POSTER OF MEDIEVAL PLANISPHERES
There are hints suggesting the existence of an unknown civilisation from which all the ancient civilisation have derived. Between them most notable are common architectural conceptions, like the pyramids, similar mythologies with the common belief about a universal flood and a long list of other strange facts that seem to find a satisfactory explanation only on this perspective. Some of them point decisively to Antarctica as the site of this civilisation, whatever was its name.
IMPOSSIBLE MAPS
Charles Hapgood made a thorough examination of nautical and geographical maps drawn by renaissance’s cartographers up to Mercator, highlighting two features that were impossible at the date when they were produced: a precision in longitude that could not be achieved before the invention of the chronometer, and the representation of Antarctica, which was discovered only three centuries later. Disconcerting was the fact that the profile of its coasts appears to be as it was at least 10 thousand years ago, when they were ice free.
Hapgood’s conclusion was that some unknown ancient global civilisation existed, capable of drawing precise maps of the entire globe, copy of which survived somehow reaching the Mediterranean area.
Hapgood’s analysis, however, has been rejected by most scholars, mainly because none of those supposed maps of Antarctica seems to represent such an important feature like the Peninsula. Another recurrent objection is that the tip of South America doesn’t match with the real one.
Finaeus Mercator
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY
The first known world map, on a Babylonian clay tablet, represents the world as an island surrounded by the “river” ocean, that “flows” around it. Arrows on the side point to distant islands not represented.
The apex of ancient cartography was reached with Tolomeus. On his map (see on the right) the essential characteristics of the Mediterranean basin, Africa and Asia are represented in a quite precise way. Most notable is the fact that latitudes are correctly reported and the north pole is placed at the top of the map, like in modern cartography.
MEDIEVAL PLANISPHERES
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These fundamental conquests of ancient cartography seem to have been lost during the Medium Age in Western Europe, because since the 8th century representations of the world of a totally different kind start to appear. The world is represented as a more or less circular island, the profile of which doesn’t match at all with the reality it is intended to reproduce. It looks more in agreement with Omer’s and Babylonian geography. A surprising innovation of the medieval planispheres, apparently with no justification, is the fact that the cardinal points are rotated of 90 degrees, with the North on the left and the East on the top of the representations (see on right a typical planisphere, the Pomponius Mela’s). Could it be that it was inspired by those “source maps” which existence is hypothesised by Hapgood? If indeed those source maps existed, other people before Piri Reis, Finaeus and Mercator should have seen them and should have drawn maps accordingly.. |
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ANTARCTICA AT THE END OF PLEISTOCENE
According to the author, before the end of Pleistocene the South Pole was displaced by more then 20° towards Australia and the Atlantic coasts of Antarctica were ice-free, as shown the map on the left. Besides, the sea level was about 120 metres lower than today. Let’s then imagine how Antarctica looked like at that time and how a cartographer would have represented it.
What we obtain is a map which differs from the present ones for two main characteristics: the first is that the Antarctic “Peninsula” was an island, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The second is the existence in the lower part of a deep gulf, a sort of Mediterranean, which reached the continental ice cap, well inside the continent, and had a narrow entry between Berkner Island and the Princess Martha coast.
Let’s then consider only the mainland, ignoring the island “Peninsula”. We have a geographical representation, which essential characteristics are clearly identifiable: a deep inlet on the top left, with a particular profile, corresponding to Mackenzie Bay;
on the top right we have a large gulf, also with a particular profile, corresponding to the Ross area. At the bottom, a narrow entry introduces in a wide internal basin, analogous to the Mediterranean, which stretches well inside the continent, reaching the ice cap expanding from the inland.
PLEISTOCENIC ANTARCTICA AND MEDIEVAL PLANISPHERES
On the top are represented some well known medieval planispheres, in the order: Guido, St. Denis, Higden, Cotton, Hereford, Isidore and Liebana Even from a very superficial examination it is quite evident that they all respond to the same basic model. All of them have the north pole on the left side; a Mediterranean at the bottom-centre, very schematic, with no relation with the real one; a deep inlet on the left and a large gulf on the top-right with a well recognizable profile. Exactly as the representation of Pleistocenic Antarctica. Many planispheres have a special mark on the top of the map, on the same hypothetical previous position of the South Pole. Only casual coincidences? If we let the verdict to an impartial judge, like a computer, there would be no hesitation: those planispheres represent the Antarctica of 11 thousand years ago, more likely than the world known to medieval man.
PLEISTOCENIC ANTARCTICA AND THAT OF FINAUES AND MERCATOR
But what about the Peninsula? Although it was an island, separated by the main continent, it should have been represented in the “source maps” hypothesised by Hapgood, and professional geographers like Finaeus and Mercator couldn’t ignore its existence in their representations. They didn’t. The geographical nature of their “source map” had to be clear, but it did not match with any land they had knowledge of. From the evidence they had, on the other side of Magellan channel there had to be a large continent, undoubtedly that mysterious land represented on their source map, which couldn’t find any other location in the world. They had to adjust the scale of that representation in order to “merge” the Peninsula with South America.
The result: an Antarctic continent out of scale, with its profile faithfully reproduced, as demonstrated by Hapgood’s analysis. Even the Peninsula is represented, but “merged” with the tip of South America. Therefore the main objection to Hapggod’s conclusions, based on the absence of the Peninsula, becomes irrelevant.