Recently, several articles mentioned a remarkable scientific find: ‘Well-man’ thrown from castle identified from 800-year-old Norse saga. I suppose that legends and myths have little meaning to (ancient) history in the eyes of (very) many people. The quote below shows its importance:
“ “This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” says Professor Michael D. Martin of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum in Trondheim, Norway.” Note LO: markings in quote are mine.
Sources: Phys-2024, de Standaard, de Telegraaf, de Volkskrant.
Hence, my blog topics are labelled with: History, legends & myths.

In 2018, I used a one-way diagram.
With hindsight, I should have used double-headed arrows because scientific findings can reverse the label (eg, from legend to history).
However, my 2018 blog was about a very different topic: Disbelief and the 7 Belief systems.
Hence, the “fake news” remark in the lower-right corner.
This scientific finding, as described in a 2024 Cell Press journal article, makes you wonder how many legends and/or myths are actually forgotten examples of ancient history. Also see my Tolkien quote below.
Many years ago, I discovered that Jesus was part of Roman history because Jesus features in a footnote (sic!) in the books of the Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37 – c. 100). Before, I assumed he was a legend.
I’m (very) curious if Atlantis, “a fictional island mentioned in Plato‘s works Timaeus and Critias as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations”, might be more than a myth.
Actually, the website of the islands of the Bahamas claims that the submerged Bimini Road discovery was part of the lost city of Atlantis: “It is believed that this was part of the road system of the Lost Continent of Atlantis”.
The post-glacial sea level rise of about +120 metres (c. +400 feet), during about 7,000 to 20,000 years ago, has submerged (many) ancient locations.
Why?


The reason is quite simple: Humans always live close to rivers, seas and oceans (eg, transport, waste management, water).
Example: see left.
Once in a while, such submerged locations are found again. Smithsonian magazine-2020: “A Submerged 7,000-Year-Old Discovery Shows the Great Potential of Underwater Archaeology.” Today, this news became known: 2,000-year-old temple from ‘Indiana Jones civilization’ found submerged off Italy.
“And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.”
A quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings
Ordinary People (2005) by John Legend
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-artist, Wiki-song
[Chorus]
We’re just ordinary people
We don’t know which way to go
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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