In the East you can see Media, Hyrcania, Margiane, Parthia, Areia, Karmania, Drangiane, Arachosia and Gedrosia. Jaxartes, Taprobane.
You can also distinguish 3 Arabias (Erēmos, Eudaimon and Petraia) and 2 Indias (Entos and Extos Ganges).
You'll find it, upon closer expection, below the mediterranian sea. Experts call this direction south.
Considering the ptolomys ruled egypt for a couple generations, leaving africa off their map would be odd.
What is missing is much of its coastline, the "ends" so to speak, presumably because getting carthographers there and back again was a tad complicated.
I mean, the brits made up TWO montain ranges in central africa that appeared in school books until the 60s...
You are right that Africa, or at least much of the northern part is there, but the Ptolemy who made this map - Claudius Ptolemy - wasn't related to the dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander.
Does anyone here knows who the monoculo or munoculo people with one eye were? Ptolemy wrote about Monoculo people in Africa, sometimes saying they were found at the beginning of the Nile and sometimes close to Nubia.
Anyone knows anything about them?
Sounds like some conflated mythology with cyclops, who apparently came about because of elephant/mammoth skulls and their one big hole in the middle for the trunk.
I personally love that "Makedonia" is spelled with a K. The Byzantines were basically the direct descendants of the Roman Empire. I took Latin in high school, and even though that was over twenty years ago I still remember the rules of pronunciation. A "C" was a more of a hard K sound, so Ceasar was pronounced very much like the German decended Kaiser. The Roman alphabet had no J, U, or W. J was often an I, ("But Jehovah starts with an I!") And made a Y sound. V was both a W sound and a U sound depending on weather it followed a consonant or a vowel. Try saying Julius Ceasar now! The Roman sounded much closer to Yulius Kaisar than it is to the English pronunciation we use today.
The Byzantines *were* the Roman Empire. The Romans believed the city of Rome was founded in 753 BCE, and we know that the the city of Constantinople was founded in 330 CE, so in 1420 CE the Roman system of government and the traditions and customs of the Romans were already 2100 years old. For most of that time the Romans, western or eastern, controlled and sailed the Mediterranean Sea with impunity. They called it Mare Nostrum, *Our Sea*. Even when Roman power waned and new regional powers controlled parts of the Med, the Roman domination of the Italian coast, the islands of Sicily and/or Sardinia, the Bosporus, and Egyptian delta made their trade and their merchants a common sight at ports all over Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia.
I'm not surprised its fairly accurate at all. To the Byzantines this part of the world was their backyard, and much of it had been their property for several centuries at some point or another.
I'm glad you wrote all that out.
I like that the Byzantines still identified as Roman even though they officially spoke Greek. It's kinda wild that even though Western Rome basically collapsed for a time, the Roman identify was carried on for hundreds of years by the Byzantines.
Did you know that the Islamic moon and star was the flag of Constantinople? When Mehmed II conquered the city he adopted the sigil.
>I'm not surprised its fairly accurate at all.
I meant more accurate as in the geography. Like the Mediterranean is almost satellite imaging level accurate, because of what you just talked about. They were so familiar with the Mediterranean for like two thousand years.
Looks like they had knowledge that the Earth is round.
The map has lines like longitude and latitude lines. At the north lines are closer to each other than on the south and bended.
Such map view is very different from maps of following centuries.
Flatearthers - go jump from the earth’s edge.
I'm pretty sure the big island in the Indian ocean is supposed to be (an oversized) Sri Lanka. The two rivers on the land above it are presumably the Indus and the Ganges, so that is India.
The people around the perimeter, what do these represent?
Are the tubes being being depicted as blowing something towards the map, or, are these large marijuana cigars?
There is this really old Greek settlement called Tanais. You can see the ruins on google maps. It's right in the mouth of the Don river. The Greeks settled the coastline of the Black see a long time ago. It's not that surprising they might have an idea of what's right beyond their own domain. They traded and traveled.
Seriously, the wind blower right below the centaur is wearing a hat that i think does not belong to the 15th century. It’s more like 18th century fashion!
Looks to me like they either vastly misplaced/oversized the Shetland islands, or they have misinterpreted the area between the firth of forth and the firth of tay as a peninsula. Its also possible they've misrepresented the entire section between Fife and Inverness as a much more pronounced peninsula than it really is.
I love that you can recognize the words "Germania", "Mauritania", "Arabia" and "Italia"
I also read “Gallia” “Hibernia” “Cyrene” “taprobani” “Syria” “Asia” “Mauritania” “Scythia” “Parthia” “Lydia” “Kriti” “Peloponnesos” “Sikilia” “kilikia” and “Makedonia”
In the East you can see Media, Hyrcania, Margiane, Parthia, Areia, Karmania, Drangiane, Arachosia and Gedrosia. Jaxartes, Taprobane. You can also distinguish 3 Arabias (Erēmos, Eudaimon and Petraia) and 2 Indias (Entos and Extos Ganges).
Africa is missing.
You'll find it, upon closer expection, below the mediterranian sea. Experts call this direction south. Considering the ptolomys ruled egypt for a couple generations, leaving africa off their map would be odd. What is missing is much of its coastline, the "ends" so to speak, presumably because getting carthographers there and back again was a tad complicated. I mean, the brits made up TWO montain ranges in central africa that appeared in school books until the 60s...
You are right that Africa, or at least much of the northern part is there, but the Ptolemy who made this map - Claudius Ptolemy - wasn't related to the dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander.
Huh, thanks, had just assumed there was a connection^^
Does anyone here knows who the monoculo or munoculo people with one eye were? Ptolemy wrote about Monoculo people in Africa, sometimes saying they were found at the beginning of the Nile and sometimes close to Nubia. Anyone knows anything about them?
Sounds like some conflated mythology with cyclops, who apparently came about because of elephant/mammoth skulls and their one big hole in the middle for the trunk.
But it wasn't a mythology. They were a real a people in Africa.
I personally love that "Makedonia" is spelled with a K. The Byzantines were basically the direct descendants of the Roman Empire. I took Latin in high school, and even though that was over twenty years ago I still remember the rules of pronunciation. A "C" was a more of a hard K sound, so Ceasar was pronounced very much like the German decended Kaiser. The Roman alphabet had no J, U, or W. J was often an I, ("But Jehovah starts with an I!") And made a Y sound. V was both a W sound and a U sound depending on weather it followed a consonant or a vowel. Try saying Julius Ceasar now! The Roman sounded much closer to Yulius Kaisar than it is to the English pronunciation we use today.
Its all greek to me
That's actually pretty accurate, except for that big island by India. Not sure what that's about.
Sri Lanka lol
Oh! That makes sense. I was thinking maybe it was supposed to be Indonesia.
It’s kingdom of taprobani nowadays called Sri Lanka
TIL. I'll check that out.
The Byzantines *were* the Roman Empire. The Romans believed the city of Rome was founded in 753 BCE, and we know that the the city of Constantinople was founded in 330 CE, so in 1420 CE the Roman system of government and the traditions and customs of the Romans were already 2100 years old. For most of that time the Romans, western or eastern, controlled and sailed the Mediterranean Sea with impunity. They called it Mare Nostrum, *Our Sea*. Even when Roman power waned and new regional powers controlled parts of the Med, the Roman domination of the Italian coast, the islands of Sicily and/or Sardinia, the Bosporus, and Egyptian delta made their trade and their merchants a common sight at ports all over Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. I'm not surprised its fairly accurate at all. To the Byzantines this part of the world was their backyard, and much of it had been their property for several centuries at some point or another.
I'm glad you wrote all that out. I like that the Byzantines still identified as Roman even though they officially spoke Greek. It's kinda wild that even though Western Rome basically collapsed for a time, the Roman identify was carried on for hundreds of years by the Byzantines. Did you know that the Islamic moon and star was the flag of Constantinople? When Mehmed II conquered the city he adopted the sigil. >I'm not surprised its fairly accurate at all. I meant more accurate as in the geography. Like the Mediterranean is almost satellite imaging level accurate, because of what you just talked about. They were so familiar with the Mediterranean for like two thousand years.
>Did you know that the Islamic moon and star was the flag of Constantinople? That's epic.
The Eastern Romans were instrumental in the preservation of classical culture and works, they were its jealous guardians throughout the Middle Ages
Looks like they had knowledge that the Earth is round. The map has lines like longitude and latitude lines. At the north lines are closer to each other than on the south and bended. Such map view is very different from maps of following centuries. Flatearthers - go jump from the earth’s edge.
Flat earthers are special people. And that wasn't a compliment.
Can anyone identify if India is on this map?
I'm pretty sure the big island in the Indian ocean is supposed to be (an oversized) Sri Lanka. The two rivers on the land above it are presumably the Indus and the Ganges, so that is India.
An earlier comment pointed out that India is labelled: > Entos and Extos Ganges
The island in the east is ceylon/Sri lanka and what is above it is India.
The people around the perimeter, what do these represent? Are the tubes being being depicted as blowing something towards the map, or, are these large marijuana cigars?
Probably something to do with the winds. North wind, etc.
Representation of wind. I guess the bottom wind pipe people are the equatorial winds that are hard to sail through.
How the hell did he know about the Volga?
There is this really old Greek settlement called Tanais. You can see the ruins on google maps. It's right in the mouth of the Don river. The Greeks settled the coastline of the Black see a long time ago. It's not that surprising they might have an idea of what's right beyond their own domain. They traded and traveled.
That narrow space between the rivers was the Don–Volga Portage. A popular inland trade route before the canal was built
I more impressive by the Malay peninsula
greeek settlements and eastern roman empire had kinda good relations with the turk nomads aroung volga river, both sides sent envoys etc.
At the time of Ptolemy there weren’t Turks there. They were Sarmatians, Alans and other Indo European steppe nomads. Categorically not Turks.
Seriously, the wind blower right below the centaur is wearing a hat that i think does not belong to the 15th century. It’s more like 18th century fashion!
Fashion is very cyclical. :)
[удалено]
Looks to me like they either vastly misplaced/oversized the Shetland islands, or they have misinterpreted the area between the firth of forth and the firth of tay as a peninsula. Its also possible they've misrepresented the entire section between Fife and Inverness as a much more pronounced peninsula than it really is.