A really fascinating map. But some of the claims are a bit off, I think. The University of North Carolina's Ancient World Mapping Centre has the following:

So, the New Agers argue the following about a piece of a 16th-century portolan chart:

It’s an insanely accurate azimuthal equidistant projection.

It accurately shows the ice-free coast of Antarctica.

It’s evidence of polar shifting.

The mapping was done by an advanced ice-age civilization.

All of which is based on the fact that the coast of South America
curves ...

read more»

A really fascinating map. But some of the claims are a bit off, I think. The University of North Carolina's Ancient World Mapping Centre has the following:

So, the New Agers argue the following about a piece of a 16th-century portolan chart:

It’s an insanely accurate azimuthal equidistant projection.

It accurately shows the ice-free coast of Antarctica.

It’s evidence of polar shifting.

The mapping was done by an advanced ice-age civilization.

All of which is based on the fact that the coast of South America
curves back towards Africa at the bottom of the map, and that it looks
a little like the coast of Antarctica.

It’s an extraordinary claim, and according to the Sagan doctrine
requires extraordinary evidence. But as is often the case with
pseudoscience, the burden of proof is laid on those who have to disprove the claim. In other words: “Prove I’m wrong.”

John, I agree that some skepticism is warranted here but what about the US Air Force letter to Prof. Charles H. Hapgood of Keene College quoted in the article, they aren't exactly new agers!

The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsular, is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

This indicates...

read more»

John, I agree that some skepticism is warranted here but what about the US Air Force letter to Prof. Charles H. Hapgood of Keene College quoted in the article, they aren't exactly new agers!

The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsular, is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.

The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.

We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.

Im still undecided, there have been a number of artifacts that have been found with technology thousands of years advanced from what we generally accept.