p One of the most difficult problems faced by the scientific investigator, no matter what his particular field, is that of elucidating the origins of things and the lines along which they have developed to reach their present state. These are usually shrouded in the mists of time. When it comes to a study of man and human society, probably the most complicated subject in the whole Universe, the problems that arise are staggering.

p We know that man appeared on earth more than a million years ago, but we still do not know exactly where. The human race multiplied and spread over the continents. As new regions were settled and developed, tribes and peoples took shape, civilisations arose and declined. More often than not, these processes remain a mystery to scholars. Written records throw light only on minute periods of history, while information relating to the preceding periods is indirect, fragmentary and often hazy. Here, even myths and legends can help because many have some foundation in fact. Scholars can sometimes obtain valid information by comparing the languages of different peoples and also by analysing place-names. The historian’s most reliable helper is archeology, which deals with traces of material culture, in other words, with highly objective evidence. Until now, most of the contributions to our knowledge of ancient peoples and civilisations have been made by “land” archeology. Today, more and more traces of man are being discovered under water as well. Archeologists discover artifacts, sunken ships and even ruins of settlements and cities as much as two kilometres below the surface.

p Although finds made at the bottom of lakes or coastal waters are usually supplementary to those made on land nearby, scholars have gradually outlined a range of problems in which underwater archeology can play an independent role, moreover, a decisive role. For instance, in explaining how it is that habitats of the equatorial race (tropical Africa and A ustralia, say) are separated by the expanses of the 6 Indian Ocean. Or the similarity between ancient monumental structures found in places so far apart as Easier Island and Pitcairn Island. The scholar cannot help assuming thai land bridges, in the form of chains of islands or stretches of dry land, once linked these widely scattered places but then sank below the waves.

p Here archeology cones into close contact with geology: the former combs the ocean floor for artifacts and dates them; the latter seeks evidence of subsidences of the earth s crust and establishes in which periods of geological time they occurred. When the findings of the two sciences agree, highly reliable conclusions can be drawn. In this book Alexander Kondratov takes a look at some of the blank spaces in mans knowledge that can be filled in by further evidence obtained from underwater archeology. In the Pacific Ocean these include such riddles as the culture of Easter Island, the origin of the American Indians, the original homeland of the Polynesians and the peopling of Australia. In the Indian Ocean one of the mysteries is how the ancient Dravidian civilisation spread. Among the secrets of the Atlantic are the warm and cold legendary islands of St. Brendan, Antilia and Thule, the extinct tribes of the Canary Islands, and A tlantis, a fascinating mystery that has given rise to a voluminous body of literature.

p The author sets forth the main hypotheses that have been advanced to solve these riddles and analyses them from the standpoints of ethnography, linguistics, geology and other sciences. But he does not try to impose any of the hypotheses on the reader. The conclusions he draws are extremely cautious, and in cases where there is insufficient data the question is left open.

p This highly interesting book is intended for the general reader. Indeed, no educated person can fail to take an interest in problems that have a direct bearing on the human race.

Academician S. Kalesnik