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The Ancient Maps Referenced in Legacy

  • John Topping
  • 2 min read

I reference the Piri Reis Map, the Oronteus Finaeus map and the DeMarco map in Legacy of Atlantis. While the DeMarco map is fiction, the Piri Reis Map and the Oronteus Finaeus Map are real. According to some cartographers and historians, the maps represent anachronisms in the historical record. How could anyone in the Middle Ages accurately map out the ice free coastline of Antarctica? All you have to do is Google either map and scores of articles will pop up speculating on their origins.

 

Created by Ottoman admiral and cartographer, Piri Reis, the Piri Reis map was drawn in 1513. Discovered in 1929, only one-third of the map survives today. Admiral Piri Reis drew the map on the hide of a gazelle.  Piri Reis claims to have derived his map from a number of older maps and charts including eight Ptolemaic maps, four Portuguese maps, an Arabic map and the Columbus map. Some scholars claim that the Ptolemaic maps were from the Library of Alexandria and the 4th century BC (hence my creation of the DeMarco map drawn on papyrus) while others claim that the map was done by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. Either way, it was derived from ancient sources that couldn’t have directly mapped antarctica without ice.

 

Drawn in 1531 by French cartographer Oronce Fine, the Oronteus Finaeus map is more detailed and also shows Antarctica without Ice. While some contend that the Piri Reis map actually shows the southern tip of South America, Charles Hapgood identified 50 points shown in the Oronteus Finaeus map that match up very well with Antarctic features mapped with modern scientific methods. While some dispute Hapgood’s findings, he worked with the US Air Force and Strategic Air Command cartographers in analyzing the Ornoteus Finaeus map.

 

Some, like Eric Van Daniken, claim the maps demonstrates the interaction of extraterrestrials with early humans (take a look at his book, Chariots of the Gods which I read years ago). Hapgood (author of Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings and Fingerprints of the Gods) attributes the map to pre-classical undiscovered civilizations. In Legacy of Atlantis the maps would have been the result of Atlanteans interacting with ancient cartographers.

 

My character, Richard DeMarco at one point mentions his father’s fascination with anachronisms in the historical record. Two books that I have read that list multiple anachronisms that create fodder for the imaginations of any novelist include Hapgood’s Fingerprints of the Gods and Hancock’s Forbidden Archeology (I have read both and have copies of them on my bookshelf).

 

The existence of the maps fascinated me since I first discovered them. Their existence contributed to my creation of Legacy of Atlantis. A Google search will turn up page after page of information on the Piri Reis Map and the Oronteus Finaeus Map. Books have been written about them. I have included a couple of links below starting with the Wikipedia entries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Recent Reads

  • John Topping
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 21

Dear readers: I am passionate about reading and am always interested in hearing recommendations. Below is a list of the books that I have read fairly recently (rather than drop titles off the list, I will just add new titles to the beginning of the list. The list is in chronological order. I will not provide a review of books in this blog.


Currently reading

 

Influx – Daniel Suarez

 

Recent reads

 

The Praxis: Dread Empire’s Fall – Walter Jon Williams

Magician: Apprentice – Raymond Feist

The Road – Comac McCarthy

Leviathan Wakes – James S. A. Corey

Zenith Man – McCracken Poston, Jr.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Paolini

After That Night - Karen Slaughter

The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Term Limits – Vince Flynn

Eruption – Michael Chrichton and James Patterson

Over the Edge of the World – Laurence Bergreen

Elantris - Brandon Sanderson

Wool – Hugh Howey

Perfectly Normal – Zachary Steele

Percy Jackson and The Chalice of the Gods – Rick Riordan

The Dragon Reborn – Robert L. Jordan

Iron Flame: Empyrean, Book 2 – Rebecca Yarros

Storm Front – Jim Butcher

The Three-Body Problem – Cixin Liu

The Atlas Six – Olivie Blake

Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros

Make Up Test – John Adcox

The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson

I Am Pilgrim – Terry Hayes

The Song of Achillies – Madeline Miller

Ready Player One – Earnest Cline

The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin

The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss

The Great Hunt – Robert L. Jordan

Alpha and Omega – Harry Turtledove

A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine

Future’s Dark Past – JL Yarrow

All the Birds in the Sky – Charlie Jane Anders

Beowulf’s Children – Niven, Pournelle and Barnes

Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885-1945 – Marin Blumenson

The Pursuit of the Pankera – Robert A. Heinlein

His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J. Maas

The Eye of the World – Robert L. Jordan

Earth – David Brin

The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss

Quantum Space – Douglas Phillips

Caesar – Colleen McCullough

The Weight of Ashes – Zachary Steele

The Star in the East – John Adcox

The Doomsday Key – James Rollins

Blue – Lou Aronica

Order to Kill – Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series by Kyle Mills

Rising Tiger – Brad Thor

 

 

 

 

Recently Listened to on Audible

(I read many of these years ago and decided to listen on Audible while on long drives)

 

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Undone: Will Trent #3 – Karen Slaughter

Fractured: Will Trent #2 – Karen Slaughter

Triptych – Karen Slaughter (Will Trent #1)

The #1 Lawyer – James Patterson

The Case of the Velvet Claws – Erle Stanley Gardner (the first Perry Mason book)

The 6th Target – James Patterson

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien

Ready Player Two – Earnest Cline

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein

Dune – Frank Herbert

The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne

Origin – Dan Brown

The Doomsday Key – James Rollins

Enemy at the Gate – Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills

Death of the Black Widow – James Patterson

Slan – A. E. Van Vogt

 

 

 

On my bookshelf (to read or review)

 

Pleasure

 

Future Unfolds – JL Yarrow

Caliban’s War – James S. A. Corey

The Warrior of World’s End – Lin Carter

The Scarlett Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy

The End of the World: Classic Tales of Apocalyptic Science Fiction - compiled by Michael Kelahan

 

Research

 

The Greek Myths – Robert Graves

The Singularity is Near: When Humans transcend Biology – Ray Kurzweil

From Atlantis to the Sphinx – Colin Wilson

Fingerprints of the Gods – Graham Hancock

Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race – Michael A. Cremo, Richard L. Thompson, et. al

The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt – Shaw

Fall of the Roman Republic - Plutarch

 

 

Favorite books on writing

 

Stein on Writing – Sol Stein

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers – Christopher Vogler

Getting the Words Right: How to Revise, Edit and Rewrite – Theodore Cheney

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting – Syd Field

The Elements of Style – William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

 

 

If you have any books, you’d recommend, feel free to e-mail me at JAT@johntoppingbooks.com. I’m always looking for recommendations for good books.

 

 

 
 
 
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