SC - Chinese Explorers

[Decker, Terry D.]

> Given your position on the ancients' inability to navigate north to south 
> without modern equipment then, M'lord, I would be quite interested in what
> a 
> seafaring person as yourself would think of the "Piri Reis" map.  (Which 
> apparently is authentic).
> 
> Elysant 
> 
It seems to me that Hanno, Himilco, and Pytheas did pretty well without
modern equipment and the equipment used by da Gama, Magellan, and Drake
wasn't much better.  Precision navigation requires a sextant and an accurate
chronometer, but there are a bunch of tricks to get you close enough without
them.  BTW, in the northern hemisphere, the angle between Polaris and the
horizon will give you a rough north-south position.

The Piri Reis map is an anomaly.  It has no provenance prior to Piri Reis
and its origin is indeterminate.  It accurately depicts the Atlantic coasts
of North and South America, Europe, Africa and Antarctica (as that coast was
about 10,000 BC, IIRC).

Goodman postulated a major Neolithic sea-faring culture from its existence,
but there is no supporting evidence.  It is also possible that map was
accumulated from a number of early sources which are no longer in existence.
My totally unsupported theory is that it is a composite work rescued from
the Alexandrian Library.

Bear
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