World spins on claim China discovered America

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I don't know....even I would be able to tell the difference between sailing East and sailing South.

As I said, not a particularly satisfying explanation, but what are the alternatives?

[KrazyHorse]

It's a fake?

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
It's a fake?

Possible, but I haven't seen the basis for that assertion... from what I understood, it has been definitively dated to the early 16th Century... Chris, do you have a link to those who say its a forgery? I'd be interested to see their position...

[Velociryx]

Oh...it's all part of an Illuminatus disinformation campaign....or something...

-=Vel=-

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Oh...it's all part of an Illuminatus disinformation campaign....or something...

-=Vel=-

Of course! NOW it all makes sense. And I'm sure the Priory of Sion is involved somehow as well.

[KrazyHorse]

Has it been (definitively dated, that is)? I really had only the barest knowledge of this map before today. I thought its authenticity was still up for grabs.

[Velociryx]

Shhhh! Guy....you weren't s'posed to reveal that! I'll make some phone calls and activate a few agents to make sure there's no proof of that surfacing, 'k?

-=Vel=-

[Guynemer]

Of course, mon Nautonnier.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Has it been (definitively dated, that is)? I really had only the barest knowledge of this map before today. I thought its authenticity was still up for grabs.

I thought it had been dated, but perhaps I'm thinking of something else. Nevertheless, I'd still like to see the explanation of those who hold that it's a forgery. Simply at a glance, without any other evidence, that's certainly more likely than the coast of SA being swung over to the East, which (I think) is the current "establishment" view...

[Velociryx]

::as he idly spins his sigil ring on his finger::



-=Vel=-

[Lung]

It's all academic, really. How many great discoveries and inventions have been lost through the mists of time? In any case, it doesn't alter the profound effect that it had on european thought at the time. The concept of this supposed great secret known only by Columbus about the existence of America via the chinese is highly dubious, and profoundly baseless.

[ravagon]

Well, the thing does show a bay where Cape Horn is supposed to be so there's a possibility that they could've made an assumption after avoiding the perils of the cape and headed south. What I can't see is how they could've charted the Antarctic though. Is that a close approximation to the real shape?
500-odd years ago shouldn't have seen that continent any more navigable than it is today.

Originally posted by Velociryx
Oh...it's all part of an Illuminatus disinformation campaign....or something...

-=Vel=-

First all the strategy threads, then the inferences in the "Lands of Lorraine", now this. I'm starting to wonder about this Hartpence chap...

[Fiera]

Also, I think that another discouraging detail in the Piri Reis map is the apparent presence of dhow type vessels in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I'd say this map was more likely a copy of the first maps of the Americas made by the Spanish.

[MrWhereItsAt]

--Wanders in waving von Daniken's flag--

And the REALLY weird thing from some of these maps (including the one posted above) is that they are accurate Mercator projections of the landforms, ie distorted out of shape from them being positioned on a globe, and not just flat maps. (Space Aliens gave humans these maps, of course.)

There are bits of evidence in Sth Amer that the Phoenicians made it first - some Phoenician-type figures in native art, and the rock in the Brazilian jungle with Phoenician symbols on it. Also some rather enigmatic ruins in New England (Virginia I think).

Vel - I hadn't heard the idea that the journey might have been all the way around Asia , but it's no secret they planned what were by ancient standards HUGE sea journeys - theirs was the expertise that led a Pharaoh's expedition right around Africa about 1000 BCE, and they routinely collected tin etc from Spain and the British Isles.

Of course my favourite theory involves Atlantis. I suggest you try to find Otto Muck's book on it - it's all quite fantastic, yet at the same time rather convincing (combining highly advanced people, the proliferation of the Basques around the world, Easter Island, and one giant MF of a meteorite!)

[MrWhereItsAt]

Oh, and of course the fact that one of these maps was verified about 45 years ago (the International Geophysical Year) to have accurate depictions of the land in Antarctica - land that has been covered and obscured by ice for over 10000 years.

Well then.

There you go.