Oldest Globe to Show the Americas Discovered

[Skywizard]

The oldest known globe to represent the New World has been discovered, researchers say.
Dated to the early 1500s, the globe was likely crafted in Florence, Italy, from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs. It is engraved with then-new and vague details about the Americas garnered from European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. It is also decorated with monsters, intertwining waves and even a shipwrecked sailor, according to the Washington Map Society, which published a study of the artifact in its journal The Portolan.

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"When I heard of this globe, I was initially skeptical about its date, origin, geography and provenance, but I had to find out for myself," S. Missinne, an independent Belgian research scholar, said in a statement. "After all no one had known of it, and discoveries of this type are extremely rare. I was excited to look into it further, and the more I did so, and the more research that we did, the clearer it became that we had a major find."

Source: http://www.livescience.com/39103-oldest-globe-americas-discovered.html

peace...
skywizard

[Kalamos]

..........

[Atlas]

The globe was purchased in 2012 by a private institution (that has chosen to remain anonymous) at the London Map Fair from a dealer who said it had been in an “important European collection” since it was acquired after World War II.

Information about the New World shows the influence of travel logs by Christopher Columbus, Portuguese explorers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real, Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral and the Italian after whom the continent would be named, Amerigo Vespucci.

The New World is rudimentary. There is no North America, just a few islands. ISABEL (Cuba) and SPAGNOLLA (Hispaniola) are named; others are not. South America is labelled TERRA DE BRAZIL (Brazil), MVNDVS NOVVS (New World) and TERRA SANCTAE CRVSIS (the Land of the Holy Cross).

http://24.media.tumblr.com/41c973106f4ebce859f37e81dbdfbffe/tumblr_mrsjj5UW6u1ruw1vso1_1280.png

The globe is around 11 centimeters (4.33 inches) in diameter, about the size of a grapefruit. Its maker cut the bottom halves of two ostrich eggs to make a proper sphere out of them. The map was carved into the individual eggshells and the lines traced with a blue-black color.

X-ray fluorescence analysis found high levels of iron and traces of barium in the colored parts which indicates the engraver did not use paint but rather iron gall ink, perhaps mixed with an indigo blue derived from irises. Once engraved and inked, the two and then the two pieces were joined using the natural polymer gommalacca (shellac).

The shells themselves are primarily composed of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), as are all bird eggshells, but CT scans found that they’ve lost 50% of their calcium bone density compared to a new ostrich egg. Loss of moisture over time causes this in eggshells just like it does in human bones.

By examining a random selection of ostrich eggs at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, Missinne found that unmounted ostrich eggs lose about 10% of their density every 100 years until they have no moisture left to lose. Regression analysis on the ostrich egg globe found therefore that the egg was new about 500 years ago, giving it a creation date of ca. 1500.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3746/9594947179_be0157f877_o.jpg
This image in high resolution (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Fig-4-Asia-on-the-ostrich-egg-globe.jpg)

The globe contains ships of different types, monsters, intertwining waves, a shipwrecked sailor, and 71 place names, and one sentence , “HIC SVNT DRACONES” (Here are the Dragons).

There is no mark or any identifying information about the maker. Dr. Stefaan Missinne (who spent the past year researching the globe, consulting with more than 100 experts in his investigation of the artifact’s date, origin, sources, materials and construction) thinks it was made in Florence and speculates about a highly tenuous possible connection to Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop based on some globe sketches and sphere surface area calculations in the Codex Atlanticus, but there’s no solid evidence of who made the ostrich egg globe and where.

Read more: thehistoryblog.com/archives/26763 (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/26763)

[ghostrider]

makes you wonder, how people long ago viewed the earth as a whole ...they had no idea what was at the end of the ocean till they went there ...just as we will concerning the stars ...

[Bill Ryan]

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Here's a much older map -- presented by Klaus Dona in his slideshow interview with me, which I called The Hidden History of the Human Race:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmMwo1Xzgus

The stone cannot be dated, as it's not organic. If I remember correctly, it was found in Ecuador. The outline of the continents can be seen clearly -- including that of large island in the Atlantic.


http://projectavalon.net/Stone_world_map_1.jpg

http://projectavalon.net/Stone_world_map_2.jpg

[araucaria]

'Here be Dragons' was just a mapmaker's way of indicating somewhere not known about - a Terra Incognita. Interesting that ignorance should be equated with monsters, and reptilian monsters. Explorers are always the first to come out from under the blanket, and then Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance begins to kick in.

[Atlas]

'Here be Dragons' was just a mapmaker's way of indicating somewhere not known about - a Terra Incognita. Interesting that ignorance should be equated with monsters, and reptilian monsters.
Interesting araucaria. However, Dragons were depicted in the 15th century as on this Czech miniature of the 15th century in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp :

http://www.carto.net/andre.mw/photos/2010/08/24_b_plantin-moretusmuseum_antwerpen/20100824-133921_miniatures_tcheques_du_15e_siecle_dragon.jpg
(source: carto.net/andre.mw/.../miniatures_tcheques_du_15e_siecle_dragon (http://www.carto.net/andre.mw/photos/2010/08/24_b_plantin-moretusmuseum_antwerpen/20100824-133921_miniatures_tcheques_du_15e_siecle_dragon.shtml))

[araucaria]

Thanks buares. My point was that this is not a map location for dragons; not that there is no actual phenomenon corresponding to them. Most legend has some basis in fact. You could also tie in Loch Ness monster type creatures with this, for example. It is still not clear to me at least exactly how this fits in with deep human fear generally. The Chinese dragon seems to be more reminiscent of planets with fiery tails during Velikovskian upheavals in an electric solar system. On the other hand, St George killing the dragon is mixed up with the serpent of Eden.

[Atlas]

Thanks buares. My point was that this is not a map location for dragons; not that there is no actual phenomenon corresponding to them. Most legend has some basis in fact. You could also tie in Loch Ness monster type creatures with this, for example. It is still not clear to me at least exactly how this fits in with deep human fear generally. The Chinese dragon seems to be more reminiscent of planets with fiery tails during Velikovskian upheavals in an electric solar system. On the other hand, St George killing the dragon is mixed up with the serpent of Eden.
You just made me realize we still fear reptilian ETs as our ancestors feared Dragons and other mythological monsters our history is full of. Is there any correlation? I don't know much about monsters but I'm pretty sure the Loch Ness one has been debunked, it was a hoax. However, it would be very interesting to dig around the Chinese dragon and other monsters tales.

[araucaria]

You just made me realize we still fear reptilian ETs as our ancestors feared Dragons and other mythological monsters our history is full of. Is there any correlation? I don't know much about monsters but I'm pretty sure the Loch Ness one has been debunked, it was a hoax. However, it would be very interesting to dig around the Chinese dragon and other monsters tales.
Yes, that’s what I am driving at.

As regards the Loch Ness monster, I’m not so sure it has been debunked. (David Wilcock thinks it’s a time slip phenomenon). FW Holiday, author of The Great Orm of Loch Ness, in his second book, The Dragon and the Disc: An Investigation of the Totally Fantastic, explores the broader picture, both geographically (worldwide monster tales) and historically, linking the ‘disc culture’ of Bronze Age mounds to the UFO phenomenon, and both to his dragon/serpent story. A very worthwhile read.

[Atlas]

Can you provide more info about David Wilcock's Loch Ness monster/time slip phenomenon ?

About the well-known Nessie story:

In 1934 a doctor named Robert Kenneth Wilson offered a picture to the Daily Mail newspaper. Wilson told the newspaper he noticed something moving in Loch Ness and stopped his car to take the photo. Wilson refused to have his name associated with it so the photo became known simply as “The Surgeon’s Photo.”

For decades this photo was considered to be the best evidence of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. In 1994 at the age of 93 and near death Christian Spurling confessed that the surgeon’s photo taken 60 years ago was a hoax and the mastermind behind it was his Stepfather Marmaduke Wetherell.

In the early 1930s, sightings of the Loch Ness Monster became commonplace, so Spurling’s stepfather who was a big game hunter was hired by the Daily Mail newspaper to investigate. Wetherell found some huge tracks leading to the lake that he proudly displayed to the press. When the Natural History Museum investigated they quickly discovered that the footprints were a hoax. Wetherell was humiliated when the newspaper reported this and for being fooled by the prank.

For revenge he asked his stepson Chris Spurling who was a professional model-maker to make something that would fool the public. Spurling started with a toy submarine and then added a long neck and small head. The finished product was about 45 cm long, and about 30 cm high. Wetherell then went down to the lake and took some pictures of the “monster”. To add respectability to the hoax he convinced Dr. Wilson whom he knew through a mutual friend to develop the photo and sell it to the Daily Mail.

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However, Wikipedia indicates :

The earliest report of a monster associated with the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century. According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events he described, the Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he came across the locals burying a man by the River Ness.

They explained that the man had been swimming the river when he was attacked by a "water beast" that had mauled him and dragged him under. They tried to rescue him in a boat, but were able only to drag up his corpse. Hearing this, Columba stunned the Picts by sending his follower Luigne moccu Min to swim across the river.

The beast came after him, but Columba made the sign of the Cross and commanded: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The beast immediately halted as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled in terror, and both Columba's men and the pagan Picts praised God for the miracle.

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Source: wikipedia.org/Loch_Ness_Monster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster#Hoaxes)

I never heard about 'The Great Orm of Loch Ness' so thanks, I'll have a look.

[Conchis]

Just to throw out a little more on the dragon idea..... Birds have long been equated with the concept of a "thought"... A dragon would be a scary thought....since it is terrifying and it flies

[araucaria]

TIME-TRAVELING DINOSAURS?!?

As one example, I have a whole chapter devoted to cases where dinosaurs may have actually jumped ahead by millions of years due to these "natural stargates" firing off.

This includes the "dragon" legends, the Thunderbird and the Ropen as the pteranodon; the Loch Ness Monster as the plesiosaurus; the brontosaurus-type Mokele-Mbembe in Africa, and the Cambodian Stegosaurus, which was carved into a temple from 1138 AD:


http://divinecosmos.com/images/074_cambodia_stegosaurus.jpg

http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1099-2012romancereality

The Source Field reference is pages 382-387.

I am familiar with the hoax story. There will be some hoaxsters getting in on the act. It is rather like the crop circle phenomenon. Dave and Doug may have done a few with their plank after a few beers, but there are some that they cannot possibly have done. They are the straw men that debunkers love to knock down. They really need to be more thorough.

[Atlas]

David Wilcock is right in stating "legends" because Loch Ness is only 10,000 years old whereas Plesiosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. (plesiosaur.com/lochness (http://www.plesiosaur.com/lochness.php))

[araucaria]

Not so fast:

In 1993, Professor P. LeBlond of the University of British Columbia reported on many different sightings of “Caddy” – short for Cadborosaurus – off the coast of British Columbia, going as far south as Oregon. A whale allegedly swallowed a three-meter juvenile Caddy and the remains were found in its stomach. The story was covered in Science Frontiers and New Scientist. In 2010, Russian fishermen demanded an investigation into a creature that looked identical to descriptions of the Loch Ness monster, but kept appearing in a remote Siberian lake – which is one of the largest in all of Russia. This hungry monster has apparently been responsible for nineteen deaths from 2007 to 2010 alone. (Source Field Investigations, p.383)


And so on.