(Also posted on the TAM News page.)I wish to thank Graham Hancock for posting a reworking of
The Map At The Bottom Of The World to the
Articles section of his website. Graham writes regarding this first submission:
Graham had extended an invitation to post articles several months back after viewing my posts on his forum:
Discovery of Antarctica's Carney and Siple Islands on Schöner's 1524 World Globe,
Discovery of Agrippa's World Map, and the article
Atlantis: The Land Beyond The Pillars located here on my website, where I posit by far the most accurate site for Atlantis based on Plato's geographical description. Thanks again Graham and a special thanks to his son Luke who was assigned the task of formatting the article to Graham's website.
Graham's statement above is my first significant endorsement of this discovery. As I point out on
my HOME page, I believe this discovery to be nearly 100% certain, yet I have not been able to find anyone with a strong background in historical cartography willing to corroborate this find.
On the positive side, no one of any repute has come forward proving or even arguing that it is not a copy of Agrippa's long lost map. In fact, the few experts that I have contacted have mostly failed to even respond to my emails. One of the responses may explain some non-replies:
Thanks for the info, but I do not know much about this subject - I don't know what Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum is and I have no time to review your findings.
This may signify one of my biggest hurdles, first locating an expert in ancient 'Roman' cartography and then hoping that they have time to concern themselves with the purported discovery of a 2,000-year-old map. Of course the fact that this discovery is located on a website called AtlantisMaps probably is a little off-putting to some as well. There might also be apprehension in commenting positively on this find as its validation might likely be perceived as a partial endorsement of other concepts on my site including Schöner mapping the Antarctic continent on his 1524 map.
Another interesting barrier, one which I have ran up against on another forum, is that people think it would be impossible for a skilled and knowledgeable cartographer of the 16th century to make such a bizarre mistake like inserting an old world map to depict a newly discovered land. The sad irony of this view is that they don't stop to consider that many of these 'skilled and knowledgeable cartographers' were depicting a partially explored and relatively small Tierra del Fuego as a ginormous continent.
Since reputable 16th century cartographers were able to invent continents from thin air to represent new finds, why would we not respect the idea that at least one cartographer of the time attempted the novel and much more logical approach of referencing and reconciling antiquated maps of unknown lands to new discoveries?
It should be noted that Schöner used two basic designs to represent an unexplored land south of the South American continent and both designs share the uncanny commonality of representing real world maps, one an old style reversed C-shape world map and one accurately portraying the Antarctic continent.
-Doug
