Ancient Navigators: Sir Francis Drake

The journey of Francis Drake up the Pacific Coast in 1579, artist's impression.

 Francis Drake (1540 - 1596) was one of the most famous naval captains of the 16th century. His numerous exploits brought him great fame and recognition in his home country of England, but also great amount of notoriety by the Spaniards who regarded him as a pirate. As an explorer, he is hailed as a first Englishman that has managed to circumvent the world.

He started his naval career in 1570, with few visits to West Indies as a trader, but two years later he become English privateer and begun raiding Spanish ships in the area of the Caribbean. His first naval victory was in 1572 when he successfully raided Spanish town and its harbor, but due to wounds he and his army retreated. A year later he joined with French buccaneer Guillaume Le Testu in a attract that brought them incredible raid. They managed to intercept Spanish mule traders that were carrying 20 tons of silver and gold stolen from the land of MiddleAmerica. That kind of bounty could not be easily transported to the 28 kilometers distant shoreline so they decided to burry the majority of the treasure on a secret location. The remainder of a treasure was buried at the shoreline when they noticed that Spaniards were close. A year later Francis Drake returned to England where his fame escalated to new heights.

Following that success in 1577, he received an order from Elizabeth I of England who directed him to go to the South America and explore its lands and defeat any Spain's forces that he encounter. He embarked with a fleet of 6 ships, but only three of them reached the MagellanStrait, but there he was hit with a massive storm that destroyed one of his ships and made one too damaged for the journey ahead. From there he continued north following the cost and raiding Spanish towns reaching the northern parts of Chile. There he managed to capture two Spanish ships that were full of treasure - more than 26tons of silver and several thousands of golden coins and jewels. He traveled to the shores of the North America and then went westward and toward the Asia and Africa.

Drake receives knighthood from Queen Elizabeth. Bronze plaque by Joseph Boehm, 1883, base of Drake statue, Tavistock.

Circumnavigation of the earth (1577–1580)
 
A map of Drake's route around the world. The northern limit of Drake's exploration of the Pacific coast of North America is still in dispute. Drake's Bay is south of Cape Mendocino.

With the success of the Panama isthmus raid, in 1577 Elizabeth I of England sent Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Drake used the Plans that Sir Richard Greynvile had received the Patent for in 1574 from Elizabeth, which was rescinded a year later after protests from Philip of Spain. He set out from Plymouth on 15 November 1577, but bad weather threatened him and his fleet. They were forced to take refuge in Falmouth, Cornwall, from where they returned to Plymouth for repair.

After this major setback, he set sail again on 13 December, aboard Pelican, with four other ships and 164 men. He soon added a sixth ship, Mary (formerly Santa Maria), a Portuguese merchant ship that had been captured off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands. He also added its captain, Nuno da Silva, a man with considerable experience navigating in South American waters.
A replica of the Golden Hind

Drake's fleet suffered great attrition; he scuttled both Christopher and the flyboat Swan due to loss of men on the Atlantic crossing. He made landfall at the gloomy bay of San Julian, in what is now Argentina. Ferdinand Magellan had called here half a century earlier, where he put to death some mutineers.

Drake's men saw weathered and bleached skeletons on the grim Spanish gibbets. They discovered that Mary had rotting timbers, so they burned the ship. Following Magellan's example, Drake tried and executed his own 'mutineer' Thomas Doughty. Drake decided to remain the winter in San Julian before attempting the Strait of Magellan.

 Entering the Pacific (1578)

The three remaining ships of his convoy departed for the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. A few weeks later (September 1578) Drake made it to the Pacific, but violent storms destroyed one of the three ships, the Marigold (captained by John Thomas) in the strait and caused another, the Elizabeth captained by John Wynter, to return to England, leaving only the Pelican. After this passage, the Pelican was pushed south and discovered an island which Drake called Elizabeth Island. Drake, like navigators before him, probably reached a latitude of 55°S (according to astronomical data quoted in Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation of 1589) along the Chilean coast.

By 1580, he returned home being the first Englishman who has successfully circumnavigated the Earth. His cargo full of his Spanish treasure secured that his success, and in 1581 he received his knighthood, become Mayor of Plymouth and a member in English Parliament.

A map of Drake's route around the world. The northern limit of Drake's exploration of the Pacific coast of North America is still in dispute. Drake's Bay is south of Cape Mendocino.

Map of Drakes Great Expedition in 1585 by Giovanni Battista Boazio

Great Expedition

War had already been declared by Phillip II after the Treaty of Nonsuch, so the Queen through Francis Walsingham ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish colonies in a kind of preemptive strike. An expedition left Plymouth in September 1585 with Drake in command of twenty one ships with 1,800 soldiers under Christopher Carleill. He first attacked Vigo in Spain and held the place for two weeks ransoming supplies. He then plundered Santiago in the Cape Verde islands after which the fleet then sailed across the Atlantic, sacked the port of Santo Domingo and captured the city of Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia. On 6 June 1586, during the return leg of the voyage, he raided the Spanish fort of San Augustín in Spanish Florida.

After the raids he then went on to find Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement much further North at Roanoke which he replenished and also took back with him all of the original colonists before Sir Richard Greynvile arrived w/ supplies & more colonists. He finally reached England on 22 July, when he sailed into Portsmouth, England to heroes welcome.

After that, he continued his service in English military and died from dysentery at the age of 55 in the year of 1596. He was buried in lead coffin at the sea, and his body has still yet to be found.

Ancient Navigators: The Quadrant

Favored by Columbus, the quadrant is a metal plate in the shape of a quarter- circle, with a weight on a string that crossed the opposite edges of the circle hung from its center. The navigator would sight the North Star along one edge, and the point where the string crossed the edge would show the star’s altitude or angle above the horizon.

Mariner’s brass quadrant. The quadrant shown above is a replica of the type Columbus might have used on his voyages to the New World. This one is marked off at the latitudes of Lisbon, Cabo Verde and Serra Leoa, down near the Equator where Columbus is known to have visited.

Sri Lanka: Temple of the Tooth

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy.

Monks conduct daily worship in the inner chamber of the temple. Rituals are performed three times daily: at dawn, at noon and in the evenings. On Wednesdays there is a symbolic bathing of the relic with an herbal preparation made from scented water and fragrant flowers, called Nanumura Mangallaya. This holy water is believed to contain healing powers and is distributed among those present.

Built in the 16th century, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (also known as Dalada Maligawa) is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the world. As denoted by its namesake, it houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic- an actual tooth of Buddha. The relic is kept in a golden Dagoba casket and attracts many devotees and curious visitors.

In ancient times, the tooth held more than religious significance, it also carried political importance, as it was believed that whoever had the tooth was vested with power to rule.

Wall painting at Kelaniya Temple of Princess Hemamali and her husband, Prince Dantha which she carried Gautama Buddha's tooth relic hidden in her hair to Sri Lanka. - Painting by Solias MendisJPG

In the 4th century King Guhasinha of Dantapura sent his daughter to Sri Lanka with the Tooth hidden in her hair to keep it safe during a time of political crisis. This was in the year 310 CE and since that time the vicissitudes of the Tooth have been meticulously recorded.

In 1560 the Portuguese who were constantly fighting with the Sinhalese for control of the island triumphantly announced that they had captured the Tooth. They took it to Goa where a huge public gathering was held during which Archbishop Don Gaspar, with spiteful glee, desecrated it, burned it then and had its ashes thrown into the sea. It was the Sinhalese however who had the last laugh. Just as some leaders will sometimes have doubles acting in their place to protect them from assassination, Sri Lankan kings sometimes had replicas of the Tooth made to confuse those who might want to seize it during times of uncertainty. The Portuguese had in fact captured one of these replicas. In 1545 the Tooth was brought to Kandy where it has remained ever since.

Pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Reed and "Calico Jack" Rackham

Anne bonny

Anne Bonny (1700-1782, exact dates uncertain) was a pirate who fought under the command of "Calico Jack" Rackham between 1718 and 1720. Together with fellow female pirate Mary Read, she was one of Rackham's more formidable pirates, fighting, cursing and drinking with the best of them. She was captured along with the rest of Rackham's crew in 1720 and sentenced to death, although her sentence was commuted because she was pregnant. She has been the inspiration for countless stories, books, movies, songs and other works.


The Birth of Anne Bonny:

Most of what is known about Anne Bonny's early life comes from Captain Charles Johnson's "A General History of the Pyrates" which dates to 1724. Johnson (most, but not all, pirate historians believe that Johnson was actually Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe) provides some details of Bonny's early life, but did not list his sources and his information has proven impossible to verify. According to Johnson, Bonny was born near Cork, Ireland probably sometime around 1700, the result of a scandalous affair between an English lawyer and his maid. He was eventually forced to bring Anne and her mother to America to escape all the gossip.

Anne Falls in Love:

Anne’s father set up in Charleston, first as a lawyer and then as a merchant. Young Anne was spirited and tough: Johnson reports that she once badly beat up a young man who “would have lain with her, against her Will.” He father had done quite well in his businesses and it was expected that Anne would marry well. Nevertheless, she fell for a penniless sailor named James Bonny, who was reportedly quite disappointed when her father disinherited her and cast them out. She may have been as young as sixteen.

Bonny and Rackham:

An 18th-century woodcut of Rackham

The young couple set out for New Providence, where Anne's husband made a meager living turning in pirates for for bounties. She evidently lost all respect for James Bonny and developed a reputation for sleeping around with various men in Nassau. It was at this time - probably sometime in 1718 or 1719 - that she met pirate "Calico Jack" Rackham (sometimes spelled Rackam) who had recently wrested command of a pirate vessel from the ruthless Captain Charles Vane. Anne soon became pregnant and went to Cuba to have the child: once she had given birth, she returned to a life of piracy with Rackham.

Anne Bonny the Pirate:

Anne proved to be an excellent pirate. She dressed like a man, and fought, drank and swore like one too. Captured sailors reported that after their vessels were captured by the pirates, it was the two women – Bonny and Mary Read, who had joined the crew by then – who egged their crewmates on to greater acts of bloodshed and violence. Some of these sailors testified against her at her trial.

Anne and Mary Read:

According to legend, Bonny (dressed as a man) felt a strong attraction to Mary Read (who was also dressed as a man) and revealed herself as a woman in hopes of seducing Read. Read then confessed that she was a woman, too. The reality is slightly different: Bonny and Read most likely met in Nassau as they were preparing to ship out with Rackham. They were very close, perhaps even lovers. They would wear women's clothes on board, but change into men's clothes when it looked like there would be some fighting soon.

The Capture of Bonny, Read and Rackham:

By October of 1720, Rackham, Bonny, Read and the rest of the crew were infamous in the Caribbean and Governor Woodes Rogers had authorized privateers to hunt and capture them and other pirates for bounties. A heavily armed sloop belonging to Captain Jonathan Barnet was tipped off as to Rackham’s location and caught up to them: the pirates had been drinking and after a small exchange of cannon and small arms fire, they surrendered. When capture was imminent, only Anne and Mary fought against Barnet’s men, swearing at their crewmates to come out from under the decks and fight.

A Pirate's Trial:

The trials of Rackham, Bonny and Read caused a sensation. Rackham and the other male pirates were swiftly found guilty: he was hanged with four other men at Gallows Point in Port Royal on November 18, 1720. Reportedly, he was allowed to see Bonny before his execution and she said to him: "I'm sorry to see you here, but if you had fought like a man you need not have hanged like a dog." Bonny and Read were also found guilty on November 28 and sentenced to hang. At that point, the both declared that they were pregnant. The execution was postponed, and it was found to be true: both women were pregnant.

Later Life of Anne Bonny:

Mary Read died in prison about five months later. What happened to Anne Bonny is uncertain. Like her early life, her later life is lost in shadow. Captain Johnson’s book first came out in 1724, so her trial was still fairly recent news while he was writing it, and he only says of her “She was continued in prison, to the time of her lying in, and afterwards reprieved from Time to Time, but what is become of her since, we cannot tell; only this we know, that she was not executed.”

Legacy of Anne Bonny:

So what happened to Anne Bonny? There are many versions of her fate and no truly decisive proof in favor of any one of them, so you can pick your favorite. Some say she reconciled with her wealthy father, moved back to Charleston, remarried and lived a respectable life into her eighties. Others say she remarried in Port Royal or Nassau and bore her new husband several children.

Anne's impact on the world has been primarily cultural. As a pirate, she didn't really have a great impact. Her pirating career only lasted a few months. Rackham was a second-class pirate, mostly taking easy prey like fishing vessels and lightly armed traders. If not for Anne Bonny and Mary Read, he would be a footnote in pirate lore.

But Anne has gained great historical stature in spite of her lack of distinction as a pirate. Her character has much to do with it: not only was she one of only a handful of female pirates in history, but she was one of the die-hards, who fought and cursed harder than most of her male colleagues. Today, historians of everything from feminism to cross-dressing scour the available histories for anything on her or Mary Read.

No one knows how much of an influence Anne has had on young women since her days of piracy. At a time when women were kept indoors, barred from freedoms that men enjoyed, Anne went out on her own, left her father and husband, and lived as a pirate on the high seas off and on for two years. How many repressed young girls of the Victorian Era saw Anne Bonny as a great heroine? This is probably her greatest legacy, the romantic example of a woman who seized freedom when the opportunity presented itself (even if her reality was probably not nearly as romantic as people think).

Sources:
Cawthorne, Nigel. A History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas. Edison: Chartwell Books, 2005.
Defoe, Daniel (writing as Captain Charles Johnson). A General History of the Pyrates. Editoed by Manuel Schonhorn. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1972/1999.
Konstam, Angus. The World Atlas of Pirates. Guilford: the Lyons Press, 2009
Rediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Woodard, Colin. The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down. Mariner Books, 2008.

Via About.com

Pirate Flags

Skulls and crossed bones are synonymous with pirate flags, but the use of such symbols to denote death predates the appearance of the first Jolly Roger.  They are frequently found on tombstones, and ships’ logs often contain skulls beside deceased crew members’ names.  Once pirates adopted the familiar skull and crossbones as their emblem, frequently on a field of black, anyone who saw their flags recognized the implied threat.  To further intimidate their prey, pirates used other symbols.  The swords found on the flags of Thomas Tew and Calico Jack Rackham symbolize power over life.

Christopher Moody added an hourglass with wings to make his intentions clear: time was swiftly running out.  Dancing skeletons signified that the pirates cared little for their fate.  A raised glass meant they toasted death.

Why use such symbols of death and destruction to instill fear?  Pirates earned their wages by capturing prizes and ransoming captives.  To do battle against their opponent risked the intended cargo and ship they meant to confiscate.  A fight could also mean their own deaths.  Rather than resort to physical violence (although they did so when necessary), they preferred to wage psychological warfare.  Woe to any merchantman who dared to defy the warning, for some pirates gave no quarter.

Pirates, navies, and merchantmen used flags to identify other ships.  Most carried an assortment of ensigns aboard.  The ruse de guerre was a frequent ploy that allowed ships to approach the enemy before declaring their true intentions.  As they neared their target, the ship flew the national flag of the ship they approached, signifying friendship.  When the prey was within range, they hoisted their true colors and caught them off guard.  The first maritime flags were often solitary-colored banners and came into use during the Middle Ages.  Eventually each nation adopted its own flag for easier identification and solidarity.  Pirates were no different, for they considered themselves a nation (albeit one of a criminal nature).  In time, anyone who saw their flag through a spyglass dreaded the meeting to come.  Chinese pirates adopted different colored flags to identify each squadron.  Cheng I, the commander of these fleets, may have flown a flag with an elaborate design on a field of gold or yellow.

Charles Vane and Edward Teach flew the Union Jack from one mast while flying the Jolly Roger from their mainmast.

Near the start of the 18th century, the Jolly Roger gained prominence amongst pirates and captains created their own designs.  Aside from those mentioned earlier, anyone who spotted a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear or dart in the other while standing beside a bleeding heart knew who chased them – Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard.
 

Black Bart favored one of two flags: a man and a skeleton, who held a spear or dart in one hand, holding either an hourglass or a cup while toasting death, or an armed man standing on two skulls over the letters ABH and AMH.  The latter warned residents of Barbados and Martinique that death awaited them, for these islanders had dared to cross Bartholomew Roberts.

While The Buccaneers of America (a first-hand account of Alexandre Exquemelin’s years amongst pirates) makes no mention of the Jolly Roger or the skull and crossbones, the flag was mentioned during the trial of Captain John Quelch and his pirate crew who were executed in Boston in 1704.

"Three months later the pirates were off the coast of Brazil flying as a flag the Old Roger which was ornamented by an anatomy with an hourglass in one hand, and a dart in the heart with three drops of blood proceeding from it in the other."

It is one of the earliest recordings of pirates using the black flag as well as the use of the term Old Roger.  The Oxford English Dictionary first defined Jolly Roger in 1724.

How did pirate flags become known as the Jolly Roger?  No one knows for certain, but there are several hypotheses.  One is that the name is an English corruption of the French jolie rouge, which means pretty red.  Others believe it comes from English slang used to denote the devil – Old Roger.  Or perhaps it comes from Ali Raja, a Tamil pirate captain who terrorized the Indian Ocean.  No matter its origin, the intent of the skull and crossbones was clear – intimidation and fear – and even today we comprehend its meaning.



Reposted from Cindy Vallar.com

The Golden Age of Piracy: Blackbeard

Blackbeard battles Lt. Maynard at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy

As the end of the Seventeenth Century approached, peace came to most of Europe. Privateers found themselves without jobs, as did many naval seamen. This “golden age” saw the greatest upswing in piracy ever. Unlike their predecessors, the buccaneers, these pirates preyed on merchant ships rather than Spanish galleons laden with gold and silver. Most prowled the Caribbean and Atlantic coast of North America, but some plied their trade off the West Coast of Africa and in the Indian Ocean.

The Buccaneering period, c. 1650–1680

Historians, such as John Fiske, mark the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy at around 1650, when the end of the Wars of Religion allowed European countries to resume the development of their colonial empires. This involved considerable seaborne trade, and a general economic improvement: there was money to be made—or stolen—and much of it traveled by ship.

French buccaneers had established themselves on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, but lived at first mostly as hunters rather than robbers; their transition to full-time piracy was gradual and motivated in part by Spanish efforts to wipe out both the buccaneers and the prey animals on which they depended. The buccaneers' migration from Hispaniola's mainland to the more defensible offshore island of Tortuga limited their resources and accelerated their piratical raids. According to Alexandre Exquemelin, a buccaneer and historian who remains a major source on this period, the Tortuga buccaneer Pierre Le Grand pioneered the settlers' attacks on galleons making the return voyage to Spain.

The growth of buccaneering on Tortuga was augmented by the English capture of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The early English governors of Jamaica freely granted letters of marque to Tortuga buccaneers and to their own countrymen, while the growth of Port Royal provided these raiders with a far more profitable and enjoyable place to sell their booty. In the 1660s, the new French governor of Tortuga, Bertrand d'Ogeron, similarly provided privateering commissions both to his own colonists and to English cutthroats from Port Royal. These conditions brought Caribbean buccaneering to its zenith.

Although pirates flew flags before this time, the Jolly Roger we know belonged to the pirates of this age. They favored sloops and ketches to hunt their prey. While New Providence in the Bahamas provided them a safe haven for a time, Woodes Rogers changed that after his appointment as governor. He offered pardons to the pirates, then employed any who accepted to hunt other pirates. Those captured hanged.

The pirates of the Golden Age had common traits. Their victims usually surrendered. The pirates boldly declared their identity rather than engaged in tactics such as the ruse de guerre. They attacked ships away from land and took their time gathering their spoils. The majority of plunder taken wasn’t gold and silver, but supplies to maintain their ships and whatever everyday items (such as food and drink) they needed. The most successful ventures occurred when two or more pirate ships confronted their prey.

Blackbeard perhaps the most famous pirate was a master at intimidation. Blackbeard carried three braces of

Blackbeard (c. 1736 engraving)

pistols, placed smoking hempen cord in his beard, drank rum mixed with gunpowder, and looked at people with wild, staring eyes. Mentioning his name was enough to frighten any eighteenth-century mariner.

Like many Golden Age pirates, Blackbeard was a privateer before he turned pirate. When peace finally came to Europe, he embraced piracy and became a charismatic legend in his own time.  Initially, he signed with Benjamin Hornigold, a pirate who nurtured Blackbeard and taught him a fierce reputation would stand him in better stead than engaging in torture to achieve his ends. They based their operations in Nassau and plied the coastal waters of the American colonies. On their way home, they captured a French vessel named Concorde. It was to be the last prey Hornigold took, for he decided to seek the king’s pardon. Eventually, this pardoned pirate became a pirate hunter.

Blackbeard converted the Concorde into a pirate ship manned by three hundred men and carrying forty guns. He changed her name to the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) and chose her for his flagship. Following Hornigold’s advice, he cultivated a bloodthirsty and wicked reputation. His successful attacks against ships of the British Royal Navy further enhanced that image. He did not engage in wanton murder and mayhem unless his victims resisted.

Queen Anne's Revenge

During the first three months of 1718, Blackbeard disappeared. No records exist to tell where he went or what he did. When he resurfaced, he led his fleet of eight vessels to Charleston harbor, blockaded the port, and held some of the town’s leading citizens for ransom. Rather than demand jewels and money, he requested a chest of medicine worth £300. When four days passed and the governor of South Carolina still had not met his demands, Blackbeard aimed all his guns on the town and would have fired had the pirates who delivered the ransom note not returned with the medicine.

Eventually, Blackbeard sailed to Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the intent of seeking the king’s pardon. He knew, though, that too many pirates accompanied him, so he hatched a plan to rid himself of some. He purposely grounded the QAR and another ship, then sent some men ashore with orders to seek out a pardon for everyone. After they left, he and the remaining pirates sailed to Bath Towne, obtained pardons from the governor, and retired from piracy.

Blackbeard married a young woman, moved into a house, and became a local celebrity. He engaged in a smuggling operation, which he based on Ocracoke Island. Restlessness soon afflicted him, and once more he returned to piracy. On his return to Ocracoke, a fellow pirate visited him and they partied ashore. Before long, other pirates joined the festivities and fearful colonists demanded someone stop Blackbeard and his friends before they established a pirate fortress.

A map of the area around Ocracoke Inlet, 1775

On November 21, 1718, Lieutenant Maynard and fifty-eight men battled Blackbeard and twenty other pirates on the deck of Maynard’s sloop. He shot Blackbeard, but Blackbeard broke Maynard’s sword. A Highlander saved Maynard’s life by slaying Blackbeard before he delivered the fatal blow. On his return to Williamsburg, Maynard hung Blackbeard’s decapitated head from the bowsprit of his ship. He dumped the body overboard.

Blackbeard's Skull from the Edward Rowe Snow collection of the Peabody Today it is difficult to separate myth from reality where Blackbeard is concerned.  Some stories say he had fourteen wives, some of whom he shared with others.  He’s known by several names - including Drummond, Thatch, and Tash - but Edward Teach is considered his official name.  Few details of his early life are known, but he may have been born in Bristol, England. For thirteen months he terrorized people along the coast of North America and in the Caribbean. In the late 1990s archaeologists discovered an underwater wreck they believe is the QAR.  Their excavations are on going.


Source: Cindy Vallar.com 
Source: Wikipedia

Uncovering Hidden Text on a 500-Year-Old Map That Guided Columbus

The 1491 Martellus map  Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Christopher Columbus probably used the map above as he planned his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. It represents much of what Europeans knew about geography on the verge discovering the New World, and it’s packed with text historians would love to read—if only the faded paint and five centuries of wear and tear hadn’t rendered most of it illegible.

But that’s about to change. A team of researchers is using a technique called multispectral imaging to uncover the hidden text. They scanned the map last month at Yale University and expect to start extracting readable text in the next few months, says Chet Van Duzer, an independent map scholar who’s leading the project, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The map was made in or around 1491 by Henricus Martellus, a German cartographer working in Florence. It’s not known how many were made, but Yale owns the only surviving copy. It’s a big map, especially for its time: about 4 by 6.5 feet. “It’s a substantial map, meant to be hung on a wall,” Van Duzer said.

The Martellus map during preparations for multispectral imaging. Chet Van Duzer

The Martellus map is interesting for several historic reasons, Van Duzer says. One is it’s relevance to Columbus. “It’s extremely likely, just about unquestionable that Christopher Columbus saw this map or a very similar one made by the same cartographer, and that the map influenced his thinking about the world’s geography,” Van Duzer said.

There are several lines of evidence for this, Van Duzer says. Columbus sailed west from the Canary Islands hoping to find a new trade route to Asia. Writings by Columbus and his son suggest that he began searching for Japan in the region where it appears on the Martellus map, and that he expected to find the island running north to south, as it does on the Martellus map, but not on any other surviving map made before his voyage. (You can see Japan floating too far off the coast of Asia in the top right corner of Martellus’s map above).

Of course, what Columbus found instead was something Martellus hadn’t known about—the New World.

Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 map was influenced by Martellus's earlier map.

A photo of the Martellus map taken in 1960 with ultraviolet light (right) reveals text in places where it’s not normally visible. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Martellus’s map was also a big influence on Martin Waldseemüller, another German cartographer whose 1507 map is the first to apply the name “America” to the New World. The Library of Congress purchased the only surviving copy of Waldseemüller’s map in 2003 for $10 million. “There are many places where the same information was in the same place on the two maps,” Van Duzer said. “The layout is very similar, a lot of the decorative elements are very similar.”

What isn’t known, because of the condition of the Martellus map, is how similar the text on the two maps is. “One of the most exciting images I’ve ever seen of a map is an ultraviolet image of the Martellus map taken in the early ’60s,” Van Duzer said. “If you look at eastern Asia with natural light, if you look closely, you get a hint that there’s text there, but if you look in ultraviolet light suddenly you see that there’s text everywhere.”

Most of the text still isn’t legible in those older UV images, but some of the parts that are appear to be drawn from the travels of Marco Polo through east Asia. There are also indications of where sailors could expect to find sea monsters or pearls. “In northern Asia, Martellus talks about this race of wild people who don’t have any wine or grain but live off the flesh of deer and ride deer-like horses,” Van Duzer said. Waldseemüller copied much of this.
A photo of the Martellus map taken in 1960 with ultraviolet light (right) reveals text in places where it's not normally visible.

A photo of the Martellus map taken in 1960 with ultraviolet light (right) reveals text in places where it’s not normally visible. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

There are also interesting differences between the two maps. Waldseemüller gets the shape of Africa more or less right, but on the Martellus map, southern Africa juts out way too far to the east (Africa is on the left side of both maps). In addition, Martellus’s depiction of rivers and mountains in the interior of southern Africa, along with place names there, appear to be based on African sources. It’s likely that this information came from an African delegation that visited the Council of Florence in 1441 and interacted with European geographers. Three other surviving maps contain some of this same information, but the Martellus map covers more territory than any of them, making it the most complete surviving representation of Africans’ geographic knowledge of their continent in the 15th century. “In my mind, that’s absolutely amazing,” Van Duzer said.

Van Duzer hopes to learn more about Martellus’s sources from the new images the team is creating. Scanning the map only took a day, after two and a half days of set up, he says. The team used an automated camera system developed by a digital imaging company called Megavision. The system uses LEDs to deliver light within a narrow band of wavelengths and minimize the amount of heat and light the map was exposed to. The camera has a quartz lens, which transmits ultraviolet light better than glass. The team photographed 55 overlapping tiles of the map, using 12 different types of illumination, ranging from ultraviolet to infrared.

Conceptually, the process isn’t very complicated, says team member Roger Easton, an expert on imaging historical manuscripts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “We’re really just looking at the object under different colors of light and trying to find the combination of images that best enhance whatever it is that we’re trying to see.”

But extracting legible text from all those images will take a lot of imaging processing and analysis, and a lot of trial and error, Easton says. A combination that works on one part of the map might be useless for another part. “It depends on the details of how the map has eroded or how the color of the pigments has changed,” Easton said. “Different pigments reflect different wavelengths of light, and they deteriorate differently too.”

When the project is complete, probably sometime next year, the images will be available for scholars and the general public to examine on the website of the Beinecke Digital Library at Yale.




Original Post: By Greg Miller  Permalink

The Sigiriya Ladies

Hidden in a cave along the citadel at Sigiriya are some of the most magnificent ancient frescoes in South Asia.

Some say they are celestial nymphs carrying flowers to shower upon kings and mortals below. Others suggest that they are queens and concubines. Some even suggest that they are the manifestations of the goddess Tara.

Tara is a goddess who was worshipped by Mahayana Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The divine females at Sigiriya are splendidly adorned with jewellary, bracelets, necklaces, tiaras, diadems, chaplets of flowers and are of three complexions red, yellow and green. The goddess Tara too has numerous manifestations in regal splendor and may be of red, yellow, green, blue or white complexion.

Sigiriya Fresco Tattoo 

All the females depicted on the Sigiriya Frescoes wear a dainty three-ringed tattoo around their necks (see photo). Given the overall lack of information about the harem it is hard to establish with certainty if the woman of the harem were tattooed. This lack of evidence doesn’t preclude the fact that it may have been the case. This practice is known to have occurred elsewhere. Given the prestige attached to being a member of the orodha there is little reason to doubt that these ladies would have gladly worn their delicately etched tattoos with pride.

 Tattooed females are only depicted in the Sigiriya Frescoes and nowhere else in Sri Lankan art.

The Sigiriya Frescoes were painted on the western surface of Sigiriya Rock. Completed nearly 1600 years ago they were part of a huge tapestry that extended in a gigantic band around the waist of the rock.

Halfway on Sigiriya-rock, you can see very special mural paintings. They are non-religious representations of women, of which some have been preserved very well. Some sources even say that the whole western face of the rock used to be covered with these paintings (of 500 women). 

John Still in 1907 suggested, "The whole face of the hill appears to have been a gigantic picture gallery... the largest picture in the world perhaps". The paintings would have covered most of the western face of the rock, an area 140 metres long and 40 metres high. There are references in the graffiti to 500 ladies in these paintings. However, most have been lost forever. More frescoes, different from those on the rock face, can be seen elsewhere, for example on the ceiling of the location called the "Cobra Hood Cave".

Although the frescoes are classified as in the Anuradhapura period, the painting style is considered unique; the line and style of application of the paintings differing from Anuradhapura paintings. The lines are painted in a form which enhances the sense of volume of the figures. The paint has been applied in sweeping strokes, using more pressure on one side, giving the effect of a deeper colour tone towards the edge. Other paintings of the Anuradhapura period contain similar approaches to painting, but do not have the sketchy lines of the Sigiriya style, having a distinct artists' boundary line. The true identity of the ladies in these paintings still have not been confirmed. There are various ideas about their identity. Some believe that they are the wives of the king while some think that they are women taking part in religious observances. These pictures have a close resemblance to some of the paintings seen in the Ajanta caves in India.

The Dying Tradition of Sri Lankan Stilt Fishing

At dawn, Sunil (left) and Anil Madushanka sit on stilts they both inherited from their fathers.

Big Fish, small fish - Sri Lanka´s stiltfishermen, Asia, South Asia, Sri Lanka, Ahangama; The stiltfishermen Sunil Nishanti (left) and Anil Madushanka are sitting on their stilts and wait for swarm fish that pass their stilts in the shallow water. Due to the impact of the 2004 Tsunami and the overfishing in the coastal waters there is less and less fish to catch.

Before sunrise, Sunil walks across coral and rocks in the bay of Ahangama on the way to his stilt.

For 30 kilometers along Sri Lanka’s southern coast, between the towns of Unawatuna and Weligama, fishermen such as Sunil Nishanti sit motionless on wooden stilts a few dozen meters from the shoreline.

The technique may be unique, but it is a fairly recent innovation, first adopted just after the Second World War when fishing spots on rocks and cliffs along the coast became too crowded. Men started fishing from the wrecks of boats and aircraft left behind by the war, then some of them moved to stilts erected at fixed locations, which they then passed on to their sons.

Anil Madushanka leaves his stilt without a big catch while his neighbour Kalu and his cousin Sunil still continue their work.

The practice is unlikely to last much longer other than as a tourist attraction. Local fisheries are in decline, particularly following permanent alterations to the shoreline brought about by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The returns from fishing, never good, are worsening, and few fisherman pass their stilts to their sons, instead renting them to other men who find it easier and more lucrative to pose for photographs.

For now, Sunil still earns his living from fishing. He and his family lost almost everything when the tsunami of 2004 flooded the bay where they lived. He declined a government offer to give him a new house on higher ground -– the bus 
commute would have been too expensive, and anyway, he wanted to live near the sea. For most of the year, he sells what he catches from his stilt. During the monsoon season, when fish tend to avoid shallow waters, he buys fish caught by trawlers and then resells them in his village. Other fishermen spend the period working as fruit and vegetable vendors or as seasonal agricultural workers.








Ahangama, Sri Lanka
Photographer: Florian Müller

Read more at the Huffington Post

More on Coronelli's Celestial Globe Details

The Heavens -The celestial globe is an invitation to travel through the sky amidst the constellations such as they were on the day of the birth of Louis XIV.

The Zodiac

The Sun and its planets move in the opposite direction, from West to East. This course, called the ecliptic, is materialised on the globe by a sun sliding on a large circular bronze bar. Thus, over the seasons, its trajectory crosses the various constellations of the Zodiac.

Aries

The Sun sliding on Sagittarius

Capricorn

The Figures

The very special style of the figures or the constellations, painted in different shades of blue, is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Corneille. The name of each constellation is written in four languages: French, Latin, Greek and Arabic.

An Angel

 

Le Chartier

The Arrow, the Eagle and the Dauphin

The Balance

An Unusual Placement

The unusual placement of the constellations, with the characters full-face, transforms the perspective of the observer. The heavens are seen from the outside, although the Earth is supposed to be at the centre of the globe.

The Indian, the crane and the Fish