-1990). Mu is said to be the birthplace of a character called Mu. Mu is one of the 12 gold saints under Greek goddess Athena's command. Mu presides over the zodiac temple of ]. | |||
*]'s comics album '']'' (1988-1989). A '']'' adventure. | |||
*]'s illustrated story '']''<!--DATE??-->. Mu goes to war with the modern world. | |||
*] book series '']'' <!--DATE??--> and '']'' <!--DATE??-->. Mu and Lemuria are advanced civilizations. | |||
*]'s novel ''Deep Fathom'', in which one of the characters is the great-granddaughter of James Churchward. | |||
*]'s National Book Award winning book of poems '']'' (2006) which contains his serial poem "Mu". | |||
*]'s controversial book '']'' (1993) contains a detailed description of the continent Mu, allegedly experienced by the author himself while guided through what is believed to be the '']''. | |||
As additional evidence for his claims, Churchward looked to the Holy Bible and found through his own translations that ] was trained by the Naacal brotherhood in Egypt. Assyria mistranslated when writing and misplaced the Garden of Eden, which according to Churchward would have been located in the Pacific Ocean. | |||
===Movies, TV serials, and animations=== | |||
*'']'' (1963) and '']'' (1996), based on ]'s novel '']'' and Komatsuzaki's short story above. | |||
Churchward makes references to the ] epic, a ] of ] attributed to sage and historian ]. Valmiki mentions the Naacals as “coming to Burma from the land of their birth in the East,” that is, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unariunwisdom.com/the-lost-continent-of-mu/|title=The Lost Continent Of Mu | Unariun Wisdom|date=5 March 2016 }}</ref> | |||
*'']'' (1975–1976). (1975) The inhabitants of Mu, left a giant robot to defend Earth when the devils of space returned. This Giant Robot was unique, it was "intelligent" as it picked its own pilot. | |||
*'']'' (1982). Character Tao is a descendant of the ]. Changed to the Empire of Hiva for the English dub. | |||
*'']'' (1982-1983). Mu is represented by the ] on the forehead area of Goggle Yellow's helmet. | |||
*'']'' (1983.) The Mu Empire is a race of intelligent robots apparently connected with the legendary civilization. They turned on their creators and seek to destroy all other forms of intelligent life. | |||
*'']'' (1984). The Fuuma Empire, the alien empire fought by Shaider, played by '']'', came originally from Mu 12,000 years ago. | |||
*'']'' (1986) The inhabitants of Mu created the cloths for Athena's Saints. The last three lemurians are known to be Shion of Aries, Mu of Aries (both capable of repairing the cloths) and Kiki, Mu's student. | |||
*'']'' (2002). The Mulians are shown as a race who look like other humans but have blue blood. They are portrayed as coming from an ] into which the continent of Mu accidentally disappeared and in which it continues to exist; in this story, Mu is thus not a sunken continent, though still a lost one. | |||
*'']'' (1997) . Mu is the place where the monster ] was created. | |||
*'']'' (1998-2004) . Mu is where the Shaman King ceremony happens. | |||
*'']'' Mu is briefly mentioned in conjunction with the legend of ] during a discussion of Gamera, Gyaos and other legendary sunken continents. Mu is referenced as possibly being another name for Atlantis. | |||
*In episode 20 of '']'', the main character, ], admitted he believed in the Mu Continent, to avoid admitting he believed in ghosts. | |||
*In episode 16 of '']'', the continents of Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu are mentioned. It was said that these highly advanced civilizations capable of both space and time travel fell due to the impact the Minus Energy had on the Earth. | |||
*In The Japanese manga Death Note, MU was the place where humans went after dying, according to death note, there was no heaven or hell, only MU (nothingness). | |||
Churchward attributed all megalithic art in ] to the people of Mu. He claimed that symbols of the sun are found "depicted on stones of Polynesian ruins", such as the stone hats ('']'') on top of the giant '']'' statues of Easter Island. Citing ], Churchward describes the cylindrical hats as "spheres" that "seem to show red in the distance", and asserts that they “represent the Sun as Ra.”<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|138}} He also incorrectly claimed that some of them are made of "red sandstone",<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|89}} which does not exist on the island. The platforms on which the statues rest (''ahu'') are described by Churchward as being "platform-like accumulations of cut and dressed stone", which were supposedly left in their current positions "awaiting shipment to some other part of the continent for the building of temples and palaces".<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|89}} He also cites the pillars "erected by the ] of ]" as an example of this lost civilization's handiwork.<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|158}} In Churchward's view, the present-day Polynesians are not descendants of the dominant members of the lost civilization of Mu, responsible for these great works, but are instead descendants of survivors of the cataclysm that adopted "the first ] and savagery" in the world.<ref name="chlost31"/>{{rp|54}} | |||
===Video games=== | |||
*]'s ] - one of the teams in the arena "Soldiers of Mu" has a brief reference to Mu "sitting on the bottom of the Mediterrean". | |||
*]'s ] has a reference to Mu as the protagonists travel on a lost planet, Miltia, as an enigmatic character ] compares the state of the planet to the lost continent. | |||
*]'s ] '']''<!--DATE??-->. The play is set in Mu. | |||
*The ] and ] games '']'' (1991), '']'' (1993), '']/]'' (1994), '']'' (1995), and '']'' (1996) all reference Mu. | |||
*]'s game '']'' (2004). Mu is an ]-like land. | |||
*'']'' and ]. Many humans with magical abilities are said to be descended from the people of Mu. The villain group known as the Circle of Thorns is made up primarily of the ghosts of their ancient enemies, the Oranbegans. Also, the villain group ] has a division made up entirely of Mu descendants. | |||
*'']'' features a city called Mu on at least two different scenarios. | |||
*'']'' features Solo, a major antagonist who is the last human of Mu and means to use certain ]s to revive the continent. | |||
*'']'' in the game of the same name mentions Mu after defeating the second level boss, ]. | |||
*] features a treasure which is the remants of the lost continent of Mu. | |||
=== |
===John Newbrough=== | ||
In the 1882 book '']: A New Bible'', John Newbrough included a map of the Earth in ] times (i.e. prior to the great flood of biblical record) where an unknown continent is located in the Northern Pacific. Newbrough called this continent Pan. People often link both Pan and Mu as the same mythological continent since both are claimed to be located in the Pacific. Newbrough continues to claim that the unknown continent disappeared 24,000 years ago, but will soon rise from the Pacific and will be inhabited by the Kosmon race.<ref>Camp De Sprague L. (1970). Lost Continents, The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature p. 70–71. Dover Publications, Inc: New York</ref> | |||
*], a 70s American Psychedelic rock band. | |||
*Mu, a current British/Japanese electronica duo. | |||
*'']'', song from the album '']'' by ]. | |||
*] (later known as ]), a British techno band very fond of Mu. | |||
*], A rock band from Long Island, NY. The second track on their album 'Worship and Tribute' is called "Mu Empire." | |||
*'']'', song from the album '']'' by symphonic opera metal band, ]. | |||
*]'s 1969 records with Ed Blackwell, Mu, Part I and Mu, Part II | |||
*]'s 1968 record Down In L.A. included a song titled Incredible State of Affairs that mentions Atlantis & Mu | |||
*Mu, a track on the 1967 album '']'' by jazz musician ]. Other tracks include '']'', '']'', '']'', and the title track, '']''. The album features the ] ]. | |||
*], of the rock group '']'', claimed his symbol on the band's fourth album (a feather inside a circle) represents the Mu civilization. He said, "My symbol was drawn from sacred symbols of the ancient Mu civilisation which existed about 15,000 years ago as part of a lost continent somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between China and Mexico. All sorts of things can be tied in with Mu civilisation - even the Easter Island ]. These Mu people left stone tablets with their symbols inscribed into them all over the places. And they all date from the same time period. The Chinese say these people came from the east and the Mexicans say they came from the west...obviously it was somewhere in between." (From the book "Talking," by Dave Lewis.) | |||
*], a British electronic music label, has released albums titled ''The Sacred Symbols of Mu'', ''The Cosmic Forces of Mu'', ''Children of Mu'' and ''Amμnition''. It is owned by ], who publishes his own work as μ-Ziq, as well as other aliases. | |||
== |
===Louis Jacolliot=== | ||
] was a French ], ], and ] who specialized in the translation of ]. He wrote about the land of the Rutas, a lost land that ancient sources claimed was in the Indian Ocean but which he placed in the Pacific Ocean and associated with Atlantis stories in ''Histoire des Vierges. Les Peuples et les continents disparus'' (1874). He amplified upon this in ''Occult Science in India'' (1875, English translation 1884). He has been identified as a contributor to ].<ref>Camp De Sprague L. (1970). ''Lost Continents, The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature'', p. 70. Dover Publications, Inc: New York</ref> | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
], ]]] | |||
== |
===Modern claims=== | ||
James Bramwell and ] claimed that the cataclysmic events on Mu began 800 thousand years ago<ref name="bram39">{{cite book | title = Lost Atlantis |first= James |last=Bramwell | year = 1939}}</ref>{{rp|194}} and went on until the last catastrophe, which occurred in precisely 9564 BC.<ref name="bram39"/>{{rp|195}} | |||
In the 1930s, ], founder of the ], was interested in Churchward's work and considered Mu as a possible location of the ] of the ].<ref>''Kayıp Kıta Mu'', presentation, Ege-Meta Yayınları, İzmir, 2000, {{ISBN|975-7089-20-6}}</ref> On the other hand, according to some views, Atatürk's interest in the continent of Mu did not go beyond examining the claims. Despite ] proposals, he did not see the need to establish a Department of Mu Language at Ankara University's ]. The relationship between Atatürk and the continent of Mu has been exaggerated to attract interest in the books written about the continent of Mu.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivrioğlu |first=Töre |title=Atatürk ve Arkeoloji: Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet'e Bir Disiplinin Evrimi |publisher=Kafka Kitap |year=2024 |isbn=9786257994958 |pages=143}}</ref> | |||
] has suggested that certain underwater features located off the coast of ], ] (popularly known as the ]), are ruins of Mu.<ref name="mukimura">{{cite book | title = Mu tairiku wa Ryukyu ni atta (The Continent of Mu was in Ryukyu) |first= Masaaki|last=Kimura| publisher = Tokuma Shoten| location = Tokyo | year = 1991 | language = ja}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first= Robert M. |last=Schoch | title = Ancient underwater pyramid structure off the coast of Yonaguni-jima|date=24 February 2023 | url = http://www.morien-institute.org/yonaguni_schoch1.html}}</ref> | |||
==Criticism== | |||
===Geological arguments=== | |||
Modern ] knowledge rules out "lost continents" of any significant size. According to the theory of ], which has been extensively confirmed since the 1970s, the ] consists of lighter "]" rocks (] rich in ] ]) that float on heavier "]" rocks (] richer in ] silicates). The sial is generally absent in the ocean floor where the ] is a few kilometers thick, while the continents are huge solid blocks tens of kilometers thick. Since continents float on the sima much like ]s float on water, a continent cannot simply "sink" under the ocean.<!--See talk page--> | |||
It is true that ] and ] can change the shape and position of continents and occasionally break a continent into two or more pieces (as happened to ]). However, these are very slow processes that occur in ]s (hundreds of millions of years). Over the scale of history (tens of thousands of years), the sima under the continental crust can be considered solid, and the continents are basically anchored on it. It is almost certain that the continents and ocean floors have retained their present position and shape for the whole span of human existence. | |||
There is also no conceivable event that could have "destroyed" a continent, since its huge mass of sial rocks would have to end up somewhere—and there is no trace of it at the bottom of the oceans. The ] are not part of a submerged landmass but rather the tips of isolated ]es. | |||
] | |||
This is the case, in particular, of ], which is a recent volcanic peak surrounded by deep ocean ({{nowrap|3,000 m}} deep at 30 km off the island). After visiting the island in the 1930s, ] observed that the ''moai'' platforms are concentrated along the current coast of the island, which implies that the island's shape has changed little since they were built. Moreover, the "Triumphal Road" that ] had reported ran from the island to the submerged lands below, is actually a natural lava flow.<ref name="metr">{{cite book | title = Mysteries of Easter Island | first = Alfred | last = Metraux | url = http://www.davidmetraux.com/daniel/docs/alfred/alfred_metraux_mysteries_of_easter_island.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080406124306/http://www.davidmetraux.com/daniel/docs/alfred/alfred_metraux_mysteries_of_easter_island.pdf | archive-date = 2008-04-06 }}</ref> Furthermore, while Churchward was correct in his claim that the island has no sandstone or sedimentary rocks, the point is irrelevant because the '']'' are all made of native volcanic ]. | |||
===Archaeological evidence=== | |||
] was first settled around 300 CE<ref name="Danver">{{cite book|last=Danver|first=Steven L.|title=Popular controversies in world history : investigating history's intriguing questions|date=22 December 2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|isbn=978-1-59884-077-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slVobUjdzGMC}};{{rp|222}}</ref> and the '']'' on the '']'' are regarded as having ceremonial or traditional headdresses.<ref name=Danver/><ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Ryukyuanist| title=The Ryukyuanist|date=Autumn 2002|issue=57|url=http://www.uchinanchu.org/uchinanchu/ryukyuanist/ryukyuanist57.pdf|access-date=1 January 2012}}</ref> | |||
==In popular culture== | |||
===Literature/print=== | |||
*] (1890–1937) featured the lost continent in his revision of ]'s ] "]" (]).<ref>Lovecraft, Howard P. and Hazel Heald. "Out of the Aeons" (1935) in ''The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions'', S. T. Joshi (ed.), 1989. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House Publishers, Inc. {{ISBN|0-87054-040-8}}.</ref> Mu appears in numerous ] mythos stories, including many written by ] in his ].<ref>Harms, Daniel. "Mu" in '']'' (2nd ed.), pp. 200–202. Chaosium, Inc., 1998. {{ISBN|1-56882-119-0}}.</ref> | |||
* The 1970 ''Mu Revealed'' is a humorous spoof<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Religious leaders of America: a biographical guide to founders and leaders of religious bodies, churches, and spiritual groups in North America |date=1999 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=9780810388789 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0oUAQAAIAAJ&q=++spoof |access-date=7 January 2019 |language=en}}</ref> by ] purporting to describe the long lost civilization of Muror, located on the legendary lost continent of Mu. The book was written under the pseudonym "Tony Earll", an anagram of "not really". The book claimed to present a translation of a diary compiled by a boy called Kland found and translated by an archaeologist named "Reedson Hurdlop", an anagram of "Rudolph Rednose".<ref name="Nield">{{cite book |last1=Nield |first1=Ted |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=If3wYQtpECkC&q=%22Mu+Revealed%22+BUckland&pg=PA57 |title=Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet |date=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674026599 |pages=56–57 |language=en |access-date=7 January 2019}}</ref> | |||
* Mû, la cité perdue by ] | |||
===Video games=== | |||
* The ] ] takes place in the lost continent of Mu <ref></ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
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==References== | |||
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Latest revision as of 01:06, 15 December 2024
Mythical lost continentMu | |
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'Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men' location | |
Map of Mu by James Churchward | |
Created by | Augustus Le Plongeon |
Genre | Pseudoscience |
In-universe information | |
Type | Hypothetical lost continent |
Location | Pacific Ocean |
Mu is a lost continent introduced by Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), who identified the "Land of Mu" with Atlantis. The name was subsequently identified with the hypothetical land of Lemuria by James Churchward (1851–1936), who asserted that it was located in the Pacific Ocean before its destruction. The place of Mu in both pseudoscience and fantasy fiction is discussed in detail in Lost Continents (1954, 1970) by L. Sprague de Camp.
Geologists state that the existence of Mu and the lost continent of Atlantis has no factual basis, and is physically impossible, as a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short period of time asserted in the legends, folklore and literature about these places.
History of the concept
Augustus Le Plongeon
The mythical idea of the "Land of Mu" first appeared in the works of the British-American antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), after his investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán. He claimed that he had translated the first copies of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the K'iche' from the ancient Mayan using Spanish. He claimed the civilization of Yucatán was older than those of Greece and Egypt, and told the story of an even older continent.
Le Plongeon got the name "Mu" from Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, in 1864, mistranslated what was then called the Troano Codex (now called "Madrid Codex") using the de Landa alphabet. Brasseur believed that a word which he read as Mu referred to a land that had been submerged by a catastrophe. Le Plongeon identified this lost land with Atlantis and, following Ignatius Donnelly in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), identified it as a continent that had once existed in the Atlantic Ocean:
In our journey westward across the Atlantic we shall pass in sight of that spot where once existed the pride and life of the ocean, the Land of Mu, which, at the epoch that we have been considering, had not yet been visited by the wrath of Human, that lord of volcanic fires to whose fury it afterward fell a victim. The description of that land given to Solon by Sonchis, priest at Sais; its destruction by earthquakes, and submergence, recorded by Plato in his Timaeus, have been told and retold so many times that it is useless to encumber these pages with a repetition of it.
Le Plongeon claimed that the civilization of ancient Egypt, which is found in Alkebulan/Africa, was founded by Queen Moo, a refugee from the land's demise. Other refugees supposedly fled to North America, Central America, and South America and became the Maya.
James Churchward
Mu, as an alternative name for a lost Pacific Ocean continent previously identified as the hypothetical Lemuria (the supposed place of origin for lemurs), was later popularised by James Churchward (1851–1936) in a series of books, beginning with Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man (1926), re-edited later as The Lost Continent Mu (1931). Other popular books in the series are The Children of Mu (1931) and The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933).
Churchward claimed that "more than fifty years ago", while he was a soldier in India, he befriended a high-ranking temple priest who showed him a set of ancient "sunburnt" clay tablets, supposedly in a long-lost "Naga-Maya language" which only two other people in India could read. Churchward convinced the priest to teach him the dead language and decipher the tablets by promising to restore and store the tablets, for Churchward was an expert in preserving ancient artifacts. The tablets were written in either Burma or in the lost continent of Mu itself, according to the high priest. Having mastered the language himself, Churchward found out that they originated from "the place where first appeared—Mu". The 1931 edition states that "all matter of science in this work are based on translations of two sets of ancient tablets": the clay tablets he read in India, and a collection of 2,500 stone tablets that had been uncovered by William Niven in Mexico.
The tablets begin with the creation of Earth, Mu, and the superior human civilization Naacal by the seven commands of the seven superlative intellects of the seven-headed serpent Narayana. This creation story dismisses the theory of evolution. Churchward gave a vivid description of Mu as the home of an advanced civilization, the Naacal, which flourished between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, was dominated by a “Melanated/Black race", and was "superior in many respects to our own". At the time of its demise, about 12,000 years ago, Mu had 64 million inhabitants and seven major cities, and colonies on the other continents. The 64 million inhabitants were separated as ten tribes that followed one government and one religion.
Churchward claimed that the landmass of Mu was located in the Pacific Ocean, and stretched east–west from the Marianas to Easter Island, and north–south from Hawaii to Mangaia. According to Churchward the continent was supposedly 5,000 miles from east to west and over 3,000 miles from north to south, which is larger than South America. The continent was believed to be flat with massive plains, vast rivers, rolling hills, large bays, and estuaries. He claimed that according to the creation myth he read in the Indian tablets, Mu had been lifted above sea level by the expansion of underground volcanic gases. Eventually Mu "was completely obliterated in almost a single night": after a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, "the broken land fell into that great abyss of fire" and was covered by "fifty millions of square miles of water." Churchward claimed the reasoning for the continent's destruction in one night was because the main mineral on the island was granite and was honeycombed to create huge shallow chambers and cavities filled with highly explosive gases. Once the chambers were empty after the explosion, they collapsed on themselves, causing the island to crumble and sink.
Churchward claimed that Mu was the common origin of the great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Central America, India, Burma and others, including Easter Island, and was in particular the source of ancient megalithic architecture. As evidence for his claims, he pointed to symbols from throughout the world, in which he saw common themes of birds, the relation of the Earth and the sky, and especially the Sun. Churchward claimed that the king of Mu was named Ra and he related this to the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra, and the Rapa Nui word for Sun, ra’a. He claimed to have found symbols of the Sun in "Egypt, Babylonia, Peru and all ancient lands and countries – it was a universal symbol."
As additional evidence for his claims, Churchward looked to the Holy Bible and found through his own translations that Moses was trained by the Naacal brotherhood in Egypt. Assyria mistranslated when writing and misplaced the Garden of Eden, which according to Churchward would have been located in the Pacific Ocean.
Churchward makes references to the Ramayana epic, a religious text of Hindu attributed to sage and historian Valmiki. Valmiki mentions the Naacals as “coming to Burma from the land of their birth in the East,” that is, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.
Churchward attributed all megalithic art in Polynesia to the people of Mu. He claimed that symbols of the sun are found "depicted on stones of Polynesian ruins", such as the stone hats (pukao) on top of the giant moai statues of Easter Island. Citing W. J. Johnson, Churchward describes the cylindrical hats as "spheres" that "seem to show red in the distance", and asserts that they “represent the Sun as Ra.” He also incorrectly claimed that some of them are made of "red sandstone", which does not exist on the island. The platforms on which the statues rest (ahu) are described by Churchward as being "platform-like accumulations of cut and dressed stone", which were supposedly left in their current positions "awaiting shipment to some other part of the continent for the building of temples and palaces". He also cites the pillars "erected by the Māori of New Zealand" as an example of this lost civilization's handiwork. In Churchward's view, the present-day Polynesians are not descendants of the dominant members of the lost civilization of Mu, responsible for these great works, but are instead descendants of survivors of the cataclysm that adopted "the first cannibalism and savagery" in the world.
John Newbrough
In the 1882 book Oahspe: A New Bible, John Newbrough included a map of the Earth in antediluvian times (i.e. prior to the great flood of biblical record) where an unknown continent is located in the Northern Pacific. Newbrough called this continent Pan. People often link both Pan and Mu as the same mythological continent since both are claimed to be located in the Pacific. Newbrough continues to claim that the unknown continent disappeared 24,000 years ago, but will soon rise from the Pacific and will be inhabited by the Kosmon race.
Louis Jacolliot
Louis Jacolliot was a French attorney, judge, and occultist who specialized in the translation of Sanskrit. He wrote about the land of the Rutas, a lost land that ancient sources claimed was in the Indian Ocean but which he placed in the Pacific Ocean and associated with Atlantis stories in Histoire des Vierges. Les Peuples et les continents disparus (1874). He amplified upon this in Occult Science in India (1875, English translation 1884). He has been identified as a contributor to Rosicrucianism.
Modern claims
James Bramwell and William Scott-Elliot claimed that the cataclysmic events on Mu began 800 thousand years ago and went on until the last catastrophe, which occurred in precisely 9564 BC.
In the 1930s, Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, was interested in Churchward's work and considered Mu as a possible location of the original homeland of the Turks. On the other hand, according to some views, Atatürk's interest in the continent of Mu did not go beyond examining the claims. Despite Tahsin Mayatepek's proposals, he did not see the need to establish a Department of Mu Language at Ankara University's School of Language and History – Geography. The relationship between Atatürk and the continent of Mu has been exaggerated to attract interest in the books written about the continent of Mu.
Masaaki Kimura has suggested that certain underwater features located off the coast of Yonaguni Island, Japan (popularly known as the Yonaguni Monument), are ruins of Mu.
Criticism
Geological arguments
Modern geological knowledge rules out "lost continents" of any significant size. According to the theory of plate tectonics, which has been extensively confirmed since the 1970s, the Earth's crust consists of lighter "sial" rocks (continental crust rich in aluminium silicates) that float on heavier "sima" rocks (oceanic crust richer in magnesium silicates). The sial is generally absent in the ocean floor where the crust is a few kilometers thick, while the continents are huge solid blocks tens of kilometers thick. Since continents float on the sima much like icebergs float on water, a continent cannot simply "sink" under the ocean.
It is true that continental drift and seafloor spreading can change the shape and position of continents and occasionally break a continent into two or more pieces (as happened to Pangaea). However, these are very slow processes that occur in geological time scales (hundreds of millions of years). Over the scale of history (tens of thousands of years), the sima under the continental crust can be considered solid, and the continents are basically anchored on it. It is almost certain that the continents and ocean floors have retained their present position and shape for the whole span of human existence.
There is also no conceivable event that could have "destroyed" a continent, since its huge mass of sial rocks would have to end up somewhere—and there is no trace of it at the bottom of the oceans. The Pacific Ocean islands are not part of a submerged landmass but rather the tips of isolated volcanoes.
This is the case, in particular, of Easter Island, which is a recent volcanic peak surrounded by deep ocean (3,000 m deep at 30 km off the island). After visiting the island in the 1930s, Alfred Métraux observed that the moai platforms are concentrated along the current coast of the island, which implies that the island's shape has changed little since they were built. Moreover, the "Triumphal Road" that Pierre Loti had reported ran from the island to the submerged lands below, is actually a natural lava flow. Furthermore, while Churchward was correct in his claim that the island has no sandstone or sedimentary rocks, the point is irrelevant because the pukao are all made of native volcanic scoria.
Archaeological evidence
Easter Island was first settled around 300 CE and the pukao on the moai are regarded as having ceremonial or traditional headdresses.
In popular culture
Literature/print
- H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) featured the lost continent in his revision of Hazel Heald's short story "Out of the Aeons" (1935). Mu appears in numerous Cthulhu mythos stories, including many written by Lin Carter in his Xothic legend cycle.
- The 1970 Mu Revealed is a humorous spoof by Raymond Buckland purporting to describe the long lost civilization of Muror, located on the legendary lost continent of Mu. The book was written under the pseudonym "Tony Earll", an anagram of "not really". The book claimed to present a translation of a diary compiled by a boy called Kland found and translated by an archaeologist named "Reedson Hurdlop", an anagram of "Rudolph Rednose".
- Mû, la cité perdue by Hugo Pratt
Video games
See also
References
- ^ Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-4680-4. https://archive.org/details/the-lost-continent-of-mu
- Haugton, Brian (2007). Hidden History. New Page Books. ISBN 978-1-56414-897-1. Page 60.
- ^ De Camp, Lyon Sprague (1971) . Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature. Dover Publications. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-486-22668-2.
- Brennan, Louis A. (1959). No Stone Unturned: An Almanac of North American Pre-history. Random House. Page 228.
- Witzel, Michael (2006). Garrett G. Fagan Routledge (ed.). Archaeological Fantasies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-30593-8. Page 220.
- ^ Le Plongeon, Augustus (1896). Queen Móo & The Egyptian Sphinx. The Author. pp. 277 pages.
- Card J. Jeb (2018). Spooky Archaeology, Myth and the Science of the Past. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque pg. 130
- John Sladek, The New Apocrypha (New York: Stein and day, 1974) 65–66.
- ^ Churchward, James (1931). The Lost Continent of Mu. New York: Ives Washburn. Re-published by Adventures Unlimited Press (2007)
- ^ Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-4680-4.
- Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-4680-4
- Churchward, James (1926). Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. United States: Kessinger Publishing.ISBN 0-7661-4680-4
- "The Lost Continent Of Mu | Unariun Wisdom". 5 March 2016.
- Camp De Sprague L. (1970). Lost Continents, The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature p. 70–71. Dover Publications, Inc: New York
- Camp De Sprague L. (1970). Lost Continents, The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature, p. 70. Dover Publications, Inc: New York
- ^ Bramwell, James (1939). Lost Atlantis.
- Kayıp Kıta Mu, presentation, Ege-Meta Yayınları, İzmir, 2000, ISBN 975-7089-20-6
- Sivrioğlu, Töre (2024). Atatürk ve Arkeoloji: Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet'e Bir Disiplinin Evrimi. Kafka Kitap. p. 143. ISBN 9786257994958.
- Kimura, Masaaki (1991). Mu tairiku wa Ryukyu ni atta (The Continent of Mu was in Ryukyu) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten.
- Schoch, Robert M. (24 February 2023). "Ancient underwater pyramid structure off the coast of Yonaguni-jima".
- Metraux, Alfred. Mysteries of Easter Island (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-06.
- ^ Danver, Steven L. (22 December 2010). Popular controversies in world history : investigating history's intriguing questions. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-077-3.;
- "The Ryukyuanist" (PDF). The Ryukyuanist (57). Autumn 2002. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- Lovecraft, Howard P. and Hazel Heald. "Out of the Aeons" (1935) in The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, S. T. Joshi (ed.), 1989. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-87054-040-8.
- Harms, Daniel. "Mu" in The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 200–202. Chaosium, Inc., 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
- Melton, J. Gordon (1999). Religious leaders of America: a biographical guide to founders and leaders of religious bodies, churches, and spiritual groups in North America. Gale Research. p. 91. ISBN 9780810388789. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- Nield, Ted (2007). Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet. Harvard University Press. pp. 56–57. ISBN 9780674026599. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- MU is a highly involved fantasy RPG based on the legendary Continent of MU.
External links
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