Melvadius Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Spiegel Online International report on what, if correct, is a truly stunning advance regarding the extent of Ptolemy's knowledge of Germania. The report is based on six years of research and crucially the discovery of a parchment copy at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul which is apparently now the oldest version of Ptolemy's work ever discovered. This new discovery apparently predates the Vatican's copy from around AD 1300, which is traditionally cited as the oldest known copy of Ptolomey's original. N.B. the article notes that a reproduction of this version is due to be published next year A 2nd century map of Germania by the scholar Ptolemy has always stumped scholars, who were unable to relate the places depicted to known settlements. Now a team of researchers have cracked the code, revealing that half of Germany's cities are 1,000 years older than previously thought. The founding of Rome has been pinpointed to the year 753. For the city of St. Petersburg, records even indicate the precise day the first foundation stone was laid. Historians don't have access to this kind of precision when it comes to German cities like Hanover, Kiel or Bad Driburg. The early histories of nearly all the German cities east of the Rhine are obscure, and the places themselves are not mentioned in documents until the Middle Ages. So far, no one has been able to date the founding of these cities. ....continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agamemnus Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Coincidentally, I just found the very paper this article mentions (I think), here: http://www.cs.ccsu.edu/~gusev/SciVis/PtolemyWestAfricaReconstructed.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted October 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Coincidentally, I just found the very paper this article mentions (I think), here: http://www.cs.ccsu.edu/~gusev/SciVis/PtolemyWestAfricaReconstructed.pdf Actually I think that, although interesting in itself, it is a totally unrelated article. From what I can find on the web it appears that it is a team from Technische Universit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 "The founding of Rome has been pinpointed to the year 753." (From the original quote) If anyone has really proven the above statement, then we can forget the German cities. This a much bigger story. Sadly, I suspect journalistic rhetoric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted October 6, 2010 Report Share Posted October 6, 2010 This map in a article is a little more clear. It is of course in german but the map is interesting: http://www.portal-schwedt.de/stadtportrait/downloads/mozcolancorum.pdf Maybe this makes some sort of sense now? http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,596720,00.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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