Today, like a Buridan's donkey, I am stuck between two cards, unable to choose which one to present first and which one later. This is not an easy matter - because one is more obvious and at the same time more incredible, while the other is more fantastic and ancient, but closer to us. And its perception is simpler, due to the fact, oddly enough, that there are no traces of the post-catastrophe on it, which formed the modern landscapes of Siberia and Yakutia.
As you have already seen, when analyzing historical maps, I tend to avoid interpretations and fantasies.
I translate titles, insert comments on their history, and accompany them with brief key excerpts from respected scientific sources.
This is enough, surprisingly:)
So, the next episode of the historical investigation.
I'll start with the Fra Mauro map, the Gulf of Ob region. While browsing the material on the Internet, I came across a complete disorientation of people regarding the location of this fragment of the map.
They put forward the most incredible, fantastic assumptions - to the extent that it depicts Ceylon and the coast of China.
Alas and ah, my dears, these dreamers did not bother to look into the original map entirely, and see with their own eyes that this area is located above the northern part of the Urals. At the same time, some details, including the depicted cities, certainly look unusual for our eyes.
Promotional video:
The mountain range on the right is the Ural.
A little later I will lay out a wider screen of the Ob region from the Mauro map.
That's enough for now.
It depicts quite a lot. And it's better to open it in the best format.
On the flash card at the link above, there is an animation, a mini-tour of the map. The white circle that you see on the map just appears during the animation. Together with the inscription. That is, the keepers of the map (and there are only two copies from it, in London and Venice) consider this place important and historical.
At 5 o'clock from the white circle there is a golden inscription Сhataio - Katay.
On the left is a red circle with an eight-pointed star, the wind rose. It has the Griego inscription. I was not lazy, and rummaged through European dictionaries-translators, for the meaning of the word.
In Spanish, Grieg means "Greek", Greeks, Greek.
As you remember, the same circle to the north of this place, opposite Pomorie, bears the inscription Tramontana. Which means, in Spanish, "wind from the northern mountains." That is, literally Hyperborea.
There is a suggestion that Grieg refers to the name of the wind; but it looks a little tight.
The inscription of the virtual tour tells us that the famous traveler Marco Polo visited this place. There he saw a lot of what they later unsuccessfully tried to find in China.
Next to the big city, signed "Chambalick", there is a larger inscription in Italian, explaining its belonging: "Empire of triumphal noble Cathay"
The harsh Arctic Ocean seems to be gone, as well as the New Earth:
There is a peninsula much smaller than Novaya Zemlya. Because she and Novaya, that before she was not …
On the ice-free blue waters, small sailing Scythian ships - shitiks - run merrily. On some maps you can find the inscription "Oceanus Shiticus" or "Oceanus Scythicus". These words, in fact, are one-root, a revised name for the Scythians in the Spanish manner.
Of the curious on this fragment (the only one in the network with such resolution and detail), the Charochara river and the fortress at the foot of the majestic tower, with a similar name: Charocharocur.
It sounds unexpectedly familiar: Karacharo (in).
The huge mausoleum is signed: Sepultura Imperial. That is, the Imperial Tomb.
On this, we will leave for a while the era shown on the map of the Venetian Fra Mauro, dated 1459, and consider another, later one. Dated to 1684. That is, 200 years later.
And now, 200 years later, we see a desert area. Which is signed "Great Tartary", in the place of Siberia the inscription "Tartaria deserte", i.e. Desert Tartary. On the right, in Yakutia, the inscription “Tartaria Septentrionale” - Tartaria Arctic (as they began to denote the ocean), leaves.
To the left of the Ob estuary is the inscription "Holland Nowelle westfrise" - obviously a trading post. Somewhere in those places there was Mangazeya before the time; then it kind of got frozen and deserted.
The coastline is surprisingly flat. Tolya is hidden under the ice, like the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya, or is not cut by rivers. And only organic sediments or finely dispersed rock - clay, sand could cut rivers …
To the right of the Ob mouth is a city with a double name: Tingoes es Olscotgorod. Below the Ob - Zergulta. The names are clearly European, it smells of plundered antiquities. Chipped and scoot are the names of the Scythians. Chipped (ancient Greek Σκόλοτοι) is the self-name of the Scythians according to Herodotus.
Etymology of the word Scythian:
That is, Olscotgorod is a Europeanized naming, most likely by Russian navigators, Old Scolot Gorod. The old city of the Scythians.
Zergulta is generally laughter - "Zer gut" - very good) Probably, the visiting Germans-marauders looted a lot there. And there was something to plunder, given the descriptions of Marco Polo … The place, again, was well known and connected by trade routes with Europe. So even with the changed climatic conditions and even the coastline, it was not so difficult to find it.
The city of Tara is to the right. Tara is now a river near Omsk. Solikoygorod. Ostachi - Ostyaks. Mangan. Lokomorye. Loppy and Baida. To the right is Mont Imaus - the legendary Imeyskie mountains. Which are not clear where they are located, and are located from the Tien Shan to Ugra. Below, in the corner between the mountains, Terra Chanaaketh. Whatever one may say, there are no names with such a root, except for the biblical Canaan!
If you move to the left edge of the map fragment, then to the left and above the letter T, there is the river Iaphan. Also from the same opera, Japhet-Japhet.
To the left of this Yafet, across the Ural mountains, the inscription: Stolp Monti Riphees - Pillar of the Ripean Mountains. One of the Pillars of Hercules?
Below this caption is the truncated name Permawelik. This is not modern Perm, but Old Perm, which burned down and was moved after the conflagration to a more relevant place.
But! Returning to the basin of western Siberia, exactly under the inscription "Tartary", we see WHAT?
- Velike-Perm!
There are a lot of interesting things on the map, in details, but everything below is rather Turkic ethnonyms, with them it is more difficult.
It is worth paying attention to the Caspian Sea. It's HUGE!
Its current position is the southwest corner of what is drawn here. It includes large areas of northwest Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea.
The level of the Caspian - this is certain - has fluctuated significantly in the recent past. So, Baku, located on the coastline now and then (on the map), has an architectural monument "Maiden Tower".
There is also the Shah's palace - very small and modest.
On the other hand, there is a museum right there, in which fragments, raised from a depth of 20 meters, are presented in abundance. There was an old fortress that was suddenly flooded. Obviously, this was a disaster for the city and the area. Perhaps the Maiden Tower itself, whose purpose is completely incomprehensible, was built to resist the elements.
Here's what they write about the Maiden Tower:
At the same time, such massive walls and monolithic buttress look appropriate if we imagine the situation of sweeping water flow from the northeast. Rock base, powerful walls, divider.
The ability to rise higher and store what you need there, like Deucalion.