Ask An Atlanteologist

[Harv]

Graham Hancock began his theses with the Piri Reis map:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...d_map_01.jpg/449px-Piri_reis_world_map_01.jpg

I read his book Fingerprints of the Gods many years ago. The map is the early 1500's? Then he would have the coastlines of North and South America from other explorers. He claims the southern extension of South America is an ice-free Antarctica copied from more ancient sources. Wikipedia calls this claim controversial.

Then there is the World Map Stone in Equador that Graham Hancock did not know about:

I did not know about this one either. I wonder what the other side looks like. I guess I can google it.

And then there is Google Earth. If you point Google Earth to 29 degrees, 53 minutes North and 28 degrees and 27 minutes South, you will see an underwater formation that looks suspiciously like this:

You do mean West, don't you?

 

[Samson]

And then there is Google Earth. If you point Google Earth to 29 degrees, 53 minutes North and 28 degrees and 27 minutes South, you will see an underwater formation that looks suspiciously like this:


And if, you look hard enough, you can find that Google had did a bad job on blurring some suspicious looking straight lines on the ocean floor to the Northeast of the formation.

I guess you mean this ? It is really not that similar, perhaps you can give more details of why you bring it up. Also which lines do you mean? There are a number of causes of structure on the ocean floor, some quite straight. I can see nothing that looks like it has been artificially blurred.

 

[Goodfella]

That word definitely is not Hispania. I thought it is Hyperia, but i could not google much about that which would justify the map (first wiki hit is the info that Hyperia supposedly was another name for the island of Amorgos, a small island in the central Aegean).

I have to suppose then that the word on that map is Hesperia, which is (ancient) Greek for "West". Don't know if it was tied to a mythical continent, but this would not surprise me anyway, cause the name kind of allows for such a mythical/other tie.

The word is definitely Hispania. That's a crooked i with a long S. It wouldn't make any sense for it to be in Greek while the rest is in Latin. And it's certainly not supposed to represent a mythical continent when it's obviously Iberia. It even says Africa on the landmass above it. Besides, the wikipedia disambiguation says Hesperia (not that it says Hesperia on the map) was used to refer to Italy and Iberia. Also, the compass on Atlantis shows that north is down, making clear that Senethro's explanation is the only plausible one.

 

[Arakhor]

I agree that it wouldn't be very sensible to have a Greek name amidst all that Latin, but if it is Hispania, rather than Hesperia (virtually the same place), then it's very badly written.

 

[timtofly]

Seeing how this is supposed to be in the context of 10,000 years ago why would the spelling matter?

 

[Kyriakos]

I agree that it wouldn't be very sensible to have a Greek name amidst all that Latin, but if it is Hispania, rather than Hesperia (virtually the same place), then it's very badly written.

Indeed Hesperia can just mean Iberia anyway in this context, and the way it is written on that map seems to allow it to be Hesperia (if you look at other 'e's on the map, they tend to look like an epsilon for whatever reason, and there is another stylised 's' there as well).

Let alone that last time i checked 'Hispania' did not also include most of France

 

[Goodfella]

Indeed Hesperia can just mean Iberia anyway in this context, and the way it is written on that map seems to allow it to be Hesperia (if you look at other 'e's on the map, they tend to look like an epsilon for whatever reason, and there is another stylised 's' there as well).

The reason neither of those letters look like any other Es on the map is because neither letter is an E. The second letter is clearly an I, there's no debate about that. Since Hisperia is not a thing and it's conceivable that poor print is responsible for 'a-n' looking somewhat like 'e-r' it's only logical that the map says "Hispania."

There are similar print issues in other places on the map, like the word Insula on the top left, but no one thinks that says 'Ikaria' or something like that.

Let alone that last time i checked 'Hispania' did not also include most of France

It's a crudely drawn map. Part of the word Hispania floating over France (in addition to Iberia) doesn't mean anything. And for all you know the word Hispania could lie entirely within the region the map maker would have considered Iberia. And more importantly, last time I checked the Greek word 'Hesperia' has never been used on Latin Renaissance maps to refer to anything, let alone some vague France/Spain region you seem to think it refers to.

 

[sophie]

There are similar print issues in other places on the map, like the word Insula on the top left, but no one thinks that says 'Ikaria' or something like that.

It clearly says "inside"

IT MEANS WE NEED TO GO DEEPER

 

[Borachio]

Right.

Situs
Inʃula Atlantidis, a
Mari olim Abʃorptae ex
mente Egpytiorum et
Platonis deʃcriptio.

Situation of the Island of Atlantis at sea "once upon a time" (or something, don't ask me; me and that Latin teacher never did see eye to eye, what with him thinking I was a fool and him only having one eye and everything, and besides it was a warm afternoon, I'd had an extra helping of gruel... and I thought I spied, out the window, some wench in the meadow) out the imagination of the Egyptians, and described by Plato.

Dunno. Make of it what you will.

 

[timtofly]

The problem is the Chinese tried to give this information to the Egyptians, but the Egyptians could not understand how people from the east could have so much information of the west. They sent them away and told them never to return.

 

[Arakhor]

Seeing how this is supposed to be in the context of 10,000 years ago why would the spelling matter?

If this map is allegedly 10,000 years old, why does it feature mediaeval Latin?

 

[Goodfella]

Or America...

I don't think that's what he meant though.

 

[timtofly]

If this map is allegedly 10,000 years old, why does it feature mediaeval Latin?

That is my point. It seems that someone had a sense of humor even back when whoever attempted to publish this map did. If you Google Insula Atlantis, you will find about a dozen of those maps and they all change the words around, probably photo-shopped. The Chinese had already done great mappings of the globe, allegedly way before this time. Why were they so successful and people during medieval Latin times were trying to connect Plato to what some Egyptian "library" had reference to a map of the west. Had China refused to trade maps?

 

[Berzerker]

during the ice age vast stretches of land, including within and around the bermuda triangle region, were above sea level

 

[Kyriakos]

The reason neither of those letters look like any other Es on the map is because neither letter is an E. The second letter is clearly an I, there's no debate about that. Since Hisperia is not a thing and it's conceivable that poor print is responsible for 'a-n' looking somewhat like 'e-r' it's only logical that the map says "Hispania."

There are similar print issues in other places on the map, like the word Insula on the top left, but no one thinks that says 'Ikaria' or something like that.



It's a crudely drawn map. Part of the word Hispania floating over France (in addition to Iberia) doesn't mean anything. And for all you know the word Hispania could lie entirely within the region the map maker would have considered Iberia. And more importantly, last time I checked the Greek word 'Hesperia' has never been used on Latin Renaissance maps to refer to anything, let alone some vague France/Spain region you seem to think it refers to.

Too bored to google it, but i would rather bet that Hesperia, like so many other greek terms, was used in latin as well. And Hesperia meant (as i noted) "the west", so it can be used for anything to the west of the Greek world, which virtually all of Iberia and France were (discounting colonies of the Massalians).

An issue though is that (seemingly at least) there is a dot over the e/i in that term, so if the dot is not a random pixel, it gives a lot more credence to the view that it says Hispania or something similar.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I have seen that map several times before. It says Hispania, and it is Hispania obviously. it is only upside down. There is not any reason to place north at the top anyway, it is only a convention.

 

[Goodfella]

Yes, it's a lot more obvious that it says Hispania on other images of the map.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Mystery solved. But it has been interesting, a clear example of how lack of enough information can lead to the most bizarre theories.

 

[Kyriakos]

Mystery solved. But it has been interesting, a clear example of how lack of enough information can lead to the most bizarre theories.

'Eccentric'. "Bizarre" is for poor people

 

[warpus]

Hey EltonJ,

Maybe this has already been answered, but I'm curious what sort of foundation you belong to, what university, or wherever it is that you do your "Antlanteology".

Do you have a degree in this field? What other accolades do you hold? What sort of research do you do with your colleagues on a day to day basis?

Do you guys travel to archaeological sites often? Or is most of your work done at a desk?

Do you get funded?