Peninsula of Paliki is the most likely location for Homer's Ithaca, British archaeologist says

Homer's legendary hero Odysseus wandered for 10 years in search of his island kingdom, Ithaca. Now, a British amateur archaeologist claims to have ended the ancient quest to locate the land described in "The Odyssey."

Although the western Greek island of Ithaki is generally accepted as the Homeric site, scholars have long been troubled by a mismatch between its location and geography and those of the Ithaca described by Ancient Greece's greatest poet, according to the AP.

Robert Bittlestone, a management consultant, said Thursday that the peninsula of Paliki on the Ionian island of Cephallonia, near Ithaki, was the most likely location for Odysseus' homeland. He said geological and historic evidence suggested Paliki used to form a separate island before earthquakes and landslides filled in a narrow sea channel dividing it from Cephallonia.

Two eminent British academics said they backed Bittlestone's theory. They have co-written his book, "Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca."

James Diggle, a professor of Greek and Latin at Cambridge University, said the hypothesis worked because it explained why in one passage Homer describes Ithaca as "low-lying" and "towards dusk," i.e. lying to the west of a group of islands including Cephallonia and Zakynthos.

The Paliki peninsula is largely flat and connects to Cephallonia's west coast, whereas Ithaki is mountainous and lies to the east. Bittlestone's theory suggests that Ithaki corresponds to the island Homer calls Doulichion.

John Underhill, an Edinburgh University professor of stratigraphy, or the science of studying the layers of rocks in the Earth's crust, provided geological evidence supporting Bittlestone's theory - up to a point.

However, further research was needed to determine whether the layer of rock debris was deep enough to have filled in any sea channel, and whether the landslides would have occurred recently enough to support Bittlestone's theory, Underhill said. He wanted to test sediments in a dried-up lake on the landfill area. If they were older than 3,000 years, that would suggest the area was not underwater at the Homeric period _ thus disproving Bittlestone's hypothesis. AM