Reception
The combined use of natural and social science methods to reconstruct past societies has elicited a wide range of responses within the scholarly community. Many scientists welcome the expanded methodological advance, while others express reservations about approaches that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Eberhard Zangger’s first popular science book, The Flood from Heaven – Deciphering the Legend of Atlantis, was published simultaneously in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan in 1992 and received wide international attention. The following selection of comments provides an insight into the reactions that the integrative approach has provoked.
Eberhard Zangger has an alternative and ingenious candidate: for him Atlantis equals Troy. As a geomorphologist, he is well placed to argue that the ancient topography of the site of Hissarlik, excavated and claimed as Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, has changed significantly since the time of the Trojan War, some 3,000 years ago… This book is well written. The relevant texts from Plato are printed in full and carefully discussed. The case that Zangger is making is not overstated. In one sense it is perhaps understated… As Atlantis books go, this is a perfectly sane and well-argued one, written by a competent scholar.
Professor Lord Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge
(Review in Nature, vol. 356, April 16, 1992)
Dr. Zangger has immersed himself in the texts of Plato… As a scientist he commands a body of evidence with a firm basis in fact… Rather than proposing a ‘correct solution’ for the problem of Atlantis, rather than even arguing for the existence of such a solution, it is a plea for freedom to think along new lines.
Professor Anthony Snodgrass, University of Cambridge
(Foreword to The Flood from Heaven)
In this, his second book on Troy, Eberhard Zangger challenges the archaeological community to join him in revolutionizing the way we view the late early history of the eastern Mediterranean region. Anyone familiar with the history of the true sciences could well describe such a radical rethinking as a paradigm shift… In my opinion, Eberhard Zangger does a tremendous service to early Mediterranean history by drawing attention to the potential significance of Western Anatolia in the last internationally important phases of the Bronze Age. His comprehensive reconstruction of events is bold, imaginative, and challenging, as well as always clear, exciting, and intellectually stimulating. While reading, one cannot help but recognize dozens of new paths that would be worth pursuing further. Time will tell whether the academic community will be convinced by his own hypothesis with its many aspects. I imagine he will be delighted if this book stimulates a discussion that leads to new, problem-oriented fieldwork of the kind he himself has so often undertaken.
Professor Jack L. Davis, University of Cincinnati
(Foreword to Ein neuer Kampf um Troia)
Eberhard Zangger’s analysis of the Atlantis legend is comprehensive, up-to-date, and just plain enjoyable to read…. More important than a new ‘when’ and ‘where’ for Atlantis is Zangger’s insistence on a holistic approach to the available evidence… As a geoarchaeologist with special expertise in geomorphology, Zangger is particularly well qualified to comment on Plato’s descriptions of the submergence of Atlantis… The arguments he derives from a close reading of Plato’s text and a profound concern with Plato’s motivation for telling the story are cumulatively persuasive in making the case in favor of the legend’s historical truth. And, to his unusual combination of scholarly skills and interests, Zangger adds a thorough command of all the relevant bibliography.
Professor Jeremy Rutter, Dartmouth College
(Editor’s Choice, The History Book Club)
The author’s research is bound to have the same impact on the academic world as Schliemann’s did a century ago. It will set an entire generation of archaeologists to re-examining their reconstruction of the early Aegean world.
Professor Curtis Runnels, Boston University
An excellent and impressive piece of scholarship, and a crafty bit of archaeological detective work to boot.
Professor Bernard Knapp, University of Glasgow
Ingenious and entirely plausible.
Professor Christopher Mee, University of Liverpool
There is no question that Zangger’s attempt is highly ingenious.
Professor Edmund Bloedow, University of Ottawa
A brilliant intellectual firework.
Professor Günther Wagner, University of Heidelberg
The Future of the Past is an eloquent discourse on the co-evolution of human beings and their natural world.
Professor Tjeerd H. van Andel, University of Cambridge
In addition, dozens of substantial, bylined articles appeared in the international press, including an extensive and highly positive seven-page feature in Der Spiegel.
Transition to a Controversy
The predominantly positive, though sometimes controversial, reception of Zangger’s publications on Atlantis and Troy formed the backdrop for a scientific debate that intensified in the 1990s and early 2000s. This controversy continues to shape perceptions of the subject to this day.
Charles Brian Rose (University of Pennsylvania), co-director of the Troy excavations, later noted that “discussions about Atlantis and Plato were a regular feature of our conversations at Troy throughout the rest of the 1990s.” At the same time, Rose pointed out that Troy excavator Manfred Korfmann regarded Zangger’s independent interpretation of Troy – developed outside any formal involvement with the excavation team – as a personal affront. Several critical reviews of Zangger’s work subsequently appeared, most of them written by scholars closely associated with the Tübingen Troy Project.
With the opening of the major Troy exhibition in Germany in 2001, the focus of the debate shifted from Zangger’s work to Korfmann’s own reconstructions of Troy. Numerous archaeologists and classical scholars rejected these as methodologically insufficiently substantiated. The dispute culminated in February 2002 in a two-day scientific colloquium in Tübingen. The classical scholar Frank Kolb later presented a comprehensive account of this controversy in his book Tatort Troia (Crime Scene Troy).