At first glance the map does truly appear clumsy and simply
wrong; however, in actual fact, it is our modern understanding of the map that
it wrong rather than much of the map itself. Some knowledge of ancient map
making helps break the 'code' of the Piri Reis parchment. Nowadays map-making seems such a simple task given that we can
take full aerial photographs of the planet from space. However, to the ancient
cartographer, accurately reflecting a three dimensional globe of apparently
unknown proportions onto a two-dimensional parchment was no easy matter. (Take a
globe; flatten it out and the result shows continents miss-shaped and out of
proportion.) The next difficulty facing the ancient map-maker was how to
measure and construct a map. A modern map is constructed on a grid of lines of
longitude and latitude, spaced at regular intervals on paper. Ancient maps,
often referred to as 'portolan' maps (video, below - from 'port to port'), also have lines on
them, however these lines appear to emanate from centres on the map, like spokes
from a wheel. Each 'wheel' has either sixteen or thirty-two spokes flowing from
it. The entire map would have been centred on some place, with concentric
circles emanating out to provide as grid to be drawn upon.
The Piri Reis map
is such a portolan map, and in order for its accuracy or not to be established,
it needed to be converted into a modern map. This process, however, was further
complicated by the fact that the map itself was a composite of may other maps,
clumsily assembled into one. (Piri Reis noted that he had combined twenty maps
into the world map, and there is no reason to believe that these individual
twenty were themselves not composites of even earlier maps.) Mistakes such as
showing the Amazon River twice or apparently failing to leave a gap at the tip
of Southern America, thus leaving out a 900 mile section of coastline, are
amongst many errors on the map. (This later error could be explained by the map
of the Antarctica coastline being simply copied on too large a scale, leaving no
room for Drake's Passage when the two maps were combined as one.) Piri Reis
could, however, be forgiven. He had never visited Southern America and would
therefore not have had any reason to believe there were errors in the parchment
Once the necessary adjustments had been made, researchers claim
the Piri Reis map is an accurate reflection of the coastline of Queen Maud Land
in Antarctica before it was covered in ice.
Apart from making these adjustments, there is other supporting
evidence of this. Examination of the bottom area of the map appears
to show islands off the coastline, and yet there are now no such
islands. However, the drawing of these islands on the map actually
support it's authenticity.
The Seismic Survey of Antarctica, revealed a number of mountain
ranges which, when the area was ice-free and sea levels were higher, would have
appeared as islands off the coast matching those on the Piri Reis map. However, some researchers have been dismissive of this section of the
map, stating that the coastline is probably from elsewhere, purely on the
grounds that it cannot possibly be the Antarctic coastline before it was iced
over. They propose that the coastline shown is actually part of South America. The argument is that if the land believed to be Antarctica was
depicted vertically instead of horizontally it would bear a resemblance to the
east coast of South America and could well restore some of the 'missing' 900
miles around Drake's Point. This would also account for the pictures of animals
drawn on the map; they would not be in an ice-free Antarctica but in South
America.
However Piri Reis, himself, answers critics who propose this
argument, for he wrote on the map that night in the area shown is only "two
hours long", highly indicative of Antarctic latitudes and hardly compatible with
South American latitudes. (Those who refuse to accept that the map might show
Antarctica in ice-free times forget that the Piri Reis map also shows Greenland
to consist of three separate islands under the ice; a fact not known to modern
man until the seismic data produced by Paul Emile Victor.)
It appears that, somehow, sometime in our prehistory, someone
unknown to us walked across the face of the planet, leaving behind intriguing
clues to baffle later generations. But could man's history really be traced back
to the time of the dinosaurs?
The riverbed at Paluxy appeared to have squared this
circle with proof that man had indeed lived contemporaneously with these giants
of the past. However up until the early 1980s the area had only been examined by
those who wanted to believe in the mantracks and, as such, a more scientific
approach was required to consider the claims made.
Indeed up to 1982 mainstream scientists had largely ignored the situation,
probably fanning the intrigue they had generated.
Then in 1982, then, a team of four scientists, Laurie Godfrey,
Ron Hastings, John Cole and Steve Schafersman travelled to the riverbed to
examine the prints for themselves. They called themselves the 'Raiders of the
Lost Tracks' and in subsequent reports noted that, in their opinion, none of
the tracks showed clear human features. Their work was brief, and in fairness
not as thorough as could have been expected, however they were the first
mainstream scientists to consider the issue. Claims and counter claims were made
over subsequent years however the idea that the riverbed in Paluxy has man
tracks side by side with dinosaur tracks now holds little credibility.
Explore forgotton clues scattered throughout history that are suggestive
of an alternative history.
Join the world-wide search for evidence
of a lost civilisation that predates
known history.
Has Earth already been contacted by other civilisations either in the distant past or in recent centuries?
A discussion of the emergence of advanced technologies and the bizarre invasion of Antarctica after WWII.
A discussion of sightings of UFOs in the sky above Earth and within the solar system, including Moon anomalies.
Evidence the Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials and how the public had been subject to disinformation.
A list of credits and sources for the themes and issues explored
in Violations.
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with exclusive additional content!