

Maps attributed to Marco Polo sketch what looks like the coast of Alaska - randallsquared
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-marco-polo-discover-america-180952765/

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benbreen
This is utterly fascinating (regardless of whether they're genuine, forgeries,
or something in between). But this quote strikes me as key here : "As Olshin
is first to admit, the authenticity of the ten maps and four texts is hardly
settled. The ink remains untested, and a radiocarbon study of the parchment of
one key map—the only one subjected to such analysis—dates the sheepskin vellum
to the fifteenth or sixteenth century, a sign the map is at best a copy."

Which raises the possibility that the maps are forgeries from the sixteenth
century, not the twentieth. It seems like a giant logical jump to conclude
that the carbon dating to the 15th/16th century just means that these are
copies of older, authentic maps rather than fakes from the early modern
period, when knowledge of the Alaska coast would have been more likely via
Spanish or Portuguese expeditions in the Pacific. Sounds like an interesting
book though, regardless, and it does seem like the author of the book (if not
the article) goes out of his way not to claim that they're genuine.

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Turing_Machine
Even if they are from the sixteenth century, it would still be something of a
mystery. The voyage of the Russian ship St. Gabriel in 1732 (~200 years later)
is generally believed to be the first time Europeans reached Alaska. The first
Spanish expeditions to Alaska didn't occur until the late 1700s. Also, the
suggested geography depicts the Aleutian Islands, and I'm pretty sure the
Spanish never made it that far. The Russians were moving into the area in
force by that time period -- the approximate boundary between nominal Spanish
territory and nominal Russian territory was around Sonoma County, California.
And then the British came in...

It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that Chinese traders (or
perhaps Chinese trading partners) had ranged that far. Certainly a lot of the
furs that the Russians and British took out of the region wound up being
trafficked into China.

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benbreen
It is indeed possible that Chinese trading vessels may have reached the
Kamchatka peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. The more unlikely part here is
that those voyages would have been made known to a random Venetian barbarian
who happened to be passing through, and that said Venetian would be able to
obtain such detailed maps. If I were going to come up with a hypothetical
explanation for the maps beyond 20th century forgery, I'd say that it's more
likely that some 16th century Manila galleon strayed a bit north on the return
trip to Acapulco and did some secret mapping. The Spanish Manila route
actually got surprisingly close to Alaska: [http://historicphilippines.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/ru...](http://historicphilippines.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/ruta-de-urdaneta-02-600x344.jpg)

That's a stretch too, of course. But the Spanish were extremely secretive
about their cartographic knowledge so the mere fact that there was no official
announcement of a discovery doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know about
it.

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spullara
The Venetian barbarian was apparently in the court of Kublai Khan for 17 years
— I wouldn't really call that passing through nor random.

~~~
Turing_Machine
Polo describes (without claiming to have been there himself) a "Land of
Darkness", rich in furs, which borders on "Great Rosia", the people of "Rosia"
being Christians of the Greek (i.e., Orthodox) form.

That sure seems to fit Siberia/Alaska.

~~~
davidw
Had christianity spread that far east at that point in time?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia#History)

~~~
maaku
What you imply is correct. The Russian conquest of Siberia was basically
enabled by the decline of Mongol influence, which necessarily post-dates Marco
Polo's travels.

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trumbitta2
Last time I checked, Marco Polo was supposed to never have visited china and
all the rest, but based his work of fiction on reports heard in venezia by
traders.

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maaku
It is by no means a clear-cut case. Some of the things reported by Marco Polo
(e.g. paper money) were completely unknown in the west and middle-east at the
time of his purported travels. He gets a remarkable number of things right,
and fails to get certain other stuff wrong as one would expect of someone that
hadn't actually visited the court of Kublai Khan.

