Here are the long awaited results of my recent survey on arch-theory and contemp-hist-arch lists. 

*Thanks to all those many people who participated!!** 

(We are planning an EAA session this September on something similar - see you there!)


THE 10 MOST SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL CIVILIZATIONS THAT NEVER EXISTED

1. Atlantis (given)
2. Mu (8)
3. Lemuria (5)
3. El Dorado: the cities of gold which the European explorers were looking for (5)
3. Tolkien’s civilizations: Middle Earth, inhabited by 'races/species' such as the elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs and men each group having a series of different civilisations; including Gondor (5)
6. the Celts/Irish Celts (4)
7. The Amazons (3)
8. The Kingdom of Prester John, ruler of a lost Christian civilization in the Orient, in medieval European mythology. Featured in the writings of Marco Polo, and a recent Umberto Eco novel I think. (3)

Runners-up (2 each, no particular order):

"The Moundbuilders" (non-Native American)

The Aryans

Camelot, it represents the mythical founding of the British royal lineage and, in some ways, the British nation.

The lost civilization of Teegeeack; the old name for Planet Earth in the time of the Galactic Confederacy.  This is the basis of Scientology, so thousands of people around the world believe in it.

Narnia (C.S.Lewis) where The Lion of Judah rules in a land of cute talking
animals and wierd Christian symbolism designed to trick and corrupt young
readers into believing the gospels.

The Klingons (Star Trek). The Federation (Star Trek) boldly goes where no civilization has gone before … 

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel - don't know if they count as a civilization, but they are the basis of the Mormon religion as well as any number of influential millenarian myths around the world and through the last 400 years at least; The civilizations claimed in the book of Mormon as having existed in the Americas before Columbus

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Other interesting contributions (selection):


Us? In the historical future sense. As in '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) and others... silver suits etc...?

what Graham Hancock figures was under Antarctica

gods of Mt. Olympus

Discworld-series (Terry Pratchett)

The Old Ones - gibbering ancient space beings with names like shub-niggurath,
nyarlathotep, cthulhu etc. (HP Lovecraft).  Any number of fake versions of the Necronomicon about which describe these horrors:  is there a real one?  Eek! 

The Indo-Europeans

Western Civilization / das Christliche Abendland

Heathen Civilization

The various Island civilizations in Gulliver's Travels

The Chagos Civilization. Nobody lived on this archipelago in the Indian Ocean, so much so that the British Government did not have any problems in selling one of those islands (Diego Garcia) to the Americans so that they could build a military base. ...or at least this was the official position of the British and American governments in the '60s and '70s. However, unfortunately for them anthropologists had worked on those islands and studied (and filmed!) their inhabitants in full action. Consequently, with time, the reality of the complete eviction of a population through the concerted effort of the American and British governments came to light. The Chagosians, after almost 40 years of struggle, have recently won their legal battle and with it their right to return to their beloved islands (in the meantime they were stranded on Mauritius in utter destitution and desperation). I think it's a good example of how past and present civilizations can be labelled as existent or n
on-existent according to the whim of the powerful of this world.

'Arcadia' - that past time when people were in harmony with Nature and with one another.

'While we sleep, what shall we dream ?
Of Tir nan Og or South Sea islands,
Of a land where all the milk is cream
And all the girls are willing? '
(Louis MacNeice)

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Suggested references for additional research:

Discarded Science: Ideas That Seemed Good at the Time 
by John Grant 2006

A Dictionary of Imaginary Places 
by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi 1999

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brought to you by

Cornelius Holtorf
Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens historia, Lunds universitet
http://web.comhem.se/cornelius