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About your P.S.: Before Columbus the Spanish were also the greatest mariners of their time. As the Númenóreans they surrounded the equivalent of Middle-Earth in our world (Africa and Aisia) reaching Japan. But they all believed that our world was a flat earth.
Where does Tolkien state that? It is not Platos Atlantis we speak about but Tolkiens Atalantë. They are advanced for their time, but as shown above that does not matter much.
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Humanity knew that the world was round since (at least) the time of Eratosthenes. And concerning the Númenóreans, they were said by Tolkien himself to have been more alike to the Firstborn (the Elves) in both mind and body than any other Men. And that says a lot about their position as the guardians and keepers of ancient lore and as a vanguard in the advancement of technology. And besides, Tolkien's Númenor IS a Middle-earth version of Plato's Atlantis.