The Discoveries of Agrippa’s 2,000-year-old Orbis Terrarum and
Ancient Depictions of Antarctica's Siple and Carney Islands.
I have put together a website at atlantismaps.com which showcases chapters from a book I am currently writing. (My writing skills are a bit limited, but I hope the material remains clear and intelligible on some level.) I had been researching the subject of ancient maps of Antarctica and made what I believe to be very significant discoveries providing the most compelling evidence thus far that an ancient civilization charted the continent. Chapter 2 - The Antarctica Maps provides analysis on one of these chartings found on Oronce Finé's 1531 World Map, a map many here are probably already quite familiar with.
Modern map of Antarctica with the Palmer Peninsula faded out (top-left) alongside
Oronce Finé’s map of the continent (top-right) displayed as they appear on a standard
polar projection. A schematic template based on the shape of Antarctica (bottom-left)
overlaid onto Finé’s Antarctica (bottom-right) demonstrating the uncanny accuracy of
The actual discoveries came as I attempted to address two key claims issued by critics regarding Oronce Finé's 1531 design:
- 16th century cartographers were generating their Antarctic designs from scratch and not referencing ancient source maps of the continent, and
- The designs lack credibility because they are scaled 2 to 3 times the continent's actual size.
One of my more significant discoveries verifies that the cartographer responsible for introducing the design, Johannes Schöner, was not relying on his imagination for inspiration, but was indeed referencing ancient maps for his designs. In his first attempt at depicting the southern continent, Schöner had unwittingly affixed a copy of Agrippa’s Orbis Terrarum, a 2,000-year-old world map, to the bottom of his 1515 world globe. This is the only existing copy of Agrippa’s famed world map, a map believed to have disappeared during the Middle Ages.
Chapter 3 - The Map at the Bottom of the World details this discovery.
Break down of the Greek Hecataeus' map from the 6th century B.C. (left) and
Schöner’s mysterious southern continent (right) into 3 basic components: Europe,
Africa and the dual peninsulas of 1) Italy and 2) Greece extending from Europe
into the Mediterranean Sea.
Author's reconstruction of the 2,000-
year-old Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum based
on Schöner's Antarctic design and the
medieval Mappae Mundi which were
derived from the Orbis Terrarum.
Not only did this discovery prove that Schöner was relying on ancient source maps for his designs, it also shed light on his method for sizing and aligning these maps to his globes. Schöner had mistaken the British Channel on Agrippa’s map for a purported strait in South America. He then aligned and scaled the remaining portion of the map by centering the map’s circular rendering of the Mediterranean Sea over the South Pole.
Realizing this, I set about determining how Schöner applied this same method of scaling and alignment to his 1524 map of the continent, which is the first appearance of the same design later incorporated into Finé's Map. Where Schöner matched the British Channel to a purported strait on his 1515 globe, it was clear that on his 1524 globe he matched Atka Bay, Antarctica to a branching waterway reported to exist in the middle of Magellan’s recently discovered strait.
In looking for a second scaling point, I was surprised to discover that unlike Finé's depiction of the continent Schöner had reproduced and included the Antarctic islands of Siple and Carney, two islands currently buried under ice and snow and locked into the Getz Ice Shelf off Western Antarctica. Schöner’s depiction of the islands is remarkable. The islands are accurately aligned, positioned and proportioned in respect to each other and in respect to his rendering of the Antarctic continent. Given his established process for incorporating his 1515 map of the continent, it appears very likely that Schöner affixed an ancient map of Antarctica to his 1524 globe by similarly aligning two distinct features existing on his source map to two recent discoveries. Atka Bay has been placed at the Strait of Magellan and the remainder of the map has been enlarged and aligned so that the islands of Siple and Carney are placed in the vicinity of one of Magellan’s lesser-known discoveries, a pair of desolate islands in the Pacific known as the Unfortunate Islands.
Chapter 4 - The Magellan Effect details this discovery.
The Unfortunate Islands as depicted on Schöner's 1524 globe (left) and the
islands of Siple and Carney on a modern map of Antarctica (right). The pair are
aligned parallel and toward the right end of Western Antarctica's westernmost
Modern map of the continent with Palmer Peninsula faded (left) alongside Finé's
1531 map of the continent with the addition of Schöner's Unfortunate Islands (right).
The points used by Schöner for scaling his ancient map of the continent are pointed
out as Atka Bay in the north and the islands of Siple and Carney in the west. Also
pointed out are Finé's accurate portrayals of Sulzberger Bay and Ross Island.
- Referencing ancient maps for his template:
- Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum (left) and
An ancient map of Antarctica (right)
- Reconciling the ancient maps to new discoveries:
- A. Matching the British Channel to a purported strait and
B. Atka Bay to a branching waterway in the Strait of Magellan
- Scaling the maps to new globes via a secondary point:
- C. Aligning the center of a concentric Mediterranean to the South Pole and
D. The islands of Carney and Siple to the Unfortunate Islands high in the Pacific.
Schöner's Methodology For Cartographic Incorporation Of New Discoveries
More detailed information can be found on my website. I am currently looking for a publisher and hoping that this material might spark some interest. In the meantime, I will be working on the next posting, a chapter which details a new site for Atlantis that I should have up fairly soon. If you found any pleasant surprises here, I can pretty much guarantee the same and more with this next submission.