Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 5.2. Detail from a portolan chart of the early 1300s CE. The author of this
chart—the earliest cartographic object in the Library of Congress—is unknown but
was probably Genoese. This detail shows the island of Crete and the North African
shore, including Egypt. Two thousand years before this chart was made, Minoans
crossed the sea between Crete and Egypt. Library of Congress, Geography and Map
Division, ref.: LC Nautical charts on vellum 3.
extraordinary voyage of exploration that he undertook about 325 BCE to
the northern extremes of the habitable world.
Pytheas was primarily a merchant. Indeed, it is quite likely that he made
his voyage at public expense to establish trading links with far-flung ''bar-
barians.'' He probably brought back tin and amber. He claims to have
studied the production and processing of tin in Cornwall during his voy-
age, and he probably succeeded in breaking the Carthaginian monopoly of
the Mediterranean tin trade. 10 This perhaps explains the suggestion of
10. Evidence for an established Cornish tin trade with the Greek world is provided by
the crude coinage that Britons learned to make (well after Pytheas's visit) mimicking those
 
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