Slashdot Mirror
Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World
The National Post is carrying a report of an exciting discovery for cartographic historians: an ostrich-egg globe purchased last year at the London Map Fair is now believed to be the oldest to show any part of the New World. "In a lengthy essay published in the latest issue of The Portolan, the peer-reviewed journal of the Washington Map Society, Belgian map collector and historical researcher Stefaan Missinne argues that the ostrich-egg globe not only predates the Hunt-Lenox Globe but was probably used as the model for casting the more famous copper object. If true, then the small, unnamed island shown to the far north in the 'Mundus Novus' portion of the egg-globe’s western hemisphere — a crude depiction of the 'New World' as it was understood just a few years after the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and others — is the earliest image of Newfoundland or any other part of Canada on any surviving globe in the world."
More at the Washington Map Society's page.
one very clever ostrich
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
There are strong evidences that the Portuguese discovered America long before Columbus. But do not take my word, do your own research.
Also, there are indications that Columbus himself was Portuguese.
I will let this sink in (no pun intended).
You can read a bit about it here http://www.dightonrock.com/discoveryofnorthamerica.htm, although it doesn't look like a very credible site, seems to be inline with texts I read elsewhere.
Disclaimer: I am Portuguese.
Sig? Heil
I'm sure they used maps, but as they weren't a seafaring race, I doubt they had globes.
Actually, northern Native American "maps" were more like "narratives" on how to get from once place to the next, and were mostly stored on human media. So a "map" would be more like directions, "Travel in the direction of the setting sun, hang a Ralph at the big snowy mountain . . .", etc.
They weren't geographical maps in that sense.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Everybody was fishing off the Grand Banks and trying to keep it a secret. Although throughout the beginning of the Age of Discovery maps were kept top secret.
Da Vinci may have made that globe, or someone working with him. They had access to maps and books in the Vatican, which were gifts from the Chinese in 1434.
And the photograph of this great, revolutionary globe
depicting the New World is centered on... Europe.
Great job, National Post, fantastic reporting, that's what we
need good journalists for.
(Second link has a better picture)
Who used hard C? Try EVERYONE who spoke or wrote Latin in the Renaissance, which basically meant everyone with any education and literacy. K was only in use for a few rare words (kalendae, sometimes Karthago, but even that usually had a C). "Kanada" would be nigh impossible; "Canada" is exactly what you'd expect. Latin: it's why there's an "America" instead of an "Ameriga" today.
There wasn't a "race" of Native Americans, there were many different peoples of varied descent. There were at least three major and many minor influxes of people from northeast Asia, and possibly some from northern Europe, and maybe even Africa and southeast Asia. Scandinavians had more in common with Arabs than Algonquins did with Andean peoples.
There were a number of seafaring American peoples. There were many in the Pacific Northwest and the Caribbean, traders sailed from northern Chile to Central America and others from Central America to central California, and IIRC there was also trade between the mouths of the Amazon and the Rio Plata. Because the only written histories were destroyed by the Spanish (Bishop Landa boasted of having burned over a million books in his diocese alone) they're mostly forgotten.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Not of the world.
If you want a map that includes both newfoundland and cape horn you're not likely to find any native american maps from before 1504 that has what you're looking for. If you want to find any native american maps that include european or asian coasts from before 1500 you're SOL.
An interesting book on the Chinese naval expeditions of the time is '1421, The Year China Discovered America' by Gavin Menzies.
I get sad whenever I see someone take Menzies seriously. He is a crank, nothing in his books can be trusted.
What about simultaneous 4-corner days? Your pizza model can't account for those.
Menzies is an idiot, and Chinese ceramics in Timbuktu are much more easily explained by down-the-line trading than actual voyaging. not to downplay what the Chinese accomplished; Zheng Hei's fleet was certainly technically capable of making transoceanic voyages, but there is absolutely no evidence that they ever did.