Author | Lightnews

Mappa Dan

Mappa Dan

@mappadan.bsky.social

110 followers 120 following 1.9K posts

Home of my thoughts about archaic maps and mappae mundi, reconstructions and snaps people have taken of them, and my own redrawings. Third party stuff is believed to be in public domain. Copyright applies to own work.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Mappa Dan

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 10h

"For one night only I'll let you out." 😈😈😈😈
#Halloween
BL Cotton MS Nero C IV; the Winchester Psalter; f.32r

Reposted by Mappa Dan

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 20h

Gold bracelets of King Ramesses II. Decorated with two little duck heads. 🦆 🦆 😍

Body lapis lazuli. Dynasty 19. Reign of Ramesses II, 1279-1212 BC.

Found in a hoard of jewels, gold and silver plate, during railway construction at Tell Basta (Bubastis) in 1906. NMEC, Cairo.

📷 by me

#Archaeology

My photos show two gold bracelets, each formed by two semi-circles connected by a hinge and a clip. They have rich granulated ornamentation in a series of geometric patterns. The upper part is decorated with relief heads of two ducks with necks bent forwards and resting on a single body created with lapis lazuli. The tail is decorated with small granules of gold. The cartouches of Ramesses II are engraved next to the fastener (not seen). Max diameter 7.2 cm. Dated Nineteenth Dynasty, Reign of Ramesses II, 1279-1212 BC. Discovered in 1906 with a hoard of jewels and gold and silver plate at Tell Basta (Bubastis) during railway construction works. On display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.

Reposted by Mappa Dan

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

The Persian army included soldiers from many nations of their empire. Herodotus recorded that an Ethiopian contingent fought with Xerxes at the Battle of Plataia, echoing the story that Memnon, mythical king of Ethiopia, fought against the Greeks at Troy. 🏺 2/

flic.kr/p/2rBrE1c

Athenian alabastron depicting an Ethiopian in the Persian army

An Athenian white-ground alabastron (perfume flask) depicting an Ethiopian soldier in the Persian army. The Persian army included soldiers from many nations of the Persian empire. An Ethiopian conti...

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 15h

Can't it be both?

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Here are the apple-sniffers (my redrawing and translation).

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, but also half emu.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

In the Hereford Mappa, we find near the source of the Ganges a group of people for whom apple-sniffing was their source of sustenance. Pagan source of information. Medieval Christian interpretation, possibly.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

It changed its flavour “from hour to hour, and day by day," and "If any man drinks thrice of this spring, he will from that day feel no infirmity, and he will, as long as he lives, appear of the age of thirty."

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

In the letter of Prester John, he observed that a spring with unusual properties emerged from a mountain in his kingdom. This was "hardly three days’ journey from Paradise."

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

The Lucidarius, a book written by an unknown German author c.1190-1195, reported that there were people living alongside the Ganges who consumed the fruit of paradise. And the Elysaeus account (related to the Letter of Prester John) suggests that such fruit had curative properties.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

There he found leaves and fruit that were washing downstream from paradise and that provided food and shelter for him and his party.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

As to the medicinal qualitis...

The Alexandri Magni Iter ad Paradisum told the story of Alexander's voyage up the Ganges ("Having asked the name of the river, he learned that it was the Ganges, also called Phison, whose origin is the Paradise of Eden.").

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Let me rephrase that about the argument of Yadin-Israel as far as I can find it. In the quotes I have found online, he seems more engaged by the French tree fruit turning into an apple than the Latin pun.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

I was particularly interested because in the Hereford Mappa (late C13th) is I think an apple tree in Eden.

I'm also aware of some literature about the detritus of this tree as a source of remedies downstream.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Couldn't agree more re AI. Fine to use it. But definitely verify.

I confirmed that the Vulgate does not have it, that the scholar exists and says much the same thing, but not the verbatim quote, which is a bit annoying.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

From innocence and disobedience to anguish and shame.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Just putting this Hereford Mappa redrawing into a new context...

bsky.app/profile/mapp...

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Insertion into translated redrawing of the temptation and expulsion (also reconstructed)...

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Insertion into translated redrawing of the temptation and expulsion (also reconstructed)...

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Hereford Mappa depiction and rough reconstruction of the Temptation scene, wih what look like apples...

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Oh. The apple apparently came first in C12th French art, in which pomum first meant tree fruit and later apple. Malum must hve been reverse engineered as a Latin pun. Fascinating evolution.

www.iflscience.com/how-do-we-kn...

www.iflscience.com

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Must have misread something once without checking.

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

and 3:6 "vidit igitur mulier quod bonum esset lignum ad vescendum et pulchrum oculis aspectuque delectabile et tulit de fructu illius et comedit deditque viro suo qui comedit"

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

It was definitely right that Jerome didn't use it: G3:3 "de fructu vero ligni quod est in medio paradisi praecepit nobis Deus ne comederemus et ne tangeremus illud ne forte moriamur"

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

I just risked asking AI which says the pun wasn't present in the Vulgate but became popular in C12th: "According to Prof. Azzan Yadin-Israel... the apple only entered the Eden narrative around the 12th century CE, likely due to the Latin pun and the symbolic richness of apples in European culture."

Mappa Dan @mappadan.bsky.social · 1d

Ha ha ha. That still works as an example of teen subterfuge.