Via Reuters: Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers. The piece is quite interesting, as it is unclear how the monks who drew the map were as accurate as they were:
The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.
The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.
“The actual shape of South America is correct,” said Hebert. “The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy.”
Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.
Well, obviously, the monks were visited by space aliens who shared the information with them. I mean really, isn’t it obvious?
There are other mysteries and issues associated with the map, most of which are explainable by terrestrial politics. The whole piece is worth a read.
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My theory is that there was a lot of knowledge about what was what out there prior to the points we credit it as being “discovered.” For instance, the school story of Columbus is that he had a theory the world was round and everyone believed it was flat. Apparently the roundness of the world wasn’t uncommon or remotely knew knowledge (or theory, anyway), and it was more a matter of people not widely knowing that the Americas were there, or believing that was a valid route to the Orient. Heck, if you could compute the circumference of the planet based on triangulation before the time of Columbus, you might assume the western ocean was far too wide to sail, keeping most activity within a reasonable distance of Eurasia and Africa.
It’s probably not so much that we knew certain things at certain times, but more that the knowledge became widespread or changed in significance at those times.
The likely political element is interesting too, with respect to the accurate maps being superseded by less accurate but politically correct ones.
Comment by Jay — Wednesday, December 5, 2024 @ 12:37 pm
I’m betting they used Google Maps.
Comment by Ruth Anne — Thursday, December 6, 2024 @ 10:32 pm