this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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[–] Gigan 64 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Pretty close except scandinavia. It's a mess up there.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 5 months ago

I think it's just not aligned, they didn't get the scale perfect. That pointy bit over the ocean and the bit hanging down from it are actually pretty close to right, just need to be moved over and twisted a bit.

All in all, I don't think I could do any better.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It was a mess up here, yeah! My home county, Telemark, was just a white spot with a lake in the middle on most maps at that time.

Since the Middle Ages, and when Norway was first mapped in the 17th century, Telemark had only been a white spot on the map, that is to say, no so-called learned person had traveled through the region, and the area was mostly unknown to people in the cities and along Coast. The Telemark farmers had a reputation for being quarrelsome and 'bloodthirsty' and would not go out of their way to kill both priest and bailiff if it suited them. The hand ax was in frequent use and the knife was loosely in the sheath!

Jeez.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Not much difference these days amirite

[–] Reddfugee42 29 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Holy shit my brain had a tough time with realizing that the normal map thing where the light part is land and the dark part is water isn't what's happening here 😅

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Fuck, I only realized this after your comment. I kept turning my phone all different ways to try to see Europe.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

For me it's the opposite, so I sometimes get confused with maps using light for land and dark for sea, although those are rare

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Me too, was having a hard time recognizing anything until I started looking at the "water."

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (2 children)

They didn't know about the Netherlands

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Had the Netherlands already started getting land back from water in the 16th century?

[–] OlinOfTheHillPeople 21 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] grue 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How'd that get its name? It sounds almost like a corruption of French "acheter mer" ("to buy sea").

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Achter means in a local sense 'at the back' or 'behind' and meer means either 'more' or means 'sea' (e.g. IJsselmeer).

So it referrs to either "more land behind" the city of Alkmaar or or a sea behind the city.

[–] Bashnagdul 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Lake, meer means lake. Achtermeer is best translated as back lake, or behind lake. Assuming achter in this case is used as this. It could also mean the lake of Acht. Since Acht could also be the name of a location. See Markermeer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

TY. Funny how German and Dutch switch meaning here:

  • meer – der See
  • zee – das Meer, die See.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Achter is like aft or after (as in behind); meer is like mere (as in a lake). Aftermere would be an English bastardisation of the name.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think what @[email protected] means is that on the Ottoman map you kinda get France, and then directly on the coastline right north of France you get Jutland. It's sorta like if you took Europe and did a ripple cut to remove the Netherlands out of it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yup! That's what it looks like to me! After Denmark you get Sweden and Norway, and they're easy to close to the UK!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Don't underestimate the Wadden Sea.

[–] niktemadur 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What kind of projection is being used? Because each type of map geometry distorts elements, such as the way Greenland looks huge on the Mercator maps.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's the Mercator projection. The map behind it is just a normal map we're used to seeing since it matches up fairly well it must be the same projection.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It's noticeable different at the top though, so I doubt they were using the same projection as us.

[–] HereIAm 7 points 5 months ago

The geography itself is mapped completely differently, I assume they just didn't make many expeditions that far north.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Love how they dug a canal between Scotland and England.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

It's called Great Glen Fault and it is almost a straight line through scotland, although way farher up north

[–] sturlabragason 14 points 5 months ago

Quite accurate

[–] geogle 13 points 5 months ago

What's really interesting is the mild longitudinal shifts while latitudes are really good. No doubt this was in large part because we can use the direction of the sun and stars to get North or South, but for east or west you were much more dependent on precision timekeeping.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Quite accurate about the land they ruled over and the Mediterranean as a whole.

[–] Insig 7 points 5 months ago

Ireland no longer looks like a teddy bear, but some sort of bottle opener :/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Just compressed Belgium and Holland out of that shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Holland hadn't reclaimed its land from the Spatial Sea yet

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

You'd think they'd get Sinai right..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure why Island appears to have been hit by an asteroid?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Mate thats Ireland

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I like how there's a lion drawn on the east coast of Greece