Prehistoric civilization in Antarctica attracted the interest of professional historians after World War II. The hypothesis is confirmed by medieval maps, studies of Western paleogeologists and glaciologists.
In January 1820, Lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Fleet Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered a new continent on the then map of our planet. The well-known Russian encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron already at the beginning of this century reported that the south polar continent was poorly studied; flora and fauna are absent, indicated an approximate estimate of the area of the mainland. The author of the article also noted the richness of Antarctic algae and marine animals.
A little over twenty years later, the director of the National Museum in Istanbul, Khalil Edhem, was dismantling the library of Byzantine emperors in the old palace of the sultans. Here, on a dusty shelf, he found a map of Piri Reis, lying around God knows from what time, made on the skin of a gazelle and rolled into a tube. The compiler depicted the western coast of Africa, the southern coast of South America and the northern coast of Antarctica. Khalil could not believe his eyes. The coastal edge of Queen Maud Land south of the 70th parallel was free of ice. The compiler marked a mountain range in this place. The name of the compiler Edham was well known - the admiral of the Ottoman navy and the cartographer Piri Reis, who lived in the first half of the 16th century.
The authenticity of the map was not in doubt. A graphological examination of the marginal notes confirmed that they were made by the hand of the admiral.
1949 year. The joint British-Swedish exploration expedition carried out intensive seismic exploration of the southernmost continent through the ice sheet. According to the commander of the 8th technical reconnaissance squadron of the US Air Force Strategic Command (1960-06-07), Lieutenant Colonel Harold Z. Olmeyer, “the geographical details depicted in the lower part of the map (the coast of Antarctica - VA) are in excellent agreement with the seismic data … We we cannot imagine how to reconcile the data of this map with the supposed level of geography in 1513”.
Piri Reis himself, in his marginal notes drawn up at the beginning of the 16th century, very kindly explained to us that he himself was not responsible for the primary survey and cartography, and his map was based on a large number of earlier sources. Some of them were drawn by his contemporaries (for example, Christopher Columbus), others belong to more ancient times and can be dated to the 4th century of the pre-Christian era. Not later, since one of the sources belonged to Alexander the Great, who lived in that era.
Of course, professional historians specializing in the study of the ancient world have the right to declare: “One more working hypothesis … But what about the documentary sources and, preferably, no doubt about their ancient origin? The opinion of the Turkish admiral. Margin notes, you know, everything is very controversial."
I will state the position, unfortunately, of the already deceased historian of science, professor of Keinsky College (New Hampshire, USA), Charles H. Hapgood. Back in late 1959, Hapgood discovered a map drawn by Oronteus Phineus at the Library of Congress in Washington. The drawing is dated 1531 from the birth of Christ. Oronteus Finius depicted Antarctica with ice-free shores, mountains and rivers. The relief of the central part of the continent is not marked, which, according to Hapgood, suggested the presence of an ice cap in this area.
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A later study of the Phinius map by MIT doctor Richard Streichan in the first half of the 60s together with Ch. Kh. Hapgood made it possible to establish that O. Finius really depicted the ice-free shores of Antarctica. The general outlines and characteristic features of the relief are very close to those information about the surface of the continent hidden under the ice, which were mapped in 1958 by specialists from different countries (including the USSR). By the way, Gerard Kremer, known all over the world under the name of Mercator, confided in the testimony of Oronteus. In 1959, he included Phinius' map in his atlas, which contains several maps of Antarctica and Mercator himself. In addition, there is one interesting feature here - on the Mercator map, compiled in 1569,the west coast of South America is depicted less accurately than on an earlier map of the same Mercator in 1538. The reasons for this contradiction are as follows: when working on an early map, the 16th century cartographer based on ancient sources that have not come down to us, but on a later map - on the observations and measurements of the first Spanish explorers of the west of South America. Gerard Mercator's mistake is excusable. In the 16th century, there were no precise methods for measuring longitude and, as a rule, the error was hundreds of kilometers, i.e. from 20 and more.and above a later map - on observations and measurements of the first Spanish explorers of the west of South America. Gerard Mercator's mistake is excusable. In the 16th century, there were no precise methods for measuring longitude and, as a rule, the error was hundreds of kilometers, i.e. from 20 and more.and above a later map - on observations and measurements of the first Spanish explorers of the west of South America. Gerard Mercator's mistake is excusable. In the 16th century, there were no precise methods for measuring longitude and, as a rule, the error was hundreds of kilometers, i.e. from 20 and more.
And finally - Philippe Bouache. Member of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1737 he published his map of Antarctica. Buache gave an accurate picture of the time when Antarctica was completely ice-free. His map shows the under-ice topography of the entire continent, about which our mankind, considering the origin of its civilization not earlier than the 4th millennium BC, did not have a complete idea until 1958. Moreover, based on now lost sources, the French academician depicted in the middle of the southernmost continent a body of water dividing it into two sub-continents lying to the west and east of the line where the Transantarctic Mountains are now shown. Studies under the International Geophysical Year (1958) program claim that the southernmost continent, which is depicted as a single one on modern maps,in fact it is an archipelago of large islands covered with ice at least 1.5 km thick.
Let's sum up the first results
A. Medieval maps show Antarctica without ice cover or with partial ice cover. The accuracy of the cartographic assessments of the 16th century is very high and surprising in a number of positions. Their data surpass the technical capabilities of even the late Middle Ages (for example, determining the longitude of the relief under the ice at present with an accuracy of a minute). In the best case, this level of engineering of our humanity corresponds to the last quarter of the 18th century, and on many issues (data on the under-ice relief) - only to the middle of this century.
B. The interpretations of the Medeevist historians (specialists in medieval history) on the geographical maps of Reis, Finius and Mercator for Antarctica cannot be considered convincing. Medeevists refuse to comment on such a high scientific level of medieval cartographers. Information about almost two thousand years ago the primary sources of P. Reis's map are considered documentary unfounded. The opinion of modern cartographers, based on strictly scientific assessments in the field of natural science, is considered incompetent.
C. Orthodox geology agrees with this formulation of the question, arguing that the age of the Antarctic ice can be estimated at no less than 25 million years. True, in recent years this chronological frame has dropped to 6 million. But this adjustment has already acquired a tough academic character.
In this case, we note the following feature of the Reis map: the coastal edge of the mainland is free of ice. On the Finius map, compiled 18 years after the Reis map, the ice cap is preserved around the South Pole within the 80th, in some places 75th parallels. Academician Buache 200 years later depicted Antarctica without ice.
The conclusion, I believe, suggests itself. Before us is the process of glaciation of the surface of the southernmost continent.
In 1949, Admiral Byrd's expedition drilled the bed of the Ross Sea around where Oronteus Phineus had indicated river beds. In the core sections, layers of fine-grained rocks were found, well-mixed sediments brought into the sea by rivers, the sources of which are located in temperate latitudes (i.e., ice-free).
Using a radioactive dating method developed by Dr. W. D. Uri, scientists at the Carnegie Institution in Washington were able to establish with sufficient accuracy that the Antarctic rivers, which were the sources of these finely dispersed sediments, flowed, as shown on the Phinius map, about 6,000 years ago. Only after this date, around 4000 BC, "ice-type sediments began to accumulate at the bottom of the Ross Sea … Cores indicate that this was preceded by a long warm period."
Thus, the maps of Reis, Phinius, Mercator give us an idea of Antarctica around the time of the birth of the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations. This point of view is ruled out by almost all professional historians of the planet. At best, my conclusion will count as a working hypothesis that defies historical verification. “Such civilizations on our planet at the end of the 5th millennium BC. did not exist,”any specialist historian will say. And the opinion of Dr. Jacob Hock from the University of Illinois that sediments of a river nature have an age of 6 to 12 thousand years, counting from the present time, will be sent for discussion with paleontologists or paleobiologists, whose activities again go beyond the science of "History" and cannot contribute direct study of our highly developed and unique civilization.
But in September 1991, thirteen kilometers from the Nile in Abydos, American and Egyptian archaeologists discovered 12 large wooden boats belonging to the Pharaohs of the First Dynasty. The age of these boats is estimated at about 5000 years. They are considered one of the oldest ships in the world, believes D. O'Connor, expedition leader and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. While the find is traditionally assessed - the boats were intended for cult rites. Herodotus back in the 5th century. BC claimed that the Egyptians had been observing stars for more than 10 thousand years. This position is considered by the "father of history" to be esoteric, that is, secret, secret, and by virtue of this - untrue. But land nations rarely give birth to astronomers. May be,the enthusiasm of the ancient Egyptians for astronomy - evidence of a certain scientific heritage from an unknown people of seafarers? By the way, the technical intelligence officers of the US Air Force determined the center of the projection of the Piri Reis map, the data of which dates back to 4000 BC. Presumably the center was located near today's Cairo. At this time, in the opinion of the absolute majority of historians, all the then peoples of the world were at an extremely primitive level of development.
Second result
A. Between the fifth and tenth millennia B. C. on the planet Earth there was a civilization of people with high knowledge in the field of navigation, cartography, astronomy - not lower than the level of the last third of the 18th century.
B. This civilization preceded ours, and was not at all an alien product. The duration of its development can also be, like our civilization, several millennia. Location - presumably - the northern coast of the southernmost continent, or the archipelago of large islands - Antarctica, which was then in a temperate climate. In later years - the north-east of the African continent.
C. The reasons for the disappearance of civilization - the process of glaciation of the southern land, which began no earlier than the 10th millennium BC. We cannot exclude large-scale floods, which are quite persistent, leading to long-term local floods, the presence of which archaeologists do not deny. Such disasters could destroy the absolute majority of the complexes of the material culture of proto-civilization. It is quite possible that part of it is located under the thickness of the Antarctic ice. But as a serious working hypothesis, the position can already be accepted now that the surviving representatives of the proto-civilization of the southerners preserved and transferred part of their knowledge to the ancient Egyptians. Presumably, parallel to the Sumerians.
I hope that expanding the scope of archaeological research together with natural scientists will lead us to the southernmost continent. It is quite possible that surprises await humanity here.