If you’ve any interest in history you probably know of Gavin Menzies and his controversial 2003 book 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered America. His theory has come under quite a bit of criticism from the ‘experts’. Now, he has new ammunition on his side. An 18th century copy of an early 15th century map (1418) has surfaced. If all is as it seems, then Zheng He really did map out the New World eight decades before Columbus stumbled upon it. On the other hand, even if the 18th century map is authentic there is no way to verify that it is an accurate copy of a map from 1418 as the original either no longer exists or just hasn’t been found. New ammunition, but not a silver bullet. The Economist has a nice write up on it in the Jan 14th issue (also available online). For the curious, the 1421 website has a scrollable, zoomable scan of the map online.
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{ 2 } Comments
what is the result of the 1418 world map. I thought an authentication process was underway and never heard the result
There is no 1418 world map. What they have is an 18th century map that is claimed to be a copy of a map from 1418. The problem of authenticity is two-fold: was the map really drawn in the 18th century, and is it really a copy of a 1418 map.
The latter question cannot currently be answered definitively, since the 1418 map, if it ever existed, has never been found. There are problems with the existing map, however, in that it contains a few anachronisms and is drawn quite differently from other maps out of China One problem is that it is oriented to the North, a distinctly European feature that only became common practice after European sailors began using the North Star for navigation. Many old Chinese maps are oriented South (old European maps were usually oriented East before they changed convention). One explanation is that the map is not an exact copy of the 1418 map, but is a reinterpretation of it.
The former question, was the map really drawn in the 18th century, has yet to be definitively answered. Carbon dating of the paper places it either in the 17th or 18th century. As far as I know, the ink has not yet been tested. There’s some speculation that the map is actually a 19th or 20th century forgery (just written on 17th century paper). So until the ink is tested, there’s no definitive proof that the map was even written when it is claimed to have been.
So while we may eventually verify the period when the map was drawn, the issue will not be settled conclusively unless the 1418 map ever turns up.
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