Quote Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus View Post
Yeah, more like the Theran civilisation which was even more advanced than the Minoans. I read a book on them, an archaeological excavation on Thera, the biggest thing in archaeology for quite some time now. There is a whole entire city on Thera, rivalling Pompeii in its preservation, which was the site of the Volcano which caused its own and Minoan death BTW (as well as probably the Moses' plagues of Egypt, since the timing was almost precise).

I suggest you read about it too, as it is almost fantastical how advanced the Therans were. Most notably their plumbing. The whole city was riddled with pipes, which led to all sorts of nifty things, including showers, bath tubs, and self-flushing toilets.
The site is called Akrotiri, and I highly suggest visiting it. It it well worth one's time. As Aemilius Paulus says, the city was highly advanced for its time, including two story houses and advanced plumbing. It is very well preserved, and while visitors don't have the same freedom to walk around as they do at Pompeii, one can still get the gist of the city. Plus, Santorini is beautiful in and of itself.

The island used to be a center land mass, surrounded by water, which was in turn encircled by an outer ring of land, such that it looked like a target. When the volcano (which of course was the entire island itself) exploded, half of the center section and a good portion of the outer ring slid beneath the surface of the water, so that it looks like someone took a butcher's knife and just hacked through the center of the place.

AP - perhaps you can refresh my memory: isn't Akrotiri viewed as a Minoan colony?

As to the Carthaginians in the Americas, I have to remain skeptical. It's not totally outside the realm of possibility (try to prove a negative), but it certainly seems extremely unlikely. The theory is mostly based on completely spurrious evidence such as the Bat Creek Inscription, and (if memory serves) a supposed rock carving in Brazil that is probably not a carving at all, but rather a natural formation. It's all rather dubious, at best.