ANCIENT GLOBE CARVED
INTO OSTRICH EGGS
G'day folks,
Thought to have been created around 1510,
this may be the oldest globe depicting the New World.
What’s unique
about this globe is that it’s carved on an ostrich egg and is the size
of a grapefruit. The globe, made from the lower halves of two ostrich
eggs, was discovered by an Austrian collector and is labeled in Latin.
Interestingly, North America is depicted as a group of scattered
islands, and for many countries and territories in the world, like
Japan, Brazil, and Arabia, this is the oldest known engraved depiction
on a globe.
The Washington Map Society believes it to be the oldest surviving
engraved globe to show the New World and mentions that it “contains
ships of different types, monsters, intertwining waves, a shipwrecked
sailor, and 71 place names, and one sentence, “HIC SVNT DRACONES” (Here
are the Dragons)”.
Clancy's comment: Wow. That's an interesting find.
I'm ...
No comments:
Post a Comment