Ptolemy Research Articles

Ἐθνη Θρᾳκῶν στὴ Θράκη τοῦ Αἰγαίου κατὰ τοὺς ἑλληνιστικοὺς καὶ ρωμαϊκοὺς χρόνους IΙ. Σαπαῖοι καὶ Σαπαϊκή


 
 
 Of two articles devoted to the Thracian tribes attested in Aegean Thrace during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the second, published here, focuses on the tribe of the Sapaioi (the first, under the title «Ἔθνη Θρᾳκῶν στὴ Θράκη τοῦ Αἰγαίου κατὰ τοὺς ἑλληνιστικοὺς καὶ ρωμαϊκοὺς χρόνους, Ι. Κορπίλοι καὶ Κορπιλική», devoted to the Corpiloi, was published in Τεκμήρια 15 [2019-2020] 187-226). Once again, the relevant testimonia are mainly literary, spanning from the beginning of the fifth century BC (Xerxes’ march against Greece) to the second century AD (catalogue of strategiae of Thrace in Claudius Ptolemy’s Geographika). But in this particular case, references to the Sapaioi also include a couple of inscriptions; among them, most prominently, the famous catalogue of the theorodokoi from Delphi and the equally renowned Sosthenes’ inscription from Paros. By gathering and analyzing these testimonia, the present article aims at defining more accurately the tribal territory of the Sapaioi and the limits of the Σαπαϊκὴ στρατηγία; at highlighting the intense and complex reality of a Thracian tribe in direct and close contact with the Greek and Roman worlds; and, finally, at stressing ‒through a brief and preliminary overview of the region’s archaeological map‒ the need for further archaeological research.
 
 

Черноморские порты Золотой Орды по кастильской «Книге знаний всех царств» XIV века

Objective: This study aims to investigate the localization and reconstruct the potestary symbols of Black Sea ports that were subject to the sovereign authority of the Golden Horde in the 14th century. Based on this analysis, the research assesses the potential for the formation of the Golden Horde’s thalassocracy. Research materials: The research draws from various sources, including the Castilian “Libro del conosçimiento de todos los reynos” from the 14th century, preserved in four copies Z, N, S, and R. Additionally, it utilizes compass maps of the Black Sea created by Venetian masters Petrus Vesconte (1313), Perrino Vesconte (1321), and Mallorca’s cartographer Angelino Dulcert (1330, 1339). Byzantine periplus records of the Black Sea from the 14th to 15th centuries, Claudius Ptolemy’s “Cosmography” in a revision by Byzantine monk Maximus Planudes around 1300 AD, as well as EDB and GIS data from Tabula imperii Bizantini are also incorporated. Results and novelty of the research: The analysis of the Castilian ”Libro del conosçimiento de todos los reynos” has unveiled a previously unrecognized structure: the “Black Sea’s vexillographic portolan chart.” This portolan chart provides comprehensive descriptions of the locations of ports along the Black Sea coast, indicating the sovereign’s standards of the rulers of these port cities. In the majority of cases, the sovereign mentioned is Uzbek khan (1313–1341), under whose rule the original and now lost holotype of this remarkable portolan was compiled. Both the port names and the depictions of standards in this portolan reflect geographical and vexillographical inaccuracies of the time, as acknowledged by the Castilian compilers of the four preserved copies. By identifying the topoi and standards described in the “Black Sea’s vexillographic portolan,” a reconstruction of the Black Sea’s map, which includes all ports, shipping routes, and symbols of power related to the Golden Horde sovereign’s authority, was achieved. The final observations indicate that over 80% of the Black Sea waters were under the control of the Golden Horde, even during the reign of Uzbek khan, offering a unique opportunity for the emergence of a new thalassocracy.

The Hyperbolic Ptolemy’s Theorem in the Poincaré Ball Model of Analytic Hyperbolic Geometry

Ptolemy’s theorem in Euclidean geometry, named after the Greek astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy, is well known. We translate Ptolemy’s theorem from analytic Euclidean geometry into the Poincaré ball model of analytic hyperbolic geometry, which is based on the Möbius addition and its associated symmetry gyrogroup. The translation of Ptolemy’s theorem from Euclidean geometry into hyperbolic geometry is achieved by means of hyperbolic trigonometry, called gyrotrigonometry, to which the Poincaré ball model gives rise, and by means of the duality of trigonometry and gyrotrigonometry.

Doubly Perceived Shape of the Adriatic Sea Basin on Early Modern Geographical Maps and Nautical Charts

The implementation of graticules on geographic maps and nautical charts, initially developed in the Hellenistic period, was a rediscovered novelty to Western European cartographers of the early modern period. The research sought to computationally examine the accuracy of spherical coordinates’ data extracted from selected geographical maps and nautical charts. Research results suggest that the cartographers who made geographic maps relied significantly on Claudius Ptolemy’s data on locations but managed to make certain accuracy improvements. The nautical charts with graticules showed significantly greater longitudinal accuracy, which suggests that they were created by using other data sources as their graphical templates; most likely the portolan charts that were already in existence at the time.

Палеогеография, археология и античная топонимика и терминология Крымского Приазовья

The article was prepared within the framework of the project "Black Sea and Central Asian periphery of the ancient world and nomadic communities of Eurasia: at the crossroads of cultures and civilizations" № НИОКТР 122011200269-4. The article discusses ancient toponyms, terminology and relevant archeological realities of the Sea of Azov, but mostly their relevancy with paleogeology and paleogeography of the region in antiquity. The attention is mostly paid to the level changes of the Sea of Azov and the Chokrak Lake. The author uses the results of the latest archeological excavations and of some natural-scientific investigations. He analyzes both differences and similarities of the three groups of the sources. In the first “case” the author uses the results of the long-term excavations of the academic expedition led by him. The expedition investigates on the significant area and extent not only multi-temporal and multi-cultural sites of the Sea of Azov, but also relevant natural landscapes. Particularly, several periods of water level decline and rises of local bodies of water have been determined and chronologically confirmed, first and foremost those of the Sea of Azov and neighboring lakes and rivers, as well as of subsoil waters. There processes’ having had impact on the origin, location and state of conservation of settlement structures, demography and features of economic activities of the local population in the 6th century BCE to the 6th century ACE have been analyzed. These results serve to determine two or three periods which show either desolation or (vice-versa) prosperity of the lands in question. But it is important that the results have confirmed that a lot of our written sources are well informed and even objective. Sometimes they permit to better understand the sources or even to correct the former translations and, moreover, relevant comments. Thus, they emphasize again great degree of information in the works by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Scylax, Polybius, Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Plinius Major, Claudius Ptolemaeus and in the less degree of other authors of various historical and geographical works, first and foremost, peripli, on the size and depth of the Sea of Azov, the quantity of settlements on its coasts, the direction of trade routes (proceeding from the main streams), local climate and its changes through centuries, historical events etc. In a number of cases archeology served to significantly clarify the chronology and scope of some changes, and (last but not least) to emphasize the importance of the complex approach for general and specific research of the ancient geographical legacy.

Rome as "Part of the Heavens"? Leon Battista Alberti's Descriptio urbis Romae (ca. 1450) and Ptolemy's Almagest.

In his Descriptio urbis Romae, Leon Battista Alberti provides step-by-step instructions for how to draw the outlines of Rome. The image transmitted through Alberti's text is so accurate that it is justly described as the first "map" of Rome after the Forma Urbis (3rd c. CE). Alberti's idea was sparked by the renewed reading of the works of Claudius Ptolemy: the Geography, but also-as I argue for the first time-the Almagest. I show how this image blends the ways that terrestrial and celestial territories are commonly depicted and gives a fresh interpretation of this cosmologically overdetermined city.

Lycaonia: from ancient geography to Khorenatsi and Shirakatsi

For the first time in historiography, we have made an attempt to consider the historical geography of the region of Lycaonia, which was located on the territory of the modern peninsula of Asia Minor. This area can be called the «Forgotten Territory», since so far not a single scientist has turned to the study of this important part of Asia Minor (except for articles in encyclopedias). Despite the fact that Lycaonia never had its own statehood, from ancient times it played an important role in the relations of the great powers of the ancient world. Comparing the data of «Ancient Armenian Geography («Ashkharatsuyts»/«Աշխարհացույց»), first of all, with the data of Strabo and Ptolemy, we found out how the boundaries of this region have changed in relation to neighboring states. Consideration of the issue of the territory of Lycaonia is possible on the basis of identifying and studying the orography and hydrography of this region. At the same time, «Ashkharatsuyts» Lycaonia should be compared with the description of this country by Strabo and Ptolemy, and also, in part, with the descriptions of Pliny and other ancient authors (in particular, Herodotus and Xenophon). We analytically examined the issues of urbanization, about which the historian-geographer Claudius Ptolemy presented detailed information. The study of this text requires a hermeneutic approach. It is necessary to analyze literally every word of this message in order to obtain the desired result, which we tried to do in our study within the framework of this article.

New evidence for Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue revealed by multispectral imaging

New evidence for ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus’ lost Star Catalogue has come to light thanks to multispectral imaging of a palimpsest manuscript and subsequent decipherment and interpretation. This new evidence is the most authoritative to date and allows major progress in the reconstruction of Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue. In particular, it confirms that the Star Catalogue was originally composed in equatorial coordinates. It also confirms that Ptolemy’s Star Catalogue was not based solely on data from Hipparchus’ Catalogue. Finally, the available numerical evidence is consistent with an accuracy within 1° of the real stellar coordinates, which would make Hipparchus’ Catalogue significantly more accurate than his successor Claudius Ptolemy’s.

Zeba A. Crook, ed. The Ancient Mediterranean Social World: A Sourcebook

Zeba Crook brings together essays from members of the SBL Context Group for Biblical Research in this reference work addressing established and fresh topics with a socioscientific framework. The key contributions here are twofold: the collection of 400 primary texts with brief contextual commentary about the text and the hundreds of additional texts listed at the end of each essay, giving the reader ample room to explore the topic in their own time. This work succeeds as an excellent guide to helpful primary sources on given topics and as an excellent reference work for advanced students.The book arranges twenty essays into five parts. Part one contains essays on economy, kinship, and patronage. “Social Interactions” in part two contains essays on honor, shame, collectivism, gossip, space, and gender. Part three covers domestic rituals, public rituals, purity, healing, and alternate states of consciousness. Loyalty, friendship, gifts, limited good, and envy are addressed in part four. The topics of deviance, mockery, secrecy, and the evil eye round out the books’ essays in part five. A bibliography and short biography of the contributors conclude the book.Each essay begins with a two to three-page introduction to the topic. Twenty primary texts are divided into subcategories, introduced with a short contextual commentary about its significance, and translated into English. The texts range from around 1000 BCE to around AD 200 and include various key Greco-Roman historical narratives, letters, inscriptions, OT/NT passages, and Rabbinic commentary. Each essay also contains a list of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin vocabulary words relating to the topic, a select bibliography of six key works in the subject, and a massive list of “additional texts” divided into the same subcategories used in the essay for further exploration by the reader.“Space” by Eric Stewart with contributions by Mischa Hooker and Emil Kramer is a good example of the type of analysis offered in this book. The essay begins with an introduction to spatiality as a means of control by which certain spaces are “appropriated for only those designated tasks, often by seeking to restrict access to them” (p. 124). Discussion of space then moves into binary pairs in which one member is “favored” of the other pairing. The main example given is geography as understood in Greco-Roman thought, which, of course, benefited the Greco-Roman elite authors: “latitudinal zones, or klimata, favors those who living in proximity to the Mediterranean Sea” (p. 125) against those who lived in areas deemed too hot or cold for civilization; cities corrupted by “moral degeneration” against the “idyllic, rustic past” (p. 125) of the countryside; public spaces as inherently male against private spaces as female (a delineation challenged by Susan E. Hylen in an article published after this book). The final example of designated space is “restricted” space that might include “temples, sacred groves, certain cities (or city spaces) . . . [and] the heavenly realm of the gods” (p. 126). The twenty texts on space begin with Homer, Herodotus, and Vergil under the subcategory “The Edges, Range, and Extent of the Oikoumenē,” continue with Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemy (second century AD) under “Centrality and Klimata,” followed by “City and Village,” “City and Countryside,” “Private and Public/Gendered Spaces,” and “Restricted Spaces” with examples from Strabo, 1 Maccabees, Cicero, Thucydides, Mark 6, Xenophon, Columella, Ps 24, Josephus, and Pausanias, respectively. An up-to-date bibliography precedes the “Additional Texts” section, which contains 106 passages (by my count) listed in the above subcategories.As a sourcebook, this work occupies a unique space. It is both introductory and advanced; it gives the introductory but excellent information as one might expect of a good introductory work while its commentary on primary texts and hundreds of gathered references go into more depth than a specialized encyclopedia. The downside of this approach is that some readers, particularly those new to these topics, may feel overwhelmed by the lists of primary texts, and some students may be left wanting a longer orientation to these topics before the commentary on primary texts. Still, each essay very helpfully introduces the topic at hand, and the commentary on 400 primary texts guides the reader to the topic as a way into the advanced study of that topic.This sourcebook is warmly recommended to advanced students seeking to explore social aspects of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially those ready to commit the time to exploring the massive lists of primary texts and vocabulary so helpfully given. For students just beginning their journey into contextual analysis of biblical texts, this work will supplement but not replace an introduction to the social-scientific study of the Bible, instead guiding them for years to come as a key reference work to dive deeper into the social contexts of the ancient world.

INTEGRATING GIS AND PHOTOGRAMMETRIC RECORDING FOR EXTENDED SEABED ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH, MARSA BAGOUSH, EGYPT

Abstract. Photogrammetry and GIS technologies are developing rapidly and becoming more affordable. They have also emerged as significant archaeological tools as a result of an increasing level of automated workflow in data acquisition and processing. Moreover, these techniques offer considerable reduction in the cost of underwater archaeological research. That is in addition to significant enhancement in research plans, management, and results, especially in extended seabed archaeological projects. Therefore, these technologies are utilized as essential aspects of the underwater archaeological research project in the site of Marsa Bagoush, Egypt. The site is located 250 km west of Alexandria, and it takes the form of a bay, almost 650,000 m2. Marsa Bagoush (ancient Zygris) was mentioned by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 2nd century AD as one of the main anchorages along the northwest coast of Egypt between Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh (ancient Paraetonium).This paper presents the results of the on-going digital documentation of the site which is a major part of an underwater archaeological investigation project. The paper will discuss the promising application of photogrammetry in underwater archaeology. It will also look at the integration of GIS Database techniques, which represent accurate methods of documenting topographical and archaeological elements and obtaining three-dimensional digital models of the site and its contents.

Cultural-historical development of the Illirian people of Naresi (civitas Narensium)

Naresi were the second largest paople in Naronian convent (Narona conventus). Their historical development can be tracked from the late Iron Age to the 3rd century AD. The process of this community’s formation is related to the breakdown of Autariates ethnical complex, which makes them post-Autariat Illyrian people. It seems like Naresi populated areafrom the source of Neretva river in the North to Prenj mountain in the South. Nowadays, it would refer to the area of municipalities: Kalinovik, Konjic, Jablanica and some parts of Prozor-Rama and Nevesinje. Literally, their name could be interpreted as Neretljani. It needs to be emphasized that they belong to Pliny’s Ilyrii proprie diciti, or Illyrians in the narrow sense. Naresi are one of the peoples that became a part of the Illyrian state which can be described as peoples alliance,although sources don’t imply it. They are mentioned in the works of: Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus Maior), Appian of Alexandria (’Aππιανός ’Aλεξανδρεΰς) and Claudius Ptolemy (Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος). Although it’s also not mentioned in thesources, there’s a big probability that Naresi participated in Bato’s revolt (AD 6–9). Their ethnic name appears on two epigraphic sacral monuments. Both monuments are dating from 2nd century AD when Illyrians ethnic awareness was not strong enough. In mentioned century started intensive romanisation of Naresi, which can be concluded based on detailedanalysis of epigraphic monuments from their registration area. Specifically, a large percentage of Aelius (41%) that exist on epigraphic monuments is a good enough proof for that conclusion. Domestic Illyrian names that were given by Naresi in the age of Roman Empire are: Boio, Laiscus, Dazas, Carvus, Iacus, Mandeta, Pines, Temus and Pinnius. In onomastics, Celticnames appear, but statements that Naresi are Celtic- Illyrian are unfounded. In need to be emphasized that Celtic material and onomastics are represented in a very poor percentage and mostly came to teritory of Naresi by trade or matrimonial relations.

Reviewing the question of Delminium

Delminium is one of the oldest settlements in the territory of Western Balkans known by its name. It is a fortified Delmataean settlement whose name was written down by Greco-Roman authors when describing conflicts between Delmataean communities and Rome during the Middle and the Late Republic. The only exception is Claudius Ptolemy who specified the geographical longitude and latitude where we should locate this settlement. The name of the settlement appears in the classical literature in different forms – Dalmion, Delmium, and Delminium. Interestingly, the Romans founded a municipal unit with the same name following the complete pacification of the province of Dalmatia. This is corroborated by inscriptions carved on epigraphic monuments. This paper addresses the issue of locating pre-Roman Delminium and municipium Delminensium by comparing different theses based on external and internal criticism of the source material, interpreting archaeological material, and analyzing inscriptions carved on epigraphic monuments. Epigraphic monuments lead us to assume that municipium Delminensium was founded during the reign of Hadrian (117–138) or Antoninus Pius (138–161). The paper concludes with a detailed analysis of four ancient epigraphic monuments that confirm the municipal status of Delminium.

Silencio de reyes negros: La Comedia Trofea de Torres Naharro y la cartografía de la colonización africana

Abstract: This article considers how Bartolomé de Torres Naharro's Comedia Trofea (1517) represents the process of global colonization of the African and Southeast Asian coasts initiated with the Portuguese imperial expansion of the mid- to late fifteenth century. This drama, in essence, maps an emerging empire, highlighting key protagonists and places. Analysis here concentrates on the drama's parade of African kings (Monicongo, Mandinga, Capa, Milindo, Aden), considering how the representation of these rulers on stage proffers a cartography that supersedes the longstanding European conception of Africa that had remained entrenched from the influential world map of Claudius Ptolemy dating from Antiquity to the mid-fifteenth century. New place names and ethnicities evoked within the Comedia Trofea align with European imperialist projects and colonization, both justified in the drama with reference to evangelization and a Eurocentric notion of a civilizing process . This study also ponders the implications of this play's composition and performance in the context of ostentatious courtly festivities, where the aim was to elicit orientalist wonder through the representation of African kings.

Overview of the charts representing eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea through centuries and a comparison of Piri Reis symbology usage with an INT 1 content

Abstract. An overview of the charts of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea is given. It was explained the way Adriatic Sea is spreading in accordance to Mediterranean Sea. Its importance throughout history of Europe was emphasised. Through centuries there were different maps of Europe and Mediterranean Sea. Important graphical representation were also charts/portolans which were a strong help in vessels navigation. In classical period peripluses were drawn and used mostly by Greeks for navigation. Two very famous works representing coast of the Adriatic Sea – Geography of Claudius Ptolemy and Tabula Peutingeriana were explained. Most of the paper is dedicated to portolans and their usage for navigation on eastern Adriatic coast. An overview of most important cartographers of portolans was given. In detail was described Ottoman cartographer of portolans Piri Reis. His symbology usage was analysed and compared to Symbols and abbreviations used on charts (INT 1) content.

Cum grano salis, or about the Anartophracti in the Słonne Mountains

At the end of the 20th century, as the researchers became more convinced about the existence of the La Tène culture settlement zone in south-eastern Poland, there were more and more attempts at identifying the ethnicity of this population. Some of the researchers allowed for connecting the said settlement with the Anartophracti, known from Claudius Ptolemy’ writings (Geography, III, 5, 8). However, in order to identify the La Tène culture population from south-eastern Poland with Ptolemy’s Anartophracti, it is necessary to prove that Ptolemy’s account concerned the peoples inhabiting the area of the upper San basin in the 3rd and possibly 2nd century B.C. It is thus necessary to prove that the geographical and chronological data are consistent. One more argument in support of the claim would be a proof that the name Anartophracti refers to a Celtic tribe. It would have to be also assumed a priori that the ethnonym of Anartophracti is not a duplicate of the name Anarti. In author’s opinion, Ptolemy’s writings do not allow to prove that the Anartophracti he mentions lived at the areas on the upper San river: they could have rather lived to the east or north-east of the Carpathians. Ptolemy’s account is not clear enough to locate the Anartophractis’ settlements. The above list of the written sources seems to indicate that the chronology of all the information concerning the Anarti ranges between the end of the 1st half of the 1st c. B.C. and the late 240s A.D. There are no premises to link with the Anarti any settlement concentrations from the north-eastern La Tène culture from phase LT C or LT D1.

Harmony, Politics and Utopia in the Cosmology of Jean Bodin and Johannes Kepler

This paper explores Harmonice Mundi as a political text and considers the influence on Kepler of the French political theorist Jean Bodin (1530–1596). Both Bodin and Kepler subscribed to the political cosmology inherited from Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, and elaborated in detail by Claudius Ptolemy, in which the terrestrial state was part of a wider entity including the celestial spheres and the use of the planets to identify changes in the quality of time and fluctuations in natural influences. Both sought to remedy failures in contemporary astrology and create a new and empirical discipline which could avert future crises by predicting them. The paper examines Bodin’s theories and then locates the work of both him and Kepler as attempts to establish ways to create stability in the unstable politics of the post-Reformation era, and contextualises Kepler’s attempts to delineate the perfect state as utopian.

Ἔθνη Θρᾳκῶν στὴ Θράκη τοῦ Αἰγαίου κατὰ τοὺς ἑλληνιστικοὺς καὶ ρωμαϊκοὺς χρόνους I. Κορπίλοι καὶ Κορπιλική

Of two articles devoted to the Thracian tribes attested in Aegean Thrace during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the first, published here, focuses on the tribe of the Corpiloi (the second article, under the title ‘Ἔθνη Θρᾳκῶν στὴ Θράκη τοῦ Αἰγαίου κατὰ τοὺς ἑλληνιστικοὺς καὶ ρωμαϊκοὺς χρόνους, ΙΙ. Σαπαῖοι καὶ Σαπαϊκή’, devoted to the Sapaioi, will be published in the following volume of Τεκμήρια). The relevant testimonia, exclusively literary, range from the first century BC ‒or the beginning of the second century BC, for those who accept the emendation Coreli-Corpili in the text of Livy‒ to the beginning of the second century AD. They consist of short references in Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Solinus, a reference to the στενὰ τῶν Κορπίλων by Appian in conjunction with the battle of Philippi in 42 BC, as well as a reference to a Κορπιλικὴ στρατηγία in Claudius Ptolemy. The present article tries to define Corpiloi’s localization, suggesting the lower course of the Hebrus river, mainly to the west but also, possibly, to the east of the river, up to the north of Ainos. In view of their relatively short emergence in ancient sources, the article also addresses the question of Corpiloi’s relation to the region’s major tribes, namely the Odrysai and the Sapaioi. Finally, a brief and preliminary overview of the region’s archaeological map indicates integration into the region’s wider cultural sphere.

К вопросу о локализации городов на Оксе в «Географии» Птолемея

This article deals with interpretation of the information by Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) about Bactrian cities on the Oxus (Amu-Darya) River. When comparing these data with geographic, toponimical, archaeological and numismatic evidence, the author arrives to the conclusion that the intelligence presented by Ptolemy is generally trustworthy while the enumerated cities can be equalled with the known archaeological sites in the middle reaches of the Amu-Darya.

The First Images of the Ob River on Western European Maps

Martin Waldseemüller’s maps, published in 1507 and 1513 in Strasbourg, are the first maps to bear the name of the new continent, America. They reveal the discovery of the New World by Spanish and Portuguese navigators. None of the researchers, however, have noticed that the same maps of North Asia (the area of present-day Western Siberia) for the first time show a river flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The peculiarity of Western European cartographic sources at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries lies in the fact that the reflection of the world picture was based on the tradition of the geographer Claudius Ptolemy. The desire to publish the “New Ptolemy” prompted the members of the Vosges Gymnasium, where Waldseemüller worked, to combine traditional knowledge of the world with the latest geographical discoveries. The article analyzes the content of Waldseemüller’s maps, provides a comparative analysis of the maps that formed the basis for the creation of these images, and traces the borrowings of data from the German cartographer by subsequent authors of the 16th century. As a result of careful study of inscriptions and legends, the author concludes that the depiction of areas of North Asia on the maps of the German cartographer dates back to the maps of Henry Martell of 1489–1491. A large map of the world by this author is kept at Yale University, but many of its inscriptions have faded or disappeared. The painstaking work of the American researcher Chet van Duzer, who published a monograph on the map in 2019, gave researchers the opportunity to examine the source carefully. The comparison between this map and an earlier round map of Fra Mauro of 1459 suggested that Martell, in his turn, borrowed the image of the North Asian river from this Venetian monk. Thus, the process of borrowing and clarifying the information about the previously unknown river is traced. At the end of the article, the author proves that European cartographers displayed the latest information about the Ob river, which came from Russia.

HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC IDENTITY OF THE CHUVASH

The article deals with some issues of the ethnicity’s self-preservation in the space-time coordinates of history. Attention is paid to those significant milestones when an ethnic group and its leaders had to make fateful decisions. The author assumes that the concepts of «historical identity» and «ethnic identity» are closely related to the terms «ethnicity» and «ethnic self-awareness». According to the author, ethnic identity implies the connection of one’s «Ego» and «WE» with one’s history, traditions and language. The article provides a brief analysis to clarify the connection between the history of an ethnic group and its identity. It is emphasized that a person is prone to know the history of his family, birthplace, his nationality, and he is interested in the features of the ethnic group of which he considers himself a part. He wants to get an answer to the questions: who were the historical neighbors, what transformations took place over the past 20 centuries in the history of his ancestors, who they were originally, whether all these components can be reconstructed. For example, the article points out incompatibility of the ethnonym «Bulgar» with the ethnonym «the Sabirs – the Sapirs – the Savirs – the Suvars – the Suvash – the Chuvash» from the etymological point of view. In addition, neither the Bulgars nor the Savirs ever lived in the Asian part of Eurasia. The Sabirs were first mentioned and recorded by Claudius Ptolemy in the Caucasus in the second century. At the very least, we have no facts or other historical and philological grounds to identify the Chuvash as the historical heirs of the Bulgars. The article highly evaluates the historical role and the «female power» of the Savir ruler Boa (rix), as well as calculates the number of the Savir tribe as of the VI century. The Savirs were extremely competent in technical terms when besieging and destroying fortresses. Their ramming tools were popular with both the Persians and the Byzantines. The novelty of the research consists in a concise but systematic analysis of the historical identity of the Chuvash people from ancient times to the present day.