tjadams

Why were 'monsters' put on maps? Were they there to scare people? To represent danger?



Have you seen more maps like these?

Fiver

"So geographers, in Africa maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er uninhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns”
-Jonathan Swift

Earl_of_Rochester

They're a regular feature on old maps, these are from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, I was there last night.
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collect...=maps;start=30






Some of the features are real, There's a famous whirlpool somewhere around Norway which was a real phenomenon. Tho I think the sea bed must have changed as the maelstrom is no longer there.




The maelstrom off Norway, as illustrated by Olaus Magnus on the Carta Marina, 1539


Presumably the monsters are large sea creatures or whales, sailors of course are very superstitious so any odd creature washed ashore was probably evidence of the Leviathan.

astafjevs

'Here be dragons' is a famous phrase from old maps and surely represents crocodiles and their relatives?

Rasta

Where gaps of knowledge exist, we fill it in with our imagination. I imagine they put them there because they thought they were real.

Rongo

Spooky! I'm staying home!!

Earl_of_Rochester

Here's the monsters, see one of those things washed up and the whole village would be out to see it.

Naomasa298

Unless that portion of the map happened to represent the island of Komodo.

Davidius

All sorts of weird things have washed up on the shore through the ages and an illiterate and ignorant peasantry must have conjured up all sorts of apocalyptic beasties to explain them.
Given the fact that marine life can dramatically alter form when dead and decaying outside of its natural environment we can forgive them their fevered imaginations.






All these 'things' were originally sharks or cetaceans (dolphins, whales etc), the blubber and cartilage in the body breaks down into hair like fibres which then turns gelatinous. Meanwhile certain parts of the skeleton either shift position or drop away completely, giving the corpse a completely different appearance.

ps. These pictures remind me of an ex girlfriends attempts at 'cuisine'. I was never a picky eater but I am now.

Kevinmeath

When early sailors saw sites like the one below I very much doubt their first thought was
"Ah I bet he's friendly"