The details on the Rosselli map are extremely well painted and as with the previous maps,
geographical features such as the Ross Sea and Wilkes Land are particularly easy to identify on it.
Again, what is so perplexing about this extraordinary map is the year it was painted in 1508.
According to our history this is a full three and a half centuries before Antarctica was discovered.
And yet here again we have Antarctica depicted accurately on a 15th century Florentine map.
The Mercator Map of 1538
And even yet another intriguing map is one drawn in 1538 by Mercator, another highly
respected cartographer who lived in the 16th century. His works are quite famous and you can still
buy a Mercator atlas in shops today. Mercator was known to periodically update is works and
produce a new, more definitive world atlas as more shores became charted and more accurate
charts become available to him. In doing such an update, his 1538 world map (fig.5) was replaced
by a new one in 1569. However we now know that not only was his 1538 map far more accurate
than the latter one but what proved to be even more amazing was that it also contained correct
measurements of longitude.
To put all this mention of longitude into some sort of perspective for you: Longitude is the
distance in degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. Due to the Earths rotation, it is far harder
to calculate longitude than it is latitude, which can be measured by using the stars or the sun for
observation. To calculate Longitude, requires an equation of ‘distance = speed x time’ and, most
importantly, an accurate clock. Discovering longitude was once described as "greatest of all naval
problems" and in the 1700’s an actual Board of Longitude was set up in England to solve the
issue. In 1714, Sir Isaac Newton appeared before the board and explained that the real problem
was that "a watch required for such accuracy has not yet been invented". The Queen then offered
a prize of 20,000 pounds to any man who might build such a device and finally, in 1761, a man
by the name of Harrison claimed the prize and put forth his prototype chronometer which then
"ushered in a new era of sea travel" for the world.
Fig.5During the 19th century maps then began being updated with the correct degrees of longitude.
However Mercator’s map of 1538 was marked with correct longitude a full 223 years before it
was discovered. Where was he able to gain that information from? It is obvious that Mercator
himself had no real knowledge of longitude at the time and must have borrowed or been given the
information from another source because he then updated his subsequent maps incorrectly with
what was considered to be more recent and therefore, supposedly more reliable information.
These maps constitute some extremely significant evidence indeed, for if ancient man had never
circumnavigated the globe or possessed any knowledge of longitude then how can any of these
maps exist?