00:01.63 archpodnet Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 101 and tonight on the pseudo archeology podcast. We answer the mystery of the peery res map the mystery of which. Is. Why are we still talking about the p re re's Map. So why am I taking the Pr Res map on well this is one it happened to come up on my phone the other day again as I told you guys i. Google this stuff every so often just to see what you may be seeing you know what we all may be seeing in our news feed or if we're just interested in archeology. What comes up and this map came up and it's also ah plays a part in. The Eric Von dinkin charrots of the gods book and I thought I would just do a deeper dive on this because I didn't know a lot of the bits and pieces of this but I'd heard about it for years. You know and I I knew it was silly but I wanted to know the base of the silliness. Yeah. So we got to have a little fun with our day. so I thought you know what I'm a take this one on and so what what is this thing. Ah I classify this as a darby dragons map right? You got a lot of these. 01:38.13 archpodnet From like the sort of 13 fourteen Fifteen sixteen seventeen centuries you know of differing scales of differing focuses or is it foci ah based in different. Areas of the world and you guys know the look of these right? They're all wiggly they're all multicolored. They look cool. There's images of like ships on them all over the place and there are you know images of dragons and weird creatures and there's little notes on the side and and it's all in like really good handwriting. You know what? I mean right? It's it's It's one of those so as I look further. There were some big quotes that came up about this really often like it is full of advanced features. It actually may include faint fingerprints. Of a lost civilization and it may have been made long before what we call history began. So I'm looking at these quotes and I'm like. All right? What's the deal. So the deal is this the map was made in 1513 by a guy named you guessed it prree and I got nothing against P Reese he's a cartographies. He's like a. 03:11.15 archpodnet Admiral of the navy and a cartographer in the ottoman empire. So this is focused in the turkish world and he makes this map for the sultan at the time it's going to be a gift to the Sultan and really, it's a synthesis of other maps. So he looks for maps from all over the world and he tries to make a world map to the best of his ability now only a third of this survives today but it actually is I would say the fun third being basically focused in the center of the atlantic ocean. Right? Where we see the coastline of Africa um, little bit of Europe and then of course ah North and south america so that's really. The the part that we're we're looking at now. There's also other bits and bobs to it like the the big thing that gets brought up a lot is when you look at South America it curves around to the bottom of the Map. So South America is basically basically on the left hand side and then it. Curves around down like the the landmass continues and then is like along the bottom and so that's the argument of an early depiction of Antarctica. 04:33.38 archpodnet Yeah I know just let that 1 sink in for a moment and as you look at it Antarctica has like snakes in it and notes on it that says it's really hot here. So instead of going hey maybe it's just an extension of South America along the bottom because they used to do that all the time in the fifteen sixteen seventeenth century right? They just kind of crammed it onto the piece of paper. Oh no no, no, it's not just. South america curved around. It's antarctica my friends and luckily for us, it's made from sources that are so far in the past antarctica was hot. Yeah, so we're we're not going to go with it just curves around naturally as south america which is totally obvious if you actually take the time to do I don't know a scientific exploration of it and actually take a map of south america and kind of curve it around. And you'll notice that the topography matches south america as it goes down. It's just curved you just jammed it onto the page as they always did during that time. Oh I have to laugh at myself I can't I got it. We got to stay focused. So. 05:56.14 archpodnet This is that classic pseudo archeology moment right instead of going with the obvious explanation of like did it's just South America curved ramp it's like no no, no, no, no, it's hot Antarctica. 06:13.39 archpodnet Ah, so so yeah, what's so interesting about the about the preese map though is that it does have coolness to it. This is not a fake right? It's a map that a guy from 1513 tried his best to make you know good for him and I feel his pain because he's not alone here in making maps that are difficult to make I myself have done that. So. I feel his pain in terms of my own map making history and what I mean by that is sometimes in areas where where peie Reese is this is difficult. And again while P Rees made this map based on older sources and stuff. He also made it based on his own experience. He was a cartographer so he made maps too. You know so he's going to go with some of his own maps and then he's going to add to it. You know he this is a knowledgeable mapmaker who's doing his best but you have to realize in 1513 what he had. He he don't got no longitude and latitude lines right? He has a compass on a boat as all these other guys did to in the early fifteen hundreds you got to realize fifteen Thirteen what do we? Um, that's only basically 20 years after Columbus right? that's. 07:42.37 archpodnet In Columbus's time you know so the europeans are ex exploring the coast in the new world for the first time so 20 years after Columbus Imperial East Did it did a good job again I feel for him using very basic technology to do his best and as a naval captain you're going to want to have a. Good idea of the ah of the coast of course for the ships you know for seeing things like the outlet of rivers and this kind of thing so when you look at early maps the peavery rees map included. You'll see that the. Where the rivers come out is sort of doubled down on on the map. It's made to look bigger than it really is you know, just so the sea captains go oh right? because that's going to be a major um thing to see to have an idea of where you are literally on the globe. So he's trying to make something that that is is worthwhile now he's making this as a present for the Sultan. So ah, he's going to push the cool parts when you I would. What I mean by pushing the cool parts is he's going to extend certain aspects like for the new World Coast the new world at this point is the new world. So you're going to make this look big. You're gonna make it look impressive. You're gonna. 09:08.18 archpodnet Drive the north part of North America way up to the top and you're going to push the southern part of South America way down below and curve it around to the bottom just to go look at this big huge fat piece of land we found and I'm giving you a present. Oh Lord of the map of it right? so. In terms of scale on this thing. It's all over the place. You know? Yes, they're trying to be good cartographers and make a make a map using kind of dead reckoning and compass. You know, um I believe oh what's that called I think it's called a portal and chart. That's a certain style of mapmaking of the time. It's basically just using magnetic compass and dead reckoning some distances and and doing your best which honestly for archeology isn't that far afield. It's not that much different than what we do to make our initial maps. You know so. For me if I'm going to make a map sometimes I only have very limited time as they did sometimes I'm just going to write this thing down fast using pace and compass just a tick different than dead reckoning. Ah and I'm going to try and put this map together I only have an afternoon. And an ancient maya site you know'm and that's it. The rains are coming. We need to go I'm sure that peer rees and his ilk of the time had very similar experiences where it's like dude our our boat is floating down this coast at a current speed you but you better draw that sucker because you've got half an hour same thing. 10:43.42 archpodnet You know they're doing their best. So I again I I feel for them in trying to make this thing but then on the flip side they're taking their map. They just made and then presenting it to the sultan so if I had to present it to I don't know you know the president of the United States ah you know I'm going to try and make it look a little extra awesome. You know, um, that's a tough tough situation for Mr. Peery Rees and and adding all the other maps to try and make this best gas at a world map. With a commercial for himself and for the sultan now again while I haven't had to make a commercial I have had to make quick maps and when we come back a little more about the difficulties of map making. And the peery rees map.