China map lays claim to Americas

BBC News ^ | January 13, 2006

[West Coast Conservative]

A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.

The map, which is being dated to check it was made in 1763, faces a lot of scepticism from experts.

Chinese characters written beside the map say it was drawn by Mo Yi Tong and copied from a map made in the 16th year of the Emperor Yongle, or 1418.

It clearly shows Africa and Australia, though the UK is not marked.

Controversial claim

The map was bought for about $500 from a Shanghai dealer in 2001 by a Chinese lawyer and collector, Liu Gang.

According to the Economist magazine, Mr Liu only became aware of the map's potential significance after he read a book by British author Gavin Menzies.

The book, 1421: The Year China discovered America, made the controversial claim that a Chinese admiral and eunuch, Zheng He, sailed around the world and discovered America on the way.

Zheng He, a Muslim mariner and explorer, is widely thought to have sailed around South East Asia and India, but the claim he visited America is hotly disputed.

The map is now being tested to check the age of its paper and ink, with the results due to be known in February.

Even if it does prove to have been drawn in 1763, sceptics will point out that we still only have the mapmaker's word that he copied if from a 1418 map, rather than from a more recent one.

But for some, this would still not make the Chinese admiral the first modern discoverer of the Americas, as they believe that Viking Leif Eriksson sailed to north America in the year 1000.

[West Coast Conservative]

[Tennessee_Bob]

Whoa - California already fell off on this one!

[mnehring]

..Why does everyone completely ignore that even in AD 1000, there were already people here for thousands of years.. Technically, ancient Russians & Pacific Islanders discovered America.

[Shermy]

Oh please. California as an Island? That's so Spanish...

[Red Badger]

Mo Yi Tong...

He was Jewish? It must be accurate.........

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Red Badger]

Notice Florida is gone. Global warming must have started earlier than we thought........

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.

"It ain't who gets there fustest. And it ain't who gets there with the mostest. It's who gets there fustest with the mostest."

[Ditto]

Whoa - California already fell off on this one!

Must be global warming --- Florida is gone.

[Clioman]

Probably drawn using GPS -- Ghengis' Positioning System

[pabianice]

Bullshit. The Chinese could not possibly have mapped both North and South America in the 15th century. Their ships were small and barely seaworthy.

[HEY4QDEMS]

If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.

Didn't Leif Ericson discover America decades before Columbus also.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Fiddlstix. Unfortunately, the claim lost some credibility today when it was discovered that the 18th century map was printed on Kodak paper... ;')

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[blam]

Source of the Piri Re'is map?

[SunkenCiv]

---

---

[Theoden]

Apparently this Chinese "Admiral" explored every major river in North America as well! I'll be damned. However, It does not look like they made it past Denmark, I guess my viking ancestors (who discovered N.America before Columbus) must have chased them away...hahaha...

[Let's Roll]

LOL!

Isn't that sorta like being the one to invent gun powder but only use it to make fire crackers?

(And they've been mad at the west for taking their invention further ever since.)

[snowrip]

ALIENS LAY CLAIM TO EARTH

AP
In a surprise move today, aliens (no, not the ones from Mexico) produced a three-dimensional laser hologram of the Earth. The aliens claim this 3-D LH was made approximately 100,000,000 years ago, thus making them the first to discover the planet.

[gridlock]

Some Chinese guy was mapping the Northern coast of Greenland back in the 1420s...

Riiiiiight...

[tom h]

You can tell this is total BS because the Chinaman that "discovered" America in 1418 didn't just discover the West Coast but mapped both the North American and South American continents.

Which of course, would be impossible for one man to do in 10 years, much less a lifetime, back then.

Fraud.