Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture has released another series of videos about the Philippines showing once more just how ridiculous he is. The gist is that he is either unable to read or is willingly misinterperting old maps. In the first video he claims the phantom island Antilia shown on several Renaissance maps is actually the Philippines.
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| The Famed Isle of Antilia: The Land Before Time in the Philippines. Solomon's Gold Series: Part 15A |
I am going to cut to the chase here and state it as plainly as I can. The Island of Antilia has NOTHING to do with the Philippines. Tim cites the Wikipedia entry for this island in his video but he neglects to mention the origin of the legend of this island.
It originates from an old Iberian legend, set during the Muslim conquest of Hispania c. 714. Seeking to flee from the Muslim conquerors, seven Christian Visigothic bishops embarked with their flocks on ships and set sail westwards into the Atlantic Ocean, eventually landing on an island (Antilha) where they founded seven settlements.
That should be the end of the story but because Tim bloviates for an hour I shall have to press on and show his outright mendaciousness. It should be noted that in this video he makes absolutely no reference to this legend except to say that its origin is Arabic. That is not an oversight. That is lying!
Tim's theory of maps from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance is that they show the evolution of thinking about the world.
7:43 It's amazing how many scholars look at ancient maps and then forget at, you know, the thinking of that era. They can't even, uh, fathom that the Malay Peninsula didn't even exist at certain times according to cartographers. They didn't know about it so they didn't draw it.
39:05 ...Ptolemy who didn't even know Southeast Asia existed.
That is simply a lie. Ptolemy's map shows the Malay Peninsula and a limited knowledge of South East Asia which was provided to him by men who had sailed to those places. I have proven how dumb this notion of maps evolving is in another article. Ancient maps and directions prove that Europeans were unfamiliar with the Philippines because they show nothing beyond the Malaysian Peninsula which was known as the Aurea Chersoneus. Tim conflates this region with the Philippines. In this video and in part 13C he proves how ignorant he is and that he cannot read a map. Here are two screenshots of Tim's annotated Behaim map.
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| The Famed Isle of Antilia: The Land Before Time in the Philippines. Solomon's Gold Series: Part 15A |
The Dragon's Tail is a modern name for the phantom peninsula in southeast Asia which appeared in medieval Arabian and Renaissance European world maps. It formed the eastern shore of the Great Gulf (Gulf of Thailand) east of the Golden Chersonese (Malay Peninsula), replacing the "unknown lands" which Ptolemy and others had thought surrounded the "Indian Sea".
The Portuguese were aware of the peninsula's likely nonexistence by shortly after the fall of Malacca, when Albuquerque acquired a large Javanese map of Southeast Asia. The original was lost aboard the Froll de la Mar shortly afterwards but a tracing by Francisco Rodrigues was sent in its place as part of a letter to the king. Nonetheless, published maps continued to include it in different forms for another century.
Tim continues to misinterpret this map because he is a liar. There is no other reason for him to continue spewing falsehoods about this map except that he is knowingly and willingly telling lies. He is not merely ignorant or stupid, he is vomiting falsehoods and depending on the stupidity of his audience to not "test" his claims. One of his claims, based on faulty etymology, is that on this map the island labelled Thilis is Antilia.
32:50 Then there is the Isle of Pearl here known as Thilis. Sound familiar? Thilis, Antilia, Anthilis. Hmmm? How about that? Columbus used the name Antilles. Antilis. Anthilis. There you go. No, they didn't put that together back then but that's what it is. Thilis is Antilas, Antilia. That just fits like a glove and you're gonna see why.
1:03:30 What can we say about Antilia? Well, it is a match to the ancient Thilis, a reference to the Philippines even on the 1492 Behaim globe commissioned by the Portuguese government.
That is so wrong it's unbelievable. There is no way Tim could get this wrong unless he did it intentionally. Here is Antilia as drawn on the Behaim map.
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| https://i.imgur.com/oxJn6cX.jpg |
Antilia is the green island just near the middle of the picture. Compare that with what Tim claims is Antilia on the same map!
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| The Famed Isle of Antilia: The Land Before Time in the Philippines. Solomon's Gold Series: Part 15A |
The Behaim map even has a description of Antilia which Tim declines to relate.
The legend, in this form, is told in various places. The principal source is an inscription on Martin Behaim's 1492 Nuremberg globe which reads (in English translation):
When interpreted correctly Martin Behaim's map, which was commissioned by the City of Nuremberg in Germany and not the Portuguese, does not prove any of the nonsense Tim claims it does. Believe me when I tell you there is so much nonsense in this video but the main point, Tim's claim that Antilia has anything to do with the Philippines, has been demolished so it's time to move on.
The second video, actually the third since the second video was a digression about a prophecy of Bongbong Marcos in a Filipino epic poem, is more nonsense as Tim misreads several maps and ignores what the sources he refers to actually say. He also declines to really dig deep and find all the relevant material for his cause.
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In this video Tim seeks to prove that Cattigara, a place mentioned in Ptolemey's Geography, is actually the Philippines. His main argument is that Antonio Pigafetta claims they set a course for that place and landed at the Philippines. Thus all other claims are bogus.
18:31 So, as you see on the map here Magellan is headed not just to the Philippines but very specifically to between the 12th and 13th degree north which is known as Samar on the map. Just look at it. There it is. Okay you know like Samaria? Yeah Columbus was going where? To meet up with the lost tribes of Israel. Who would name Samaria? Don't know. So hard to figure that out of course. Pigafetta just told us that is where Cattigora is. Done. Settled. This is fact and it's not up for debate.
2:00 The problem is well, they ignore history, real history, about as valid as you get such as Pigafetta's journal, the only eyewitness account of Magellan's arrival in the Philippines.
That is wrong on so many levels and reveals the total ignorance of Timothy Jay Schwab and his alleged research team. The fact is while Pigafetta's journal is our main source of information about the first voyage around the world there are other eyewitness accounts. Back in Spain the surviving crew were subject to interrogation. That testimony and a complete description of the voyage can be read at this link but it's all in Spanish. Maximilianus Transylvanus, a courtier of Emperor Charles V, actually interviewed the surviving crew members and wrote a summary of the voyage.
Now, the book of the aforesaid Peter having disappeared, Fortune has not allowed the memory of so marvellous an enterprise to be entirely lost, inasmuch as a certain noble gentleman of Vicenza called Messer Antonio Pigafetta (who, having gone on the voyage and returned in the ship Vittoria, was made a Knight of Rhodes), wrote a very exact and full account of it in a book, one copy of which he presented to His Majesty the Emperor, and another he sent to the most Serene Mother of the most Christian King, the Lady Regent.
As this voyage may be considered marvellous, and not only unaccomplished, but even unattempted either in our age or in any previous one, I have resolved to write as truly as possible to your Reverence the course (of the expedition) and the sequence of the whole matter. I have taken care to have everything related to me most exactly by the captain and by the individual sailors who have returned with him. They have also related each separate event to Cæsar and to others with such good faith and sincerity, that they seemed not only to tell nothing fabulous themselves, but by their relation to disprove and refute all the fabulous stories which had been told by old authors.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Letter_of_Maximilian,_the_Transylvan
In his introduction Maximilianus recognizes the importance and worth of Pigafetta's published journal and tells us that what is to follow was related to him by the surviving crew members. That is crucial for what he writes about concerning Cattigara.
When our men had set sail from Thedori, one of the ships, and that the larger one, having sprung a leak, began to make water, so that it became necessary to put back to Thedori. When the Spaniards saw that this mischief could not be remedied without great labour and much time, they agreed that the other ship should sail to the Cape of Cattigara, and afterwards through the deep as far as possible from the coast of India, lest it should be seen by the Portuguese, and until they saw the Promontory of Africa, which projects beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, and to which the Portuguese have given the name of Good Hope; and from that point the passage to Spain would be easy. But as soon as the other ship was refitted, it should direct its course through the archipelago, and that vast ocean towards the shores of the continent which we mentioned before, till it found that coast which was in the neighbourhood of Darien, and where the southern sea was separated from the western, in which are the Spanish Islands, by a very narrow space of land. So the ship sailed again from Thedori, and, having gone twelve degrees on the other side of the equinoctial line, they did not find the Cape of Cattigara, which Ptolemy supposed to extend even beyond the equinoctial line; but when they had traversed an immense space of sea, they came to the Cape of Good Hope and afterwards to the Islands of the Hesperides.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Letter_of_Maximilian,_the_Transylvan
At this point in the voyage it is December and the crew are on the island of Tidore which is in the Moluccas. One of the ships springs a leak but it cannot be fixed. The other ship is told to press ahead to the Cape of Cattigara but they are never able to find it.
There you go. Simple as that. Neither Pigafetta nor the surviving crew members claim Samar is the Cape of Cattigara or that they ever found its actual location. There is more to this story as those who listened to the testimony of these men decided that Gilolo island in the Moluccas was Cattigara.
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| https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.afk2830.0001.001&view=1up&seq=219&skin=2021 |
Item: it can not be denied that the island of Gilolo, lying near the Maluco Islands, is the cape of Catigara, inasmuch as the companions of Magallanes journeyed westward upon leaving the strait discovered in fifty-four degrees of south latitude, sailing such a distance west and northeast that they arrived in twelve degrees of north latitude where were found certain islands, and one entrance to them. Then running southward four hundred leagues, they passed the Maluco islands and the coast of the island of Gilolo, without finding any cape on it. Then they took their course toward the Cabo Buena Esperanza [Good Hope] for Spain. Therefore then the cape of Catigara can only be the said island of Gilolo and the Malucos.
Are these men, who were well acquainted with the testimony of the entire crew dunderheads and ninny's? Of course not.
Tim ends this video by maligning Scottish Physician and writer John Caverhill.
37:10 John Caverhill deduced in 1767, before this map was created, that's why we want to cover this, that Cattigara was the Mekong Delta. Okay, so, we're talking about essentially Vietnam, okay. So he deduced? Is that an accurate word? Not even remotely. Is that what you call a ridiculous guess founded on nothing but ignorance? You mean he ignores Magellan? You know the actual explorer who found and corrected the course to Cattigora in writing and then he tries to figure it out? But well he's an idiot who ignores history then claims to be an historian. Ta-dah. Enough of this stupidity
I be academic so I forget the explorer who landed on Cattigara who left actual coordinates. Uh, no. I'm gonna throw that out and just make up my own location because, well, that's academic.
I agree. Enough of this stupidity. Neither Pigafetta nor the rest of the crew claim they landed on Cattigarra.
Óc Eo (Vietnamese) is an archaeological site in modern-day Óc Eo commune of Thoại Sơn District in An Giang Province of southern Vietnam. Located in the Mekong Delta, Óc Eo was a busy port of the kingdom of Funan between the 2nd century BC and 12th century AD and it may have been the port known to the Romans as Cattigara.The remains found at Óc Eo include pottery, tools, jewelry, casts for making jewelry, coins, and religious statues. Among the finds are gold jewellery imitating coins from the Roman Empire of the Antonine period. Roman golden medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius, and possibly his successor Marcus Aurelius, have been discovered at Óc Eo, which was near Chinese-controlled Jiaozhou and the region where Chinese historical texts claim the Romans first landed before venturing further into China to conduct diplomacy in 166. Many of the remains have been collected and are on exhibition in Museum of Vietnamese History in Ho Chi Minh City.Funan was part of the region of Southeast Asia referred to in ancient Indian texts as Suvarnabhumi, and may have been the part to which the term was first applied.
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