The existence of these unusual cards has been known for a long time. Since Antarctica was not officially discovered by the British until 1819, earlier maps of its coastline simply could not exist.8 Maps depicting Antarctica without an ice sheet would be an even greater challenge to the history of science. Their existence would prove the fallacy of the very concept of the prehistory of mankind, adopted in scientific circles.
The maps in question first gained widespread publicity in the 1960s through the efforts of Professor Charles Hapgood, who taught the history of science at Keene College, New Hampshire. Hapgood was a brilliant theorist and a well-known scientist enough to defy academic dogma. He first encountered the problem of maps of Antarctica while studying another, related, problem of the emergence of ice ages. Back in 1848, the Swiss naturalist Ludovic Agassi proved that there were several periods in the history of the Earth when glaciers covered vast areas of the globe that are now in temperate zones. Since then, scientists have put forward various guesses about the cause of the ice ages. According to most theories, the overall decrease in temperature was caused by a gradual change in the earth's orbit and the direction of the earth's axis. According to Hapgood,these theories could not explain the powerful cataclysms that accompanied the end of the last, most well-studied ice age.
Hapgood wondered if the weight of the polar caps themselves could periodically throw the Earth out of balance and lead to the onset of ice ages. Together with his like-minded engineer James Campbell, he studied the idea that the earth's crust lies on a very weak, almost liquid layer of matter. The main argument was that when the ice at the polar caps reaches a critical mass, its weight causes the upper crust to slide along the lower layer until equilibrium is reached. Therefore, although the earth's axis maintains its position, and the North and South Poles remain the coldest places on the planet, the continental crust is displaced for considerable distances. If, for example, Europe moved 2,000 miles to the north and ended up in the polar region, it would be engulfed in glaciation.
This simple mechanism, according to Hapgood, explains the phenomenon known as the "ice age." There was no global climate change; instead, the ice was redistributed across different parts of the globe as they entered the Arctic or Antarctic Arctic Circle. During the last ice age, the North Pole was located in the Hudson Bay area, leaving all of North America under an ice sheet (see "The First Americans" in the Travel and Discovery section). The end of the ice age, according to Hapgood, began after the earth's crust began to change its position about 18,000 years ago. America gradually moved southward and the ice cap melted for 10,000 years. Floods,earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have destroyed 9/10 of the flora and fauna in North America and Eurasia. Volcanoes spewed clouds of dust over Siberia, blocking it from the sun, causing temperatures to drop sharply. These shocks and climate changes caused the extinction of Siberian mammoths, and Siberia itself entered the Arctic Circle and became an inhospitable land of cold, long nights and permafrost. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica, which was largely ice-free during the American Ice Age, suffered a similar fate. By the 6th millennium, it was completely within the Arctic Circle and was covered with ice for two thousand years. These shocks and climate changes caused the extinction of Siberian mammoths, and Siberia itself entered the Arctic Circle and became an inhospitable land of cold, long nights and permafrost. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica, which was largely ice-free during the American Ice Age, suffered a similar fate. By the 6th millennium, it was completely within the Arctic Circle and was covered with ice for two thousand years. These shocks and climate changes caused the extinction of Siberian mammoths, and Siberia itself entered the Arctic Circle and became an inhospitable land of cold, long nights and permafrost. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica, which was largely ice-free during the American Ice Age, suffered a similar fate. By the 6th millennium, it was completely within the Arctic Circle and was covered with ice for two thousand years.
Hapgood's model was first published in the book "Crustal Shift". Despite her obvious radicalism, she met with surprisingly favorable reception in the scientific community. The foreword to the UK edition of his book was written by Kirtley F. Mather, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, while James K. Bryce, professor of geology at the University of Washington, added his weighty word: “A combination of geological and geophysical evidence crustal shift looks convincing. " Even Albert Einstein was impressed by the book. Interested in Hapgood and Campbell's research, he met with them to discuss and improve the mathematical aspects of their model, and also wrote an original preface that called for serious discussion of the book. Hapgood's name instantly became widely known.
While working on the book Shift of the Earth's Crust, Hapgood first encountered the mystery of ancient maps of Antarctica. The most famous of these maps were compiled by the Turkish navigator Piri Reis in 1513.9 Taking into account the date, only 21 years after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, it depicts the Atlantic coast of South America with remarkable accuracy. However, the coastline south of Brazil bends in a strange way, gradually tapering to the east, towards Africa. This part of the map was considered fiction until a modern navigator, Captain Arlington Mallery, examined it and discovered that it was drawn from a cartographic projection centered on the Cairo area. After this discovery, the map could be redrawn using modern projection. Something very interesting turned out: a strange "appendage" of South America,according to Mallery, it was actually part of the coast of Antarctica as it might have been before the continent disappeared under the ice.
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Hapgood was delighted with Mallery's discovery. It supported his hypothesis, according to which Antarctica underwent glaciation in relatively recent times. Determined to solve this mystery, Hapgood used it as a wonderful interdisciplinary challenge to study with his students at Keene College. Hapgood and his associates were surprised to learn that other Renaissance cartographers drew much bolder conclusions than Piri Reis and drew complete maps of the southern polar continent (however, we only have a fraction of the original part of Piri Reis). In theory, none of them could have been drawn until the official discovery of Antarctica in 1819, as the pack ice surrounding the continent precluded any serious exploration of the coastline prior to the start of armored ships. However, Mercator,the famous cartographer of the XVI century, made a very detailed map of the southern continent within the Antarctic circle. Its source was the so-called Terra Australis (South Land), depicted by the French geographer Oronteus Phineus in 1531. Hapgood and his students redrawn the map in modern projection and were struck by the general resemblance to the shape of Antarctica under the ice sheet. In particular, the map of Oronteus Finius shows a characteristic triangular "cut" of the continent's coastline, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea, an enormous, arrowhead-shaped bay that penetrates deep into Antarctica. The similarities are quite curious, to say the least. Its source was the so-called Terra Australis (South Land), depicted by the French geographer Oronteus Phineus in 1531. Hapgood and his students redrawn the map in modern projection and were struck by the general resemblance to the shape of Antarctica under the ice sheet. In particular, the map of Oronteus Finius shows a characteristic triangular "cut" of the continent's coastline, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea, an enormous, arrowhead-shaped bay that penetrates deep into Antarctica. The similarities are quite curious, to say the least. Its source was the so-called Terra Australis (South Land), depicted by the French geographer Oronteus Phineus in 1531. Hapgood and his students redrawn the map in modern projection and were struck by the general resemblance to the shape of Antarctica under the ice sheet. In particular, the map of Oronteus Finius shows a characteristic triangular "cut" of the continent's coastline, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea, an enormous, arrowhead-shaped bay that penetrates deep into Antarctica. The similarities are quite curious, to say the least. Oronteus Phinius' map shows the characteristic triangular "cut" of the continent's coastline, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea, an enormous, arrowhead-shaped bay that penetrates deep into Antarctica. The similarities are quite curious, to say the least. Oronteus Phinius' map shows the characteristic triangular "cut" of the continent's coastline, which has a generally rounded shape. It corresponds to the Ross Sea, an enormous, arrowhead-shaped bay that penetrates deep into Antarctica. The similarities are quite curious, to say the least.
Hapgood published his findings in 1966 in Maps of Ancient Sea Kings. Piri Reis claimed that his map was drawn from many sources, including a Greek map drawn during the time of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BC). Could the Greeks themselves have at their disposal even more ancient maps, the origin of which is lost in the mists of time?
Hapgood put forward a bold guess. Perhaps there were earlier civilizations, whose seafaring exploits have long been erased from human memory. They surveyed and mapped the coastlines of Antarctica - possibly as early as four thousand years BC. BC, before the beginning of the last stage of glaciation (according to the model of the ice age proposed by Hapgood). He didn't wonder who these prehistoric sailors and cartographers were. The rest of his life, until his death in 1982, Hapgood devoted to the search for traces of the "ancient sea kings."
From the book: "Secrets of Ancient Civilizations". Posted by James Peter + Thorpe Nick