Lost Civilization of Mu
The Lost Civilization of Mu
Lost Civilization of Mu
Lost Continents
Lost Continents throughout history have been a topic of much interest for many as the discovery of these places proposes much fame to whoever finally finds them. The idea of these continents stem from maps and writings detailing the existence of places that are unable to be found in our current landscape In the scientific community however the existence of the lands has never been proven and proof of these civilizations existing is few and far between. Possibly the most famous lost continent is known as Atlantis which has appeared in many forms of popular media from books to movies to video games. The idea of lost continents has been ingrained into the human psyche through these forms of media and with these in mind the passion to find these mythical places has survived despite lack of scientific proof.
Overview of Mu
The lost continent of Mu is one of these many so called “lost civilizations” located in the Atlantic Ocean. This civilization has many similarities to other more famous locations such as Atlantis and Lemuria. It has even been said that these civilizations are one in the same. The civilization is said to have links to various other cultures as well including the Mayan, Egyptian, Greek and many other cultures all around the world. Mu itself has had multiple locations of interest for its location including the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean as well. A well known remnant of their civilization is supposedly Easter Island and the sculptures located there. The existence of the civilization has never been proved through scientific means, however through translated writings of both Mayan and Egyptian by a couple of archaeologists providing most of the information known about this civilization. The information provided is very different depending on who was head of the research at the time. The legends about the continent spread far from its influence on our current culture to the ancient cultures of the past. Mu was said to be a highly populated continent before its downfall although no traces of their culture or direct descent from this legendary place have been found.
Augustus de Plongeon
Life
Augustus de Plongeon was born in Jersey on May 4, 1826. As a young man Plongeon began adventuring the New World, specifically Southern and Central America before taking up a position at a college in Chile. He continued his explorations by joining in on the gold rush in California and soon after left to return to Europe. While in Europe Plongeon took up an interest in photography, which he would later use to help him document the later research he would do. He took his newfound skills to Peru where he would teach others the art of photography while also documenting the ruins of the Incan people. While in Peru his interests would lead him to discovering the work of another man Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, which guided him into his ideas on the origins of society. After this he would meet his wife Alice Dixon back in America and the two of them would research extensively into the ruins of Central America and the people who once inhabited the area.
Research on Mu
While Plongeon was first in Peru and learned of the work of Bourbourg he managed to find references to an ancient civilization known as Mu. This discovery led to Plongeon further researching and learning about this place from the Mayan peoples texts. Along with Mu, Plongeon found ideas of the genesis of civilization from the New World rather than that of the Old World. Much of this comes from the hyperdiffusion of Mu’s civilization to the rest of the world. He believed that before the destruction of Mu the remnants of their society left to form the Mayan civilization as well as the Egyptians. The idea comes from the similarities in that of the cultures and architecture between the two. The so-called Queen of Mu named Queen Moo supposedly left the country and fled to ancient Egypt where she began a new civilization, the beginnings of Egypt. He believed that the records of this travel were also hidden in the supposed “Hall of Records” located under the Sphinx. As Plongeon believed that Atlantis and Mu were one in the same, many have speculated that the lost artifacts of these cultures are located there. Plongeon also believed that other survivors of the disappearance appeared in Central America where they would form into the Maya. Plongeon despite the research he put into Mu was never believed by his colleagues due to his lack of any real proof behind these grand claims of a civilization lost to the world. He was thrown into the same boat as others who had claims of Atlantis and Lemuria.
James Churchward
Life
James Churchward was born on February 27, 1851 in Okehampton, Devon. Unlike Plongeon, Churchward was not an explorer during his life; rather he was an engineer, who focused on the development of alloys which were used in World War 1. During his life he was also known for his outlandish occult novels as an author. In total Churchward wrote seven books on Mu and went into different details in each one. Some of these books are more outlandish and fantastical than others however some are defined in reality trying to prove the actual existence of Mu and its people.Churchward had little actual scientific background in the field of archaeology yet liked to speculate the existence of Mu and other unproven ideas.
Mu Research
Churchward became fascinated with Mu after his career as an engineer was over. However, unlike Plongeon who attempted to really research the civilization, Churchward took the ideas to levels of grandeur that Plongeon had not. Churchward gained his knowledge of Mu during his time as a soldier when he met an Indian priest claiming to be able to give him knowledge of the ancient civilization. This priest taught him the language of Naga-Maya which was engraved into the so called tablets and with his new knowledge was able to write books trying to convince others of the existence of Mu. While the tablets and other records he found gave him supposed information on their society the existence of these tablets and records has never even been proven. Through the knowledge he obtained he claimed that Mu was an advanced civilization of about sixty four million inhabitants about 50,000 to 12,000 years ago. He believed that they lived in large cities and had a highly functioning society. They were known as the Nacaal and like Plongeon he believed that their society had a link to that of Egypt. The Sun God Ra that the ancient Egyptians worshipped was really the King of Mu who shared the name of Ra. The similarities in megalithic sculptures and carvings led him to believe this. Like Plongeon, this was a form of hyperdiffusionism of the culture of Mu to the rest of the world. His beliefs similar to Plongeon were shot down for lack of any real science and the complete and utter lack of any physical proof.
Post Plongeon and Churchward
After Plongeon and Churchward the mythos of Mu has started to fade and has not reached teh peak that it had during their times. William Scott-Elliot and James Branwell tried to revive the dying ideas of Mu. However, with little to add and an already dying belief in the scientific community they were unable to gain any real ground on the subject. Multiple claims of f Mu have come up including a ruin off the coast of Japan that could possibly be ruins of the civilization, but no further information was gathered. For the time being it seems that the mythos of Mu has died along with Plongeon and Churchward, however their efforts have cemented themselves into the history of lost continents and their mythos.
Psuedoarcheological Narrative
Existence of Lost Continents
The existence of “lost continents” such as Mu have never been proved through actual scientific means, in fact just the existence of the actual continents themselves have been proven to be highly unlikely. With an increase in human technological abilities throughout time new methods of data gathering have shown that there is very little geological evidence for a whole continent to just disappear into the ocean. The research put into plate tectonics has actually revealed the existence of some lost continents. Researchers were able to find remnants of a continent that was destroyed by movements of tectonic plates near the Adriatic Sea. This continent known as Greater Adria existed millions of years ago before its destruction, much before the time of humanity. This process of the disappearance of this continent as well as the movement of the earth’s crust takes an unprecedented amount of time to occur. Continents do not just disappear in a matter of a few thousand years, it takes hundreds of thousands even millions before this takes place. The sudden disappearance of Mu in the context of even multiple generations of their civilization is nearly impossible barring a possible natural disaster on a scale large enough to destroy not only the continent itself, but also the destruction of the artifacts of its people. Despite this possibility the lack of any remnants at all provides a large problem for any argument for the existence of Mu. Unless the whole continent was destroyed including the crust itself linking the continent to the rest of the Earth the location of the continent could be found and the area could be researched further. However, the lack of existence of any remnants regarding the actual structure of the continent gives no scientific reasoning for it to have ever existed. This is further emphasized through the lack of any other real proof provided by the so-called “researchers’ of Mu.
Artifacts and the Lack of Them
The real problem with the existence of Mu stems from the lack of any archaeological proof of the existence of this civilization. While Plongeon and Churchward tried their best to provide the full story of Mu and the history of its civilization they failed in their attempts to provide any real proof of the civilization. Both of them were only ever able to provide translations of ancient text as their whole argument. While the “translations” they examined did seem to detail the civilization of Mu, that is simply all there is to back up their claims. These translations have never been proved in the context of science. Plongeon examined old Mayan ruins to translate their work, however the translations he used were not even correct. He based his whole argument for Mu’s existence on the flawed and incomplete translations of another man named Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. Bourboug had previously attempted to translate the Mayan language and failed in his attempts before Plongeon’s use of them. While Plongeon’s translations were outlandish and flawed in many ways, Churchward’s use of translations was possibly even more atrocious. The language on the scripts came from an old Indian priest, in a language supposedly only known to few people. Along with Churchward’s self ideal of believing he had the innate ability to understand the meaning of these scripts the credibility of his claims simply put is non-existent. Neither Plongeon or Churchward could even assemble a smidge of credibility for their outlandish claims other than what they had “read” and “learned” from others. In order to build a credible argument more proof is necessary: scientific proof, artifacts from the culture, remnants of the society, etc. The lack of any of these lead other scientists at the time to discredit their work entirely. While the motivations behind the pseudo-archaeology of Plongeon and Churchward was never explicitly stated the two of them both fully believed in what they were doing. Pseudo Archaeologists typically are after the fame and legacy of the find without the hard work put into the science of a find. Their lack of effort to provide any real proof despite their grand ideas is a sign of their lack of ability as researchers and as well their lack of any credibility at all.
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