Page 26 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

settled by men when it was largely if not entirely non-glacial. It goes
without saying that this implies a very great antiquity ... [Indeed] the
Oronteus Finaeus Map takes the civilization of the original map-makers
back to a time contemporary with the end of the last Ice Age in the
northern hemisphere.’
5

The Oronteus Finaeus map, showing Antarctica with ice-free coasts,
mountains and rivers.

Ross Sea

Further evidence in support of this view arises from the manner in which
the Ross Sea was shown by Oronteus Finaeus. Where today great glaciers
like the Beardmore and the Scott disgorge themselves into the sea, the
1531 map shows estuaries, broad inlets and indications of rivers. The
unmistakable implication of these features is that there was no ice on the
Ross Sea or its coasts when the source maps used by Oronteus Finaeus
were made: ‘There also had to be a considerable hinterland free of ice to
feed the rivers. At the present time all these coasts and their hinterlands
are deeply buried in the mile-thick ice-cap, while on the Ross Sea itself
there is a floating ice-shelf hundreds of feet thick.’
6
The Ross Sea evidence provides strong corroboration for the notion that
Antarctica must have been mapped by some unknown civilization during
the extensively ice-free period which ended around 4000 BC. This is

5 Ibid., p. 149.
6 Ibid., p. 93-6.

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