Current Issues - March 2017

My new chapter is titled "Four Questions and the World Within". This is a very short and concise conclusion to Unit 1, The Miraculous Revival or the Painful Discovery.

After completing the first part, I addressed my publishing house, GenZ TM, with a proposal to find a beta reader for my book. I would like to listen to some advice, while the project is under way. They agreed to look through Unit 1 and sent me the editor's remarks. This is not what I asked but I am very grateful and even more convinced in following my course.

I am currently working on additions to a new chapter, The Trefoil of the World, from Unit 2.

  I continue taking the FutureLearn course, The European Discovery of China, that will help me  correct my further units.

My articles on Scriggler has attracted over 16 K visitors.  I'm going to give them more food for thought. I decided to remove an essential part, devoted to maritime discoveries, from my book. These chapters are more appropriate for another project, which is too early to think about. However, these pages are liable for publication. You may read any of my nineteen published articles
https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman

This blog has recently won recognition from my Russian followers. I'm very flattered with this interest from the readers from my homeland. I would be delighted to have your comments. Generally speaking, my audience is growing and I use this opportunity to congratulate you all with the coming spring holidays. In Israel, where I reside, it is the Passover.

Image: The writer's desktop with the typewriter retro 

Source:  https://www.shutterstock.com/g/alexkich

How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea

Phoenician cargo ship 

Courtesy: https://wikis.engrade.com/phoenicianships 

My fourth chapter deals with the issue of the dimensions of the ocean and the perspectives of navigation in the Atlantic. 

I describe the voyages of ancient explorers from Egypt to West Africa (Sataspes, Hanno the Navigator) and from India to East Africa (Scylax).

I also recount the views on crossing the Atlantic expressed by philosophers (Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Posidonius, Strabo, Seneca, Pierre d'Ailly), mapmakers (Henricus Martellus, Martin Behaim), and navigators (Christopher Columbus).  The chapter is accompanied by the table, Estimation of the Breadth of the Ocean Sea.

This is an extract which refers to the voyage across Africa carried out by Phoenician mariners in the time of Pharaoh Necho:

The first expedition, commissioned by Pharaoh Necho, who reigned at the turn of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, set a task of exploring the confines of the Dark Continent. The Phoenician mariners, who had staunch reputation for their seamanship, departed from a port on the Red Sea and after rounding the dry land made a return trip to Egypt via the Strait of Gibraltar. The food supply on board was enough for one year. To avoid starvation, the sailors had to rest on their oars twice to sow a crop of corn. Having picked up the harvest, they were able to move on forward until by the third year they had completed their heroic undertaking. The most intriguing part of the report was the observation of the sun traveling through the north across the right-left arc. The father of history slammed this testimony as too weird for his straightforward taste. (1)

This account suffers from many blunders. Since Herodotus does not allude to the source of this report, we cannot determine its trustworthiness. It is not clear what compelled the Egyptian monarch to launch this suicidal enterprise and why the Greek historian shares the pharaoh’s conviction in the possibility of the circumnavigation of Africa.

Besides, the modern reconstruction of Herodotus’ world view reveals that the “father of history” had a vague concept of the outline of the Dark Continent. Its southern fringe rounds the Atlas Mountains and stretches as far as the mouth of the Red Sea. Even this fictional voyage across the curtailed continent lasted nearly three years, demanding two landfalls and a lengthy lingering on the coast. 

Image 12: Reconstruction of Herodotus’ World View (2)  

The renowned author refuses to figure out the logistics involved in such venture. His description is too matter-of-fact and humdrum to be true. He neither explains how Phoenician ships could withstand daily tackling with unknown coastal currents and winds nor how they were able to overcome the solitude of a never ending voyage. He doesn’t report of their encounter with the natives and bizarre wildlife at sea or on land. He does not refer to any confrontation between the representatives of antagonistic cultures, though the temporary estrangement of agricultural land could not pass unnoticed by its lawful owners. Finally, except for the “perverted” sun, our historian finds no other remarkable astronomical phenomena in their account; and this particular scoop, proving that the explorers probably crossed the equator, he does deny.

Even the modern reconstruction of the journey does not supply any hard evidence. It is remarkable that a replica of a Phoenician ship rigged with a single square sail could withstand 20,000-mile voyage during two years. However, unlike ancient sailors, modern mariners knew their whereabouts and navigated their course, relying on the GPS and gleaning data from weather maps. They could sail all-year-round, even in winter, and consume foodstuffs purchased in local supermarkets. (3) 

How Long Spans the Inhabited World?

Chapter 3 of my book focuses on the classical and medieval estimations of the length of the oikoumene.

I'd like to share with you an extract where Strabo presents his ideas about the graphic representation of the known world and Eratosthenes offers his description of the "human planet".

Another argument that flared up the ancient community of scholars referred to the extent of the oikoumene, i.e.” the world which we inhabit and know.” (2). Strabo imposed upon a geographer the primary task of understanding “our inhabited world-its size, shape, and character, and its relation to earth as a whole”. (3) To achieve this goal, an explorer had to focus on the “human planet”, omitting the fringes and unfamiliar regions: “the geographer undertakes to describe the known parts of the inhabited world, but he leaves out of consideration the unknown parts… as he does what is outside of it”. (4) The "blank spots" on the map, confined within unsettled territories of deserts and steppes, seemed both unattainable and culturally underdeveloped. They emitted warning signs not only in spatial, but also in existential sense.

          The learned men figured out the oikumene as a far-flung island which is encompassed by the treacherous waters of the Ocean Sea. What lay beyond the shoreline was anyone's guess that should not bother a qualified specialist since his expertise was derived from travel accounts supported by scientific evidence. Another major source of data was military campaigns: “The spread of the empires of the Romans and the Parthians has presented to geographers of today a considerable addition to our empirical knowledge.” (5)

One could draw this spacious enclave by connecting its farthest points:  “joining with a straight line the extreme points reached on the coasting voyages made on both sides of the inhabited world.” (6) A mapmaker would focus on the dry land, marking its major rivers and main mountain ranges; he takes an interest in the sea only to spot populated islands.

Geography owes its name to Eratosthenes of Kyrene who baptized a new discipline. An outstanding Greek scholar and a curator of the Library of Alexandria, he adjusted his virtual model of the Earth along the prime parallel and meridian, which intersected on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.

His entire inhabited world lay in the Northern Hemisphere. It resembled a soldier's cloak bound tight at the top and loose at the bottom, with tapered ends in the east and west. Its northern edge lay on the parallel of Thule (66 degrees North), a legendary island in the extreme north, while its southern margin extended as far as the Cinnamon country, (12 degrees North) in southern Sudan, close to the mouth of the Red Sea, and a mysterious island of Taprobane (Sri Lanka), off the coast of India. (7)