Contour map of ancient river and ancient civilizations. Ancient civilizations of the world

Standard history textbooks of almost all countries of the world build the history of the emergence of civilization on three main milestones: these are the ancient civilizations in Egypt, Greece and Rome. Therefore, it is easy to get the impression that apart from these three civilizations, the map of the ancient world is empty space. But in fact, in those distant times there were many bright and distinctive cultures, about which we know practically nothing. Let's fill in the empty spaces.

10. Aksum

The kingdom of Aksum (or Aksum) has been the subject of countless legends. Whether it's the lost Kingdom of the Queen of Sheba, or the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

However, the Ethiopian kingdom is a reality, not a myth. With access to the Nile and the Red Sea, international trade routes passed through Aksum, and by the beginning of our era, most of the Ethiopian peoples were under Aksumite rule. The strength and prosperity of this state allowed it to expand its borders in Arabia. In the third century AD, a Persian philosopher wrote that Aksum was one of the world's four greatest kingdoms, along with Rome, China, and Persia.

In the state of Aksum, Christianity was adopted almost simultaneously with the Roman Empire. Had it not been for the rise and expansion of Islam, Aksum might have continued to dominate East Africa. After the Arab conquest of the Red Sea coast, Aksum lost its advantage in trade over its neighbors.

Known in ancient Egyptian sources for its abundance of gold and other valuable natural resources, Kush was conquered and exploited by its northern neighbor for almost half a millennium (circa 1500-1000 BC). But the origins of the state of Kush stretch far deeper into the past - ceramic artifacts date back to 8000 BC. and were found in the area of ​​the capital, Kerma. A complex urban society and large-scale agriculture flourished in Kush.

In the ninth century BC, instability within Egypt allowed Kush to regain its independence. And, in one of history's greatest vicissitudes of fate, Kush conquered Egypt in 750 BC. As a result, Kush were expelled from Egypt by the Assyrian invasion. The people of Kush broke away from Egyptian influence and created their own form of writing, which is now called Meroitic and which has not yet been deciphered. The last king of Kush died in 300 CE as his kingdom fell into decline, and the exact cause of his death remains a mystery.

The realm of Yam certainly existed as a trading partner and possible rival of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, however its exact location is still unknown, like the mythical Atlantis. Based on the funerary inscription of the Egyptian traveler Harknuf, Yam is described as a land of "incense, ebony, leopard skins, elephant tusks and boomerangs." Scientists have long placed Yam in the immediate vicinity of Egypt, but it seems that scientists underestimated the ancient Egyptian traders and merchants. Because hieroglyphs recently discovered more than 700 kilometers southwest of the Nile confirm the existence of trade between Yam and Egypt and Yam was located in the Scottish highlands of Chad.

It remains only a mystery how the Egyptians crossed hundreds of kilometers of the desert before they got the wheel.

7. Xiongnu Empire

The Xiongnu Empire was a confederation of nomadic peoples who dominated northern China from the 3rd century BC. e. until the 1st century AD Imagine Genghis Khan of the Mongol army, but a thousand years earlier and with chariots. There are many theories to explain the origin of the Xiongnu, and at one time some scholars argued that the Xiongnu may have been the ancestors of the Huns.

We know that the Xiongnu raids on China were so devastating that Emperor Qin ordered the construction of a grandiose defensive wall, which we today call the Great Wall of China. In 166 BC, more than 100,000 Xiongnu horsemen made another raid on China and only 160 km did not reach the Chinese capital. Only multiple factors, such as internal unrest, disputes over the succession of power, and conflicts with other nomadic groups, were able to weaken the Xiongnu enough for the Chinese to claim that the danger from the north was not threatening.

6. Greco-Bactria

Too often, when we talk about the life and conquests of Alexander the Great, we do not remember the people who followed him into battle. The fate of Alexander is well documented.

When Alexander died unexpectedly, internecine strife broke out among his Macedonian commanders for superiority and the redivision of the empire.

In the third century BC, one such fragment of the empire of Alexander the Great, the province of Bactria (now Afghanistan and Tajikistan) became so strong that it declared its independence. Sources describe a rich land of "thousands of cities" and a large number of surviving coinage testifies that the uninterrupted succession of Greek kings goes back centuries. The location of Greco-Bactria made it the center of the intersection of different cultures: Persians, Indians and Scythians, which contributed to the development of a completely unique state. In Alexandria on the Oxus, or Ai Khanoum, amazing evidence has been found of this radical combination of Greek and Oriental culture. During the excavations, Indian coins, Iranian altars and Buddhist sculptures were found among the ruins of this Greek city. The culture of the state combined Greek culture and elements of Zoroastrianism.

The Yuezhi seem to be at war with everyone. For several centuries, they have appeared against the backdrop of an incredible number of significant events in Eurasia.

The Yuezhi originated as a confederation of several nomadic tribes in the steppes of northern China. Their flourishing trade brought them into direct conflict with the Xiongnu, who eventually took them out of the Chinese trading game.

The Yuezhi then headed west, where they met and defeated the Greco-Bactrians. In the first and second centuries CE, the Yuezhi fought the Scythians in addition to occasional wars in Pakistan and Han China. During this period, the Yuezhi tribes developed a consolidated and sedentary economy based on agriculture. This "Kushan" empire lasted for three centuries, until the armies of Persia, Pakistan and India reclaimed their old territories.

4. Kingdom of Mitanni.

The state of Mitanni, which existed from about 1500 BC. until 1200 BC, located there, now Syria and Northern Iraq. Most likely, you have already heard that the famous queen of Egypt, Nefertiti, was born a princess in Mitanni. Nefertiti was given in marriage to the pharaoh as a variant of a diplomatic dynastic marriage to improve relations between the two states.

The culture in Mitanni was of Indo-Aryan origin. The Mitanni believed in karma, reincarnation, and the dead were cremated. Nefertiti and her husband, Amenhotep IV, were at the center of a short-lived religious revolution in Egypt. But Nefertiti was known to be quite powerful and was often depicted in situations where she killed enemies, in which, as a rule, only pharaohs were depicted.

3. Tuvana.

When the Hittite kingdom perished, Tuvana was one of the few city-states that was able to fill the vacuum of statehood in the territories where Turkey is now located.

During the ninth and eighth centuries BC, Tuvana gained prominence through several kings. Tuvana used its advantageous position to carry out trade between the Phrygian and Assyrian states throughout Anatolia. As a result, they amassed considerable wealth.

In addition to a strong trading economy, Tuwana seems to have had great cultural wealth. The kingdom used a hieroglyphic script called Luvian, but later adopted the Phoenician alphabet.

2. Maurya Empire.

Chandragupta Maurya, in fact, was the Indian Alexander the Great. Therefore, it is quite natural that these two commanders met. Chandragupta sought a meeting with Macedonian to negotiate assistance in dividing the subcontinent into spheres of influence. However, Alexander was too busy with the rebellion.

Then Chandragupta decided to rely on his own forces and in a short time united the main part of India under his rule. He did all this before the age of 20. After Alexander's death, the Mauryan Empire prevented his successors from expanding Greek influence further into India. Chandragupta personally defeated several Macedonian generals in battle, after which the Macedonians stopped trying to move further east.

Unlike Alexander, Chandragupta left behind an elaborate bureaucracy and government that ensured the continuity of his legacy.

3. Indo-Greece.

The influence of Greek (Hellenic) culture in the ancient world was ubiquitous. Little is known, however, that the Indo-Greek kingdom carried the torch of Hellenistic culture to northwestern India.

The most famous of the Indo-Greek kings, Menander, allegedly converted to Buddhism after a lengthy debate with the philosopher Nagasena, who recorded the conversation "Questions from King Menander". Greek influence can be seen in the synthesis of artistic styles. And Buddhist monks and ascetics still walk in the Greek style, complete with a Greek tunic. Already at the end of the second century BC, the Indo-Greek state was actively trading with China. However, the Yuezhi invasion from the north and the attacks of the Indian states from the south put an end to the Indo-Greek kingdom.

In Crimea, the ruins of the forgotten ancient city of Chersonesus (near Sevastopol), which played a big role in the adoption of Christianity in Russia, have also been preserved. On the site www.podarki.crimea.ua there are gifts from Sevastopol for all occasions to your taste: for loved ones, for superiors and subordinates, creative and logical, miracles of technology and retro gifts. Come in, you'll find everything.

Approximately 5-7 thousand years ago, in 7 main centers of agriculture, primitive people are moving from a nomadic lifestyle to a settled way of life, which entails the formation of the ancient civilizations of the world.

Civilizations of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is between the Tigris and Euphrates. It is believed that it was there that the most ancient civilization (4-3 thousand BC) of the ancient world, the Sumerians, was located. Their origins are still unknown, because in Mesopotamia the Sumerians were an alien people from the island of Delmun, which is not on any ancient map. The Sumerians were skilled farmers. Their cities of Uruk, Sippar, Kish and others had an extensive irrigation system. They had their own cuneiform writing. The peculiarity of this civilization was the ability to smelt metals, deep astronomical knowledge and a high degree of urbanization of the state. The technology of the Sumerians was far ahead of many other nations that developed in parallel with them.

Rice. 1. Centers of agriculture according to Vavilov.

The main cultural heritage of the Sumerians is the myth of the Anunaki and the creation of man. According to the modern interpretation, man was created by the Anunaki with the help of genetic engineering as a slave to perform heavy physical work for the "gods".

In the 3rd millennium BC. the Sumerians were absorbed by the growing power of Babylon.

Rice. 2. Sumerian city.

African Civilization

The state of Ancient Egypt arose along the banks of the Nile around the 4th millennium BC. The Egyptians had a unique religion with over 3,000 different gods.

The Egyptians left behind a huge number of artifacts, including not only pyramids and sarcophagi, but also a huge number of hieroglyphs, pottery and papyri.

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The Egyptians report an even more ancient state - Punt. Many expeditions were equipped there for the exchange of goods, but there is very little information about it. It is believed that Punt is the pra-civilization of Ethiopia.

Mayan civilization

Indian Mesoamerican civilization arose about 4 thousand years ago. The people were represented by many city-states akin to the Sumerian ones - agriculture was developed in them. In addition, the Maya achieved great success in jade carving, sculpture and painting. Their astronomical calculations were way ahead of their time and incredibly accurate. The Mayan people built stone pyramids akin to Egyptian ones (according to another version, they came to ready-made cities abandoned by the previous civilization) and observatories for observing heavenly bodies.

Rice. 3. Mayan pyramids.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Mayan calendar, ending in 2012, became widely known, which created a hypothesis about the mathematically calculated date of the end of the world. However, as studies have shown, the Mayan priests simply calculated the time with a margin, and by 2012 their descendants simply had to update the data. The calendar was divided into three parts - religious (260 days), practical (365 days) and chronological (360 days).

Civilizations of India and China

The civilization of China originated about 5,000 years ago along the Yellow River. The legendary period of the Three Rulers of the Five Emperors was the beginning of their statehood. Despite the isolation of the Chinese, their achievements, except for porcelain, they will reveal to the world much later than other civilizations.

Along the rivers Indus and Ganges, the civilization of India arose. This happened in the 3rd millennium BC. The fame of India was brought not only by a complex caste system of relationships, but also by legends about the "war of the gods" in the area of ​​​​the city of Mohenjo-Daro. They had their own unique language and script. Hindus from ancient times were good mathematicians and builders, and medicine reached a high level in India.

General characteristics of ancient civilizations

While tribal relations existed in Europe, the first states arose in the main "Vavilov" centers of agriculture. The role of the most ancient civilizations is that, due to their scattered location on the planet, trade relations, foreign policy, unique language and racial groups begin to form among mankind. The specialization of production and the first religious polytheistic cults are being formed.

In 1999, scientists from Bashkiria, in the territory adjacent to the city of Ufa, discovered a three-dimensional stone map of the southern Urals, several million years old. The discovery caused a sensation not only among scientists, but also among ordinary citizens. The public outcry was caused, on the one hand, by the high quality of the found slab (inaccessible to Stone Age people), and on the other hand, by the alleged huge age of the find (incompatible with the existence of man on the planet, according to official science). This implies two possible options: either the theory of evolution, to put it mildly, is not entirely correct, and the history of mankind covers a much longer period (when progress alternated with the degradation of human society and culture), or the creators of the Map are representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization who once visited our planet. planet. Whatever conclusion our scientists come to, the value of the find itself will not decrease from this.

The history of the discovery of this 3D map begins in 1995, when A. Khuvyrov (a physicist from Bashkir State University) and Huang Hong from China, as part of an expedition, went on excavations dedicated to obtaining evidence of the existence of some ancient culture in these places. They discovered many things and texts of ancient Chinese origin. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the ancestors of modern Bashkirs are the Chinese who moved here in the prehistoric era. The version needed proof. Therefore, Khuvyrov and his assistant continued their search in the archives, where they accidentally discovered records of the 18th century about an unusual find of two hundred white stone slabs found in the 17th-18th centuries near the village of Khandar.

Unfortunately, no information has been preserved about the location of the plates, but the new mystery haunted the researchers. They thoroughly studied and examined the area of ​​​​the possible presence of white plates, but all in vain. Once, having talked with one of the inhabitants of the village of Khandar about the subject of his search, Khuvyrov was surprised to learn that a similar payment was in the yard of this man. And indeed, upon arriving at the place, he saw with his own eyes how a large stone slab with a non-uniform surface structure lay near the barn. It was luck. The plate weighed about a ton, had a size of 148 = 106 cm and a height of 16 cm. On the front side there were many bumps that could not be formed in natural conditions. Moreover, it was obvious that the relief is the result of high-precision processing. There was a hypothesis about the plate as a three-dimensional map of some area. Soon, from the image of a chain of mountains and hills that had not undergone serious changes over millions of years, it turned out that the plate represents a map of the territory near the city of Ufa.

At the initial assessment, the age of the find was measured at several thousand years. However, there were many oddities. For example, the lack of images of animals that people hunted. Instead, the map simply depicted the landscape. The second oddity was the presence on the map of a non-existent gorge, which was identified only when geologists joined the study of the white slab. It turned out that the gorge is the bed of a local river. But if so, then the age of the map is millions of years.

A large number of scientists from various fields of science were involved in the further decoding of the amazing find. The work done proved that the carved relief accurately reproduces the image of a section of the territory from the capital of Bashkiria to the city of Salavat. Only this is not a modern view of the area, but its image in the distant past.

In general, it was very difficult to determine the exact age of the map. Radiocarbon analysis, "uranium chronometer", did not give similar results. However, 2 fossilized shells were present on the surface of the map, the age of which was established, according to the study, one shell died out 500,000,000 years ago, the other - 120,000,000 years. In addition, in the 2 upper layers of the plate, scientists found metal particles, the orientation of which proves that at the time of creating the mysterious map, the North magnetic pole was in a different place than now (namely, in the area of ​​Franz Josef Land). According to the competent opinion of geologists, such an arrangement of the poles existed 120 million years ago.

In the process of studying the slab, it was reliably proved that the stone was machined using high-tech methods that only a civilization of a high degree of development could apply. In particular, the stone was covered with two artificial layers. The first layer created a two-centimeter vitreous coating, on the surface of which the image was cut out. Then the relief was covered with lime porcelain (2 mm layer), which protected the slab from impacts and damage.

In order to maintain the existing scale of 1:100,000, it was necessary to apply aerospace photography. This is the opinion of scientists. In addition, the cartography of some objects on the map (for example, the bottom of a river) is inaccessible to modern science. The technology for creating such 3D maps is also unknown to us. Judging by the mention of two hundred white slabs discovered in the seventeenth century, the slab found by Khuvyrov is most likely a piece of a larger map, maybe even a map of the world.

On the stone there were also some kind of icons arranged vertically in a column - apparently this is writing. This language does not coincide with any elements of the languages ​​\u200b\u200bknown to us, due to the fact that the content of the message has not yet been deciphered. Another surprise of the mysterious plate was that in addition to the natural landscape, it captured the traces of artificial formations. For example, dams, dams, reservoirs, as well as an extensive network of irrigation canals of great length.

The study of the amazing map is still ongoing. The material of the slab and its two layers is analyzed, the time of creation of the find is detailed. Inspired by a positive example, scientists and antiquities seekers with triple strength are looking for other fragments of the so-called map of the world, the original size of which could be at least 340 * 340 meters. In any case, the 3D map will have an impact on official science and people's worldview, which will obviously undergo significant changes in the near future.

Maps of ancient sea kings

The existence of these unusual cards has been known for a long time. Since Antarctica was officially discovered by the British only in 1819, earlier maps showing the outline of its coastline simply could not exist. 8 Maps showing Antarctica without ice would have been an even greater challenge to the history of science. Their existence would prove the fallacy of the very concept of the prehistory of mankind, accepted in scientific circles.

The maps in question first received wide publicity in the 1960s through the efforts of Professor Charles Hapgood, who taught the history of science at Keene College, New Hampshire. Hapgood was a brilliant theorist and well-known enough to defy academic dogma. He first encountered the problem of maps of Antarctica while investigating another, related, problem of the origin of ice ages. Back in 1848, the Swiss naturalist Ludovic Agassi proved that there were several periods in the history of the Earth when glaciers covered vast areas of the globe that are now in temperate zones. Since then, scientists have put forward various conjectures about the cause of the ice ages. According to most theories, the overall decrease in temperature was caused by a gradual change in the earth's orbit and the direction of the earth's axis. According to Hapgood, these theories could not explain the powerful cataclysms that accompanied the end of the last, most well-studied ice age.

Hapgood was interested in whether the weight of the polar ice caps themselves could periodically throw the Earth out of balance and lead to the onset of ice ages. Together with his like-minded engineer James Campbell, he studied the idea that the earth's crust lies on a very weak, almost liquid layer of matter. The main argument was that when the thickness of the ice on the polar caps reaches a critical mass, its weight causes the upper layer of the earth's crust to slide over the lower layer until equilibrium is reached. Therefore, although the earth's axis maintains its position, and the North and South Poles remain the coldest places on the planet, the continental crust is shifting to considerable distances. If, for example, Europe were to move 2,000 miles north and end up in the polar region, it would be glaciated.

This simple mechanism, according to Hapgood, explains the phenomenon known as the Ice Age. There were no global climate changes; instead, the ice was redistributed to different parts of the globe as they entered the Arctic or Antarctic Circle. During the last ice age, the North Pole was located in the Hudson Bay region, leaving all of North America under an ice sheet (see "First Americans" in the Travel and Discovery section). The end of the Ice Age, according to Hapgood, began after the earth's crust began to change its position about 18,000 years ago. America gradually moved southward and the ice cap melted over the course of 10,000 years. Floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have wiped out 9/10 of the flora and fauna in North America and Eurasia. Volcanoes spewed clouds of dust over Siberia, blocking it from the sun, which led to a sharp drop in temperature. These shocks and climate changes caused the extinction of the Siberian mammoths, and Siberia itself entered the Arctic Circle and became an inhospitable land of cold, long night and permafrost. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica, which was largely ice-free during the American Ice Age, suffered a similar fate. By the VI millennium, it was completely within the Arctic Circle and was covered with ice for two thousand years.

Hapgood's model was first published in the book Displacement of the Earth's Crust. Despite her apparent radicalism, she met with a surprisingly favorable reception in the scientific community. The preface to the British edition of his book was written by Kirtley F. Mather, Emeritus Professor at Harvard University and former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, while James C. Bryce, Professor of Geology at the University of Washington, added his weighty word: “The combination of geological and geophysical evidence shift of the earth's crust looks convincing. The book made an impression even on Albert Einstein. Intrigued by the research of Hapgood and Campbell, he met with them to discuss and refine the mathematical aspects of their model, and wrote an original foreword calling for a serious discussion of the book. Hapgood's name instantly became widely known.

While working on the book The Displacement of the Earth's Crust, Hapgood first encountered the mystery of ancient maps of Antarctica. The most famous of these maps were compiled by the Turkish navigator Piri Reis in 1513. 9 Given the date, only 21 years after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, it depicts the Atlantic coast of South America with remarkable accuracy. However, the coastline south of Brazil curves in a strange way, gradually narrowing towards the east, towards Africa. This part of the map was thought to be fiction until a modern navigator, Captain Arlington Mallery, examined it and discovered that it had been drawn from a map projection centered on the Cairo area. After this discovery, the map could be redrawn using modern projection. It turned out something very interesting: the strange "appendage" of South America, according to Mallery, was actually part of the coast of Antarctica, as it could be before the continent disappeared under the ice.

Hapgood was delighted with Mallery's discovery. It supported his hypothesis, according to which Antarctica was subjected to glaciation in relatively recent times. Determined to solve this mystery, Hapgood used it as a great cross-disciplinary problem for his students at Keane College. Hapgood and his associates were surprised to learn that other Renaissance cartographers drew much bolder conclusions than Piri Reis and drew complete maps of the south polar continent (however, we have only a part of the original part of Piri Reis). In theory, none of these could have been drawn before the official discovery of Antarctica in 1819, as the pack ice surrounding the continent precluded any serious exploration of the coastline before armored ships began to be built. However, Mercator, the famous cartographer of the 16th century, made a very detailed map of the southern continent within the Antarctic circle. Its source was the so-called Terra Australis (Southern Land) depicted by the French geographer Oronteus Finius in 1531. Hapgood and his students redrawn the map in modern projection and were struck by the general resemblance to the shape of Antarctica under the ice sheet. In particular, the map of Oronteus Finius shows a characteristic triangular "cut" of the coastline of the continent, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea - a huge bay in the shape of an arrowhead, penetrating far into the depths of Antarctica. The resemblance is quite curious, to say the least.

Hapgood published his findings in 1966 in the book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings. Piri Reis claimed that his map was based on many sources, including a Greek map drawn during the time of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BC). Could the Greeks themselves have had at their disposal even more ancient maps, the origin of which is lost in the mists of time?

Hapgood made a bold guess. Perhaps there were earlier civilizations whose maritime exploits have long been erased from human memory. They explored and mapped the outlines of the coast of Antarctica - perhaps as far back as four thousand years BC. e., before the beginning of the last stage of glaciation (according to the ice age model proposed by Hapgood). He did not wonder who these prehistoric sailors and cartographers were. The rest of his life, until his death in 1982, Hapgood devoted to searching for traces of the "ancient sea kings."

Ancient maps are another inexhaustible storehouse of a beautiful sight.

1. To begin with - clay.

Babylonian map of the world, k. VIII-n. 7th century BC e., Clay, British Museum, London.
Late Babylonian clay tablet from Mesopotamia. Here is a map of the world known to the Babylonians. It contains both real geographical objects and mythological elements. The oldest known map of the world. You can read about it on Wikipedia.

2.

Jerusalem at the Center of the World, leaf from "Itinerarium Sacrae Scipturae" by Heinrich Bunting (1545-1606). A Journey Through the Holy Scriptures, first published in 1581.
"Itinerarium Sacrae Scriptura" is a book containing woodcut maps of the Holy Land. A very popular work at the time. It has been reprinted and translated several times.

Mappa Europae in Forma Virginis. Another Heinrich Bünting map. Map of Europe in the form of Our Lady, 1582.

4.

Map in accordance with the ideas of the Greek philosopher Posidonius (139/135 - 51/50 BC). The map was made by the cartographers Petrus Bertius and Melchior Tavernier in 1628. Many details were not known from Posidonius, but the cartographers showed the ancient Greek philosopher's ideas about the location of the continents.

5.

Ptolemaic picture of the world. The map was made in 1467, a quarter of a century before the first voyage of Columbus (1492-93). Author Jacob d "Angelo based on Claudius Ptolemy. Parchment, ink, paint. Stored in the National Library of Poland bn.org.pl.

6.

The same map, only in the form of an engraving published in 1482. Engraver Johannes Schnitzer.

7.

Map of Juan de la Cosa, member of the expeditions of Columbus, 1500.
The only map that has survived to our time, compiled by a direct participant in the first expeditions of Christopher Columbus.
The map is the oldest one that absolutely undeniably represents America. A number of earlier maps are known that supposedly, but not indisputably, depict America - for example, the map of Pizzigano. Maps are also known that accurately depict America, but their dating is disputed - such as the map of Vinland. The dating of the map by Juan de la Cosa is not in dispute; it reflects the geographical discoveries of Portugal, Spain and England as of the last years of the 15th century.

8.

Planisphere Cantino, 1502, Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy. Click the link for a larger version.

The Cantino planisphere is one of the first maps to reflect new discoveries. Read more about Planisphere Cantino on Wikipedia - I will not retell. The Cantino planisphere predates the Kaveri map and Waldseemüller's famous map, which is called the "Certificate of the Birth of America" ​​- the first map to contain the name America.

9.

Fragment of the Cantino Planisphere: Europe and Jerusalem

10.

Cantino Planisphere Fragment: Caribbean Islands

11.

Fragments of the Cantino Planisphere: The coastline of Brazil (left) and the Persian Gulf (right)

12.

Map by Pietro Coppo, Venice, 1520. One of the last maps of the world showing the so-called "Dragon's Tail" of Asia. This idea of ​​Asia was based on the teachings of Ptolemy, in which the Indian Ocean appeared as a closed lake. .

13.

Plan of Venice, 1565. A similar style can still be found on tourist maps.

Sea monsters on the maps.

14.
.

Carta Marina, printed 1539, fragments. By clicking on the pictures - the full version of the map in high resolution.

It turned out that modern surveys of the movements of water and air masses surprisingly resemble the outlines of the monsters of the ancient map. Moreover, monsters are depicted just in those places where adverse natural phenomena occur most often. Read more. Most likely, with the help of monsters, the dangers that await sailors in certain places were depicted.

15.

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570.
The map shows the monsters surrounding Iceland.

A few more examples of sea monsters.
16.

Natural History of Norway, 1755

17.

Sea Serpents of Buffalo Land, North America, 1872

21.

Whale is like an island. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis by Honorius Philoponus, 1621.
, as well as other ancient sea monsters.

22.

The motif of a fish or a whale, with life activity on them, is extremely popular, from the ancient world resting on whales, to the Russian native "Miracle Yudo fish whale."
Here, for example, is a drawing from a 15th-century manuscript depicting St. Brendan the Navigator, staying on a fish biting its tail. Such a fish symbolizes, perhaps, the eternal life of the saint. This is just my guess. If anyone can tell me the symbolism of a fish biting its tail, I will be grateful. .

Unknown Southern Land - Terra Australis Incognita.

As soon as they did not depict the South Land (lat. Terra Australis) from ancient times until the second half of the 18th century. More on this on Wikipedia.

23-24.


World map from 1587 showing a fantastic continent at the site of Antarctica. .

25-27.



Fragments of a world map produced in Amsterdam in 1689. Antarctica (Terra Australis) is simply missing. the whole map is a large file that allows you to admire many details.

28.

Italian map from 1566. One of the first maps, where the northern part of America is listed as Canada. .

To be continued...

P.S. Since I am not writing an essay on the history of cartography, but simply demonstrating some art objects from the world of maps, many of the famous, important and beautiful maps are not included in the article. Compensating for this omission, I give links to materials about some of the cartographic masterpieces lost in the post.

www.darcroastedblend.com/ - main source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_world_maps
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cartography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cartography
Collection of old maps