Geoscientist Φεβρουάριος 2007
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Results of an offshore seismic survey and the first borehole to test the hypothesis that the Paliki peninsula of the Greek island of Kefallinia was once Homer’s Ithaca lend weight to the theory.
Ted Nield reports
The theory that the home of Odysseus, which has never been satisfactorily identified, was in fact a part of the modern island of Kefallinia that was once an island in its own right (Geoscientist 16, 9 p4 et seq.) has received support from the first test borehole.
The theory, advanced by British businessman Robert Bittlestone (author of Odysseus Unbound – The Search for Homer’s Ithaca – Cambridge University Press), with Cambridge University classicist, Professor James Diggle and Edinburgh University geologist, Professor John Underhill, predicts that the peninsula of Paliki was once separated from the rest of Kefallinia by a narrow, probably tidal channel that subsequently became blocked by landslips.
This theory solves a number of disagreements between modern geography and Homer’s text – inconsistencies not satisfied by the assumption that Bronze Age Ithaca and the modern island of Ithaki (to the east of Kefalonia) were one and the same island.