Atlantis is the key to lost golden age

It was reported in the media last month that the lost civilisation of Atlantis had been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles off the coast of Morocco, just where Plato said it should be, beyond "the Pillars of Hercules".

The image was discovered on Google Ocean by Bernie Banford, of Chester, and it showed a rectangular area roughly the size of Wales that appears to have roadways, man-made area divisions and a city-like grid design.

It was quickly discounted in some quarters, but whether the discovery is valid or not – other much-vaunted locations for Atlantis over the years have included Cyprus, the Azores, and even Antarctica – it has been postulated that Atlantis was the "mother culture" of the Egyptian, Native American, Mayan and other ancient civilisations around the world.

I think it's more valid to treat Atlantis as a metaphor for an early advanced race which spread its knowledge around the world, and which was largely destroyed in some global catastrophe, rather than as one particular place.

Of course, the "A" word is not mentioned in academic circles without a smirk and a raised eyebrow. But the concept, that legend recounts as being destroyed by a great flood, has grasped the imaginations of generations of researchers and historians.

One author who has spent 20 years travelling, researching and scuba-diving to find evidence of this lost civilisation is Graham Hancock, of Bath, who has written three books on the subject – the runaway best-seller Fingerprint of the Gods, most notably, Heavens Mirror and Underworld.

Although Graham never discovered the actual location of Atlantis, and rarely mentioned the "A" word, his research has helped to shift the view that advanced societies could not possibly go back in to prehistory. He believes we are a species with amnesia, which has completely forgotten its remarkable past but, fortunately, our ancestors left clues in great stone monuments all around the planet that seem to be triggering a cultural memory recall.

Graham will be discussing his latest research into lost civilisations – and will talk about how our current civilisation, with climate change and rising sea levels, could become the next Atlantis – at the annual Megalithomania conference at Glastonbury on May 23 and 24 where he will be the keynote speaker on the Saturday evening, a role he has fulfilled previously at the conference, to great acclaim.

Almost every week a major archaeological discovery is made that pushes back the date of advanced cultures. Edmund Marriage, of Milborne Port, Dorset, who has been researching the Biblical area of the Garden of Eden, in the area once known as Sumeria and the Lebanon, points to the discovery, again with the help of Google Maps, of great canal systems and megalithic construction.

Edmund, who runs a research organisation called the Golden Age Project, will be outlining these new discoveries in the context of other megalithic sites in the area at the conference on the Sunday.

Megalithomania resides in a persuasive and growing minority that seriously challenges the current, outdated view of history, specifically from the Neolithic era going back to 10,000BC, the era of the legendary Atlantis.

For tickets for the conference, with its 13 talks, megalith forum, tours to Stonehenge and Avebury, and an exhibition of megalithic art, call 01458 831800 or visit www.megalithomania.co.uk