Mysteries of the Piri Reis Map, part 4

On the Ancient Sea Kings Maps as representing Antarctica, and the theory that Atlantis was Antarctica.

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Not only have Erich von Däniken and Graham Hancock adopted the theories of Charles Hapgood on the Piri Reis map and other medieval and Renaissance maps.
Flavio Barbiero (1942- ) has indeed published a book, "A Civilization Under Ice", which suggests that the legendary Atlantis is to be found buried under the ice of Antarctica. Barbiero is an engineer who joined the Italian Navy in 1961, reaching the rank of Admiral. He spent most of his professional career in Navy and NATO research centers. Unfortunately, in the middle of a book otherwise serious and documented, he cannot resist the temptation to see in the old maps that which never was.
In addition to the map of Piri Reis, Barbiero published several medieval globes. The author argues that the land represented there is Atlantis, identifiable with Antarctica. Recognizing the Ross Sea, the Bay of McKenzie, the Weddell area and other parts of the continent surrounding the South Pole he contends that some maps represented Atlantis / Antarctica 10,000 years ago, and others represent it during the Pleistocene (the period between 1,600,000 and 11,000 years ago).
All this is postulated regardless of the fact that in those documents appear clearly not only geographical names in Europe, Asia and Africa, but also depictions of mythical places like the Garden of Eden, or tombs of the Apostles, etc. Let us view some examples of maps that pretend to represent Atlantis.
Planisfero (Planisphere, or Overview Map) drawn from Grandes Croniques Saint Denis, 1364-1372.

Barbiero implied that this drawing depicts Atlantis, then Antarctica. In it he recognized the "dense network of channels similar to that described by Plato.”
What it is instead is one of the common medieval depictions made according to the tripartite scheme Asia (top) Europe (bottom left.), Africa (bottom right). The world is centered on Jerusalem and surrounded by ocean, beyond which it depicts the twelve winds. We also notice many fortified cities (Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Nazareth, Damascus, Babylon, Alexandria) and different regions (Spain, England, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Sardinia, Sicily, Cyprus, etc.) all have their names clearly evidenced.
He also represented the mythical Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39), as the Earthly Paradise.
This type of globe did not take much account of geographical knowledge but was intended as an idealized and philosophical representation and was based on the O-T diagram . For examples derived from the manuscripts of Isidore of Seville see the pictures below.

Note also that this was the precise orientation of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, which almost always had the apse facing east.
Mappa Mundi (Maps of the Globes) of Hidgen, Ramsey Abbey, 1350

This document reflects the philosophy of Hugh of St. Victor, who conceived of the world as an Ark for all mortals. In it we can read more than 200 names, mostly classical and biblical, names in Asia and Africa, and modern ones in Europe. You can see people setting sail from Brindisi to Jerusalem (always set as the world’s center [in medieval times]), and perhaps the first mention of the Gotthard Pass. Bottom left is England, drawn in red with plenty of detail, and full of pictures of the city. In the empty rectangle at the top [(East)] the cartography may have left a place, as in similar maps, for the earthly paradise. The Red Sea is designed with great emphasis in red.

Planisfero (Planisphere, or Overview Map) of Gervase of Tilbury, 1236
This world map is also based on the O-T diagram, but it is peculiar in that the World is depicted as Christ's body, with his head (top) to the East, hands (right and left) at North and South and feet to the West (bottom).
We see depicted the most important places in the world (real and mythological): The Earthly Paradise with its four rivers, Mount Ararat with Noah's Ark, the Ganges, the mountains of China, the land of Persia, Egypt and the Nile crocodiles, France including Paris, England and Scotland, Rome, Venice, etc.
This map does not reflect real geographical knowledge, but represents the idealized world, according to philosophical and religious principles.
The original was destroyed during World War II and now there are only a few copies such as this photograph and from later periods.


Planisfero (Planisphere, or Overview Map) of Andrea Bianco, 1436
In this map the O-T diagram is less evident and the Mediterranean area begins to be represented more accurately. Again, however, predominance in the depiction is given to biblical stories. Two mythical islands are located off the Atlantic Ocean, Gibraltar as well as the mythical Satanaxium Antilia, the island of demons.
At right, the map its pattern is rotated 90 ° so as to bring North to the top.
In this map also Barbiero supposed a representation of Atlantis 10,000 years ago.


Mappamondo (Map of the Globe), Giovanni Leardo, 1448
A series of symbolic representations of the world appear, linked to medieval conceptions. This map (of which there are two other variants) has some modern features, such as the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe derived from pilot books (nautical maps). Some names are derived from Ptolemy's Geography of Asia and in noteworthy names one sees the influence of Marco Polo.
Around the [margins of the] world there is a calendar of years 1448-1494, with ability to calculate the day of Easter. Jerusalem continues to be positioned in the center of the world; at north and south we see two areas colored in red and defined uninhabitable because too cold and too hot, respectively.
This map also depicted Atlantis, in this case during the Pleistocene, according to Barbiero

Anglo-Saxon world map (or cottonii), About 1025-1050
Rather than predominantly religious symbolism this globe presents the great civilizations of history: Babylon, Media, Macedonia and Rome. The coasts of England (bottom left), Denmark, the Peloponnese, France and Spain are represented more realistically than on other maps of the time. It contains information of an encyclopedic nature, classical and biblical. The map shows the migration of Jews and cites the City of Bethlehem. This is not a typical Garden of Eden; Gog and Magog are confined behind a wall in the north-east Asia. Griffins, men drawn with dog's heads and a lion drawn in Africa are visible.

Mappamondo (Map of the Globe) of Hereford, Richard de Bello, 1290
According to Barbiero "the correspondence with the profile of Antarctica Pleistocene is extraordinary. Note Ross Bay at the top right, McKenzie Bay to the left, both with their characteristic profile."
This is the largest surviving medieval map of the world, which according to history scholars represents the finest "classical" tradition of such maps. Above you can view the Last Judgment, with Madonna praying for mankind. At the center as always lay Jerusalem, topped by an image of the crucifixion. The names of sites evoke the four empires of human history, the travels of the apostles and routes of pilgrimage, but also mythological stories like the Golden Fleece. Alexandria with its lighthouse, the delta of the Nile with the Pyramids, the Red Sea, and India with the river Ganges, plus the usual earthly paradise at the top (to the East), are shown and specifically named.
The images of England and Wales contain representations of Lincoln Cathedral and Welsh castles only recently constructed at the time of Edward I. Also represented are contemporary trade routes with a mixture of sacred and secular meanings.

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About " Maps of the ancient sea kings "by Charles Hapgood

All the legends about the "mysterious maps" Piri Reis, Finaeus, Buache ... which would represent the Antarctic with centuries of advance of the actual discovery, have arisen from a particular book, " Maps of the ancient sea kings "published in 1966 by Charles Hapgood. The author in the preface declared that he had, however, based on the ideas of Captain Arlington Mallery, who wrote in 1951, " Lost America: The Story of Iron-Age Civilization Prior to Columbus . "
I purchased the book Hapgood, and I was really shocked to read it. It does not seem possible that a scholar, as "amateur" in the cartographic field as he calls himself, can do a job so meticulous in appearance, but that turns out however extremely superficial and uninformed.
Hapgood does not take into account the notes and captions in the different cards, even those very clear and readable, which defines the names of certain geographical regions. It seems only interested in demonstrating at all costs, even denying the evidence, that the land that appears in so many globes and maps of the sixteenth century, the Antarctic and the numerous evidence to the contrary is not interested. For example on page 66 and 103 public some details of the Mercator world map of 1569 stating in no uncertain terms that the author has portrayed there Antarctica. Report therefore on a template based on the design of Mercator all the geographical references of modern Antarctica, capes, bays, seas ... silent and more evident that the information is provided precisely by the same card in question. That great land beyond the Strait of Magellan is clearly defined by Mercator " Tierra del Fuego ".



The Tierra del Fuego, in fact, until his circumnavigation in 1622 was considered the northernmost part of a huge and fabled southern continent, the " Terra Australis Incognita "which appears with this exact wording in many maps. The Tierra del Fuego had already been partially lined, headlands and inlets had already been called (even on maps) with names that still bear today.
But Hapgood this aspect of the history of exploration and cartography do not care, then you do not care though precise information found on maps. For example, on any page of the book is mentioned the "Terra Australis Incognita". Not even in the chapters on cards or Finaeus Mercator in which the words, as well as in many other papers from the time, it is so clearly illustrated.
In the following illustration a detail of the globe of Jodocus Hondius of 1608 .

Hapgood decided a priori that the land beyond the Strait of Magellan "must" be Antarctica and begins to deform, stretch, rotate, correct cards to make sure that something corresponds to somethin 'else. And it can not because two things, ancient maps and Antarctica never correspond. Also try to mention the "seismic profile" but it looks like even less, in fact on this seismic profile does not put numerini to make ends meet and publish a page on its own without comparing it with the old maps. Besides the "seismic profile sub glacial" published in 1958 by Hapgood turned out to be inaccurate, that recorded most recently with modern instruments revealed a profile very different.

To make ends meet, and the references numbered in the map of Piri Reis and Antarctica, Hapgood has to write " omission of coastline "in three places. That is, the Piri Reis map is so precise that ... is full of errors and omissions, and only amplifying these alleged errors (the disappearance of long stretches of coastline, or the lack of the 1000 kilometers of sea between Tierra del Fuego and the Palmer Peninsula) can get to say that the end of the map represents the distant Antarctica. Here is the "collage" made ​​from Hapgood to be able to make sense of the map of Piri Reis:

Some parts are turned in one direction, others on the contrary, changing scales, measurements and distances are entered "omissions" to make ends meet ...
But there are also other signs that show the shallowness of Hapgood. A Page 99 speaks of the " remarkable map of Hadji Ahmed " in 1559 and describes in detail the incredible precision of the American coast of the Pacific Ocean, not yet fully explored. A beautiful reproduction of this map appears in full page, but mercilessly reveals the top right corner the words: Decembre 1865 .
It is an incision made in France in that year, which reproduces the ancient map of Ahmed with the inevitable corrections than the original, due to modern geographical knowledge. In fact, the original is much more approximate, but Hapgood not publish it. There is not a single original copy, and there are only a few examples of an edition of 1795.

Hapgood Ahmed knows that the card is nothing more than a reworking newer than the one cordiform of Finaeus in 1534 (on page 234 contains a comment by AE Nordenskiöld in this regard), but insists that he thinks the cards are very different.

Certainly are different, and it is also obvious. In the coasts of the oldest appear much more approximate and conjectural, not yet been well explored, while in versions made ​​centuries later (especially in the version of 1865 published by him) these errors were partly correct.
From these comparisons we can see that in every historical period, many maps were drawn based on previous models, adding new knowledge due to more recent explorations of the new newly discovered lands.
Hapgood also publishes the card Philippe Buache of 1739, and even in this case says without hesitation that the paper would contain a representation of Antarctica. But it does not mention a single word of dense notes, written in French, that would have instead allowed us to understand what was really pictured: the description of the journey of Captain Bouvet and a "guess" on the shape of the mythical southern continent based on a few tracts of land achieved up to that point.

Maybe Hapgood did not know the French, because otherwise an attempt would. Or maybe he would not have done anyway if that would undermine the foundations of his outlandish theories. Moreover Hapgood does not publish another version of the same card Buache, the one without any "guess" about the shape of the Australian continent, but describes only the few lands really touched by the explorers up to that time:

On page 67 of "Maps of the ancient sea kings" has published another paper Buache, which represents the part of the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Africa. Hapgood notice right away and said with great fanfare a few large "islands" in the middle of the Atlantic and compares them with those that appear in the paper of Piri Reis . Also in this case, however, the card appears Buache a precise words, in French: " seches et bas-fonds ", ie dry and slums, dangerous for boaters and then reported in the chart. Possible that Hapgood did not notice this statement?
But we also, hypothetically, that the shallows were the remains of ancient islands ... One thing that a serious scholar would have to do is to check what he writes Piri Reis next to the mysterious island in the middle of the Atlantic: " And this caravel having encountered a storm was led on this island. His name was Nicholas Giuvan. And in this 'island there is much cattle with a horn. For this reason they named this island "Isle de Vacca," which means island of the cattle. "
My impression is that Piri Reis has found the story of a sailor and has arbitrarily drawn an island along the likely route traveled by ship, not sure it was inspired by ancient maps depicting islands in the middle of the Atlantic.
We want to talk about how Hapgood is the card Finaeus of 1531? Bluntly states that it is " a truly authentic map of the real Antarctica . " But since the shape does not fit (and, moreover, is enormously greater than the real Antarctica reaching to lick even the Tropic of Capricorn) Hapgood is forced to rotate, stretch, distort it. Then, seeing that still does not fit, he decided to move to the South Pole than 1000 km and decides that what Finaeus clearly called "Tropic of Capricorn" actually would be the "Antarctic Circle". But then what the cartographer called "Antarctic Circle" will be what was that?

The reconstruction of Antarctica based on card Finaeus, according to C. Hapgood.
The comparison between the Terra Australis Incognita of Finaeus and the real Antarctica.
In all this great work of "interpretation" is silent Hapgood essential information: Finaeus clearly written on that great continent the phrase " Terra Australis Recenter invents sed nondum plene cognita "or Terra Australis recently discovered but not fully explored . The same word that appears in many papers sixteenth century to define the Tierra Del Fuego, discovered by Magellan in 1520, which was thought to be the end of a great continent.

Chapter 5 of " Maps Of The Ancient Sea Kings "is dedicated to Portolano of Dulcert , which is compared with other maps of the Mediterranean. Here Hapgood reached one of the peaks of the absurd. Compare the fact Portolano of Dulcert in 1339 with a paper-based geographical concepts of Ptolemy (second century AD), and states that it is incomprehensible that a map drawn in the "Middle Ages" by sailors who had dark as the only means a compass, can be more precise than the one based on studies of the greatest scholar of ancient geography, which had at its disposal all the books of the Library of Alexandria and the assistance of the greatest scholars of the time. So according to Hapgood who designed the pilot book of Dulcert, 1000 years after Ptolemy, must necessarily have had access to information very ancient and more accurate than those of Ptolemy!

In gray (from Hapgood): A paper based on the geography of Ptolemy compared with the Portolano of Dulcert. To the right of the Portolano Dulcert.
I'm not kidding. All this frenzy is located on pages 10 and 11 of "The Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings": " Ptolemy is the most famous geographer of the ancient world. He worked in Alexandria in the 2nd Century aD, in the greatest library of the ancient world, He was acquainted with mathematics. He shows, in His great work, The Geograhia (168) to modern scientific mentality. Can we take lightly That the medieval sailors of the fifteenth century, without any of His knowledge, and without modern instruments except a rudimentary compass - and without mathematics - could produce them to more scientific product? "
Hapgood, is it possible that you do not realize the importance of science who had the use of the compass for mapping? I really think that the texts of the philosophers of antiquity could be more precise than a compass, however rudimentary, to provide the foundation to build a map of the Mediterranean? This is not just "charming naivete" (as it is written in the introduction to John K. Wright Maps Of The Ancient Sea Kings ), is a flaw far worse.
But you could go on for many more pages, because the book is full of "pearls" of this kind. And it is on the basis of this book that in recent decades have built the most fanciful theories about maps that no historian, geographer and cartographer had never considered "strange". No one considers strange because in all studies on the history of cartography and exploration there are chapters on the myth of Terra Australis and the fact that this land were identified from time to time, as that surfers moved further south, in the new the newly discovered lands. What then is revealed islands and parts of that mythical continent.
The only one not familiar with the topics mentioned seems to be Hapgood, determined to prove his theories by manipulating and distorting and often hiding information. Still, it was good, he was very successful. Are his books and those of his followers who sell millions of copies, not the ones that deal with the most serious of the history of cartography.
"Here's another map. Know where it came from? Appears in the Second Treaty of Utriusque Cosmi Historia by Robert Fludd. Fludd is the man of the Rosy Cross in London, do not forget that. Now what does our Roberto de Fluctibus, as liked to be called? Presents no longer a map, but a strange projection of the entire globe from the point of view of the Polo, the Polo mystical naturally and therefore from the point of view of an ideal pendulum hanging from a keystone ideal. This is a card designed to be put under the Pendulum " ( Umberto Eco, in Foucault's Pendulum , Simon and Schuster, 1989 ).

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