8 artifacts in this category
The Phoenician Circumnavigation of Africa
The Greek historian Herodotus records that around 600 BCE, Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt commissioned a Phoenician fleet to circumnavigate Africa — sailing south from the Red Sea, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back through the Strait of Gibraltar. The voyage took three years. Herodotus himself doubted the account because the sailors reported that the sun was on their right (north) as they rounded the southern tip of Africa — which is exactly what would happen in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Kensington Runestone
The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke discovered in Minnesota in 1898, bearing a runic inscription that claims a party of Norse explorers visited the area in 1362 — 130 years before Columbus. If genuine, it would prove that Norse explorers penetrated deep into North America in the 14th century. The stone has been the subject of one of the longest-running authenticity debates in American archaeology.
The Tabula Rogeriana
The Tabula Rogeriana, created by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154 CE, was the most accurate world map of the medieval period. Compiled over 15 years at the court of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, it incorporated knowledge from Islamic, Greek, and Norse sources. Notably, it was drawn with south at the top — a convention that persisted in Islamic cartography for centuries.
The Ptolemy World Map
Claudius Ptolemy's Geography, written around 150 CE, provided coordinates for 8,000 locations and instructions for creating a world map using two different map projections. It was the most accurate world map for 1,300 years. When rediscovered in the 15th century, it directly inspired the Age of Exploration — Columbus used Ptolemy's (incorrect) estimate of the Earth's circumference to argue the Indies were reachable by sailing west.
The Oronteus Finaeus Map
A 1531 map by French cartographer Oronteus Finaeus that appears to show Antarctica with mountain ranges, river systems, and an ice-free coastline — 289 years before Antarctica was officially discovered in 1820. Like the Piri Reis Map, it shows a southern continent with geographical features that match modern sub-glacial surveys of Antarctica beneath the ice.
The Tarim Basin Mummies
Over 200 naturally mummified human remains discovered in the Tarim Basin of western China date to 1800–200 BCE and display distinctly non-East Asian features: red, blonde, and brown hair; tall stature; Caucasian facial features; and clothing woven in a Celtic-style plaid pattern. DNA analysis confirms they were of Western Eurasian origin — raising profound questions about ancient migration and contact between East and West.
The Vinland Map
The Vinland Map purports to be a 15th-century world map showing a large island west of Greenland labelled 'Vinlanda Insula' — evidence that Norse explorers mapped North America 50 years before Columbus. It has been the subject of one of the most heated authenticity debates in the history of cartography, with scientific analyses producing contradictory results.
Piri Reis Map
A 1513 Ottoman map compiled by Admiral Piri Reis that appears to show the coastline of Antarctica — a continent not officially discovered until 1820. The map also shows South America's eastern coast with remarkable accuracy. Piri Reis claimed to have compiled it from ancient source maps.