Letters canyon is without a doubt from through about a mile of ice which Jeff Van Dyke volcanic action. All the lithography covers this area today. Mr Hancock’s South Carolina on the mountain is igneous. This is book includes information about the USA supported not only by field geology evaluation of the Piri Re’is map, by but also through satellite imagery. the Airforce in 1960, References John Baumgardner of Los Alamos for Professor Charles H. Hapgood of National Laboratory visited the Keene College, New Hampshire. I 1. Hancock, G. and Santha Faiia (photographer), Fingerprints of the Gods, Crown Pub., May, mountain on several occasions and quote from the USAF letter, ‘We have 1995. it was his opinion that the mountain no idea how the data on this map can 2. Oard, M.J., The extinction of the woolly rose after the Flood. be reconciled with the supposed state mammoth: was it a quick freeze? CEN Tech. Using water volumes and altitudes of geographical knowledge in 1513.’ J. 14(3):24–34, 2000. can be a rather slippery form of We must conclude that a civilization 3. Lalomov, A.V., The extinction of the woolly evidence. The Flood itself probably existed, and considered ancient during mammoth, TJ 15(2):50, 2001. was so catastrophic that mountains may the admiral’s time, with the means to have been pushed up and conceivably map . The question is, did some worn down. In other words, we they have a technology to acquire cannot use present day altitudes to topographical data through the ice calculate water depth. sheet? Or did they map the coastline before the ice covered it? The most

probable explanation is that it was Mountain High Maps® http://www.digiwis.com mapped while ice free. Hancock The Ice Age and proposes a theory to explain how there was no ice on the Antarctic continent ancient maps at the time these ancient source maps were created. I had the pleasure of attending Michael Oard’s ice age model is the Creation 2001 conference near an excellent solution to the frozen Cincinnati. After listening to Michael mammoth mystery. His theory Oard’s presentation ‘Whatever gains credibility from Alexander Happened to the Woolly Mammoth’,1 V. Lalomov’s findings,3 published I realized his ice age model also in this journal. I suggest Oard’s Michael Oard replies: solved an ancient map mystery. ice age model also solves the map I was intrigued by the first chapter mystery. A key element in his theory I am glad that Jeff Van Dyke of ’s book, Finger­ is an elevated ocean temperature. thought of a solution to the puzzle of prints of the Gods,2 published in 1995. While the higher elevations are some ancient maps while listening This book contains some fascinating heavily glaciated, the warm ocean to one of my talks at Creation 2001. information about some ancient maps, produces a sub-tropic climate near the There are a number of maps from such as the Admiral Piri Re’is map of coast and at lower elevations. This the Middle Ages that show the 1513. The Admiral himself created allows for the needed vegetation and Southern Hemisphere, even the coast this map, though it is important conditions for the many warm weather of Antarctica. These maps are con­ to note that he references other animals whose remains are found in sidered by some to have been drawn ancient map sources. It centers on the the sediments with the mammoths. in ancient times. South Atlantic showing Africa, South The mechanism in which the ocean In my post-Flood Ice Age model, America, and most interestingly, the temperature is elevated is global, and warm water would surround Ant­ Princess Martha Coast of Queen is a result of the Flood catastrophe. arctica for quite a while during the Ice Maud Land Antarctica. According It seems a reasonable proposal that Age.1 Such warm water immediately to the history books, the continent of while mammoths were roaming the after the Flood adjacent to Antarctica Antarctica was discovered in 1840 coastal areas of the Arctic on the other would result in rapid glaciation, by the Wilkes expedition. That’s side of the world, humans mapped the starting in the mountains and inland. right, Antarctica appeared on the ‘ice-free’ coast of Antarctica. The Over the next five hundred years, as the map of Piri Re’is 327 years before it existence of ancient maps showing the atmosphere and ocean cooled, the East was ‘discovered’. This enigma only ice-free coastline of Antarctica serves and West Antarctic Ice Sheets would became apparent after the mapping of as evidence in support of Michael grow, coalesce, and eventually move the coastline in 1949 with the aid of Oard’s model. out across the adjacent continental modern seismic technology to ‘see’ shelves and ocean. There would

TJ 16(2) 2002 61 Letters be time for some ancient explorers Kempton, Illinois, 1966. The year 1000 to map Antarctica without sea ice 3. Hapgood, Ref. 2, pp. 20–21. or ice shelves and portions of the 4. Hapgood, Ref. 2, pp. 80–82. The Norman’s Domesday Southern Hemisphere while the survey of 1086 listed no less woolly mammoths lived in the ice- than 38 vineyards in Eng- free lowlands of Siberia, Alaska and land, with Ely marking the the Yukon. most northerly spot, seventy Although the idea of an ancient miles northeast of London. It people who spread out and increased was a warmer world. Archaeo- from the Tower of Babel and became logical evidence indicates that seafarers who mapped the Antarctica the years 950 to 1300 were coast is plausible, I am cautious on marked by noticeably warmer the original data. As a result I have temperatures than we experi- not made up my mind on the idea ence today, even in the age of and remain open. The reason for ‘global warming.’ Meteorologists my reticence is because I noted upon describe this medieval warm ep- reading Charles Hapgood’s book on och as the ‘Little Optimum’, and the topic,2 that the maps, not only of they site it as the explanation of Piri Re’is but of others, were accurate such phenomena as the Viking in some areas but quite wrong in explosion into Russia, France, other areas. The Piri Re’is map, for Iceland, and the northwestern instance, joins the southern tip of Atlantic. Africa through ‘Antarctica’ to South The northerly retreat of America without the intervening icebergs and pack-ice under the ocean, the southern portion of South impact of warmer temperatures America or the southern South Atlantic is a plausible explanation of Ocean.3 The Oronteus Finaeus Map why Lief Eriksson was able to of 1532, however, is more impressive sail round the top of the At- in showing the general outline of the lantic as far as Newfoundland coast of Antarctica.4 in or about the year 1000, Could mariners from the Middle and why he found vines there. Ages have produced these maps? I During the ‘Little Optimum’, don’t know. It is only a hypothesis Edinburgh enjoyed the climate that the maps are more ancient than of London, while London en- the Middle Ages. Is it possible joyed the climate of the Loire that Medieval mariners could have valley in France, a difference of mapped Antarctica? It is possible 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit—the when you consider that there was equivalent in modern American supposed to be a warm spell, called terms of San Fransisco’s climate the Medieval Warm Period, which moving north to Seattle. could have caused ice shelves to break up, making the coast more accessible Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger to map. Regardless, I believe we need The Year 1000 more research on the original maps. Little, Brown and Company Great Britain, 1999, p. 139. Michael J. Oard Great Falls, Montana UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

References

1. Oard, M.J., An Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, California, 1990. 2. Hapgood, C., Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings—Evidence for Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age, Adventures Unlimited Press,

62 TJ 16(2) 2002